What a Day! Cowboy Mounted Shooting (long)

Well, the day we've been waiting for finally got here; a beginner's clinic for Cowboy Mounted Shooting.  I got the horses out and shampooed their tails, brushed them down and fed early this morning.  Last night Bill had hooked up the trailer and loaded any 'gear' we deemed necessary.  Nebalee and family had kindly said they would come lodge sit for the day, so they showed up at the appointed hour.... and we were so excited we forgot the Flip movie camera GunDiva offered up, so you will have to suffer through video clips from Bill's faithful little digital.

We headed down the road for LaFayette, CO and got our first view of the leftovers of last night's thunder/hail storms that crossed our county.

There were so many leaves on the road it looked like we were driving across someone's lawn.

Before we knew it, we were at our destination and the jitters had hit big time.  What had we done, signing up for a young person's sport?  OK, we both love to ride - and we both love to shoot (even though I, personally, had not shot a gun in years).  Good enough reason to give this a try; it's a beginner's class.  How bad could it be?

We were soon put at ease by the instructor, Elizabeth Clavette, a world-class CSMA eliminator shooter and Dick, the firearms instructor.  We got booster lessons on the different types of weapons used in the sport, how to safely handle them, and all the sport specific terminology.  They let us try all the different styles and furnished us with the specialty holsters.

... and then the action began...

You start by walking the course; trying to remember all the instructions:
1) Keep you rein hand in front of you, in a normal riding position.
2) Draw your gun and swing your arm over your horse's head to the off side, aim and fire behind you.
3) Swing your arm back over your horse's head, aim and fire on your strong side, again behind you, to keep your horse moving forward.
4) Take out all five balloons and holster your gun - without looking down to find the holster!
By the way, did I mention you are supposed to walk a straight line down the middle of the course - but watching the balloons!

Since the intended purpose of today's clinic was to teach us proper muscle memory - and teach our horses - we also got a bucket load of small snippets like:
     Aim for the pole, not the balloon.  Breezes blow the balloon around and will cause you to miss.  Works like a charm.
     Always shoot behind you, to keep your horse moving forward.  Aim, pause, shoot, pause, and follow through, before changing sides.
     Learn to find your holster by feel; develop that muscle memory spot; never look down - you lose your perspective on your target and path.
     Swing your arm over your horse's head to avoid any accidental shooting near their ears.  As you get faster and your horse runs faster, you will automatically compensate with a lower swing, but develop the proper one first.
     Don't cock your gun until you have sighted on the target; again, you will compensate with speed later, but learn correctly first.
     Don't pull straight back on the hammer; it causes you to move the muzzle of the gun up and down.  Slide your thumb off the side so you can keep a tight grip on the handle; causes your thumb to move into the correct position to help stabilize the gun.
     By the way, it helps to breathe while you are trying to remember all this.  Yes, I am walking crooked in the video.  I thought I was walking a straight line, but you walk where you look - just like you ride, so you have to practice going straight!

You will notice the camera doing some bouncing; it became obvious very quickly that Jesse was NOT going to like the noise.  We started with cap pistols, then progressed to air/pellet guns, .22's (blank loads), then half and full loads of .45 blanks.  Washoe didn't much pay any attention to the noise until the .45s.  Jesse bounced her head hard at the very first gunshot!  She never did settle down for the 45 blank half and full loads, even after all day.  At the end of the afternoon, she tolerated the .22.

Since I am still recovering from a strained leg muscle AND a sprained wrist, Bill let me trade horses with him, since it appeared Washoe was going to be today's star pupil.  As you can see, it was a good decision on my part; not so good for Bill.

We even tried some horsey ear plugs on Jesse.  She was not at all impressed.

I am going to make some like Elizabeth does, using two small, foam kitty balls and a shoe string, and practice with the horses, until they get used to them.  Both horses seemed extremely bothered by the NOISE.  I know they have acute hearing and it was obvious that was their complaint.  Jesse was still shaking her head tonight at feeding time, like she had a headache, or at least ringing ears.

My first run through on Washoe with the air gun, went so well Elizabeth suggested I do it again with a .22 blanks loaded into the 45.  She handed me a gun and off I went. Down went the first balloon and as I was swinging my arm back across it dawned on me that the balloon shouldn't have broken with the .22.  By this time, I had pulled the trigger on the second balloon and popped it, too.  Washoe and I came to the same conclusion about the same time:  wrong!  As he stopped cold I heard Elizabeth shouting, "Stop.  You have the wrong load in that gun."  It was loaded with .45 full load blanks and sounded like a cannon. Lucky for me, Washoe was as stunned as the rest of us and just did a screeching halt!  With a little coaxing, we tried it again and things improved greatly with the proper load.

This YouTube clip shows you how it looks when practiced and done by the 'good guys'.

On that, we broke for lunch and had hamburgers and hot dogs cooked on a grill, cold pop and a lot of fun chatter.  The clinic furnished all the weapons, the holsters, ammo and lunch for $100.  I bet we shot more than that in ammo!

 

Bill kept valiantly working with Jesse.  Elizabeth said she thought it was a battle of wills with that horse; she has no idea how close to the truth she was about working with Jesse.  I love that horse to death, but she is as opinionated as they come.  She worked great for him in setting balloons, and following him all over the course, but don't put a gun in his hand!  He never did get to shoot anything louder than a .22.

Sometimes Elizabeth would ride her horse along with the new horse when they got frustrated; it helped the horse to calm, and start thinking.  She had to do this a lot. (I think Washoe is the only one that went totally on his own every time. )
The first two balloons were always the worst, then she would sort of settle like she was saying, "Let's just get this DONE!"

Later in the day, we added the second half of the course and the second gun, so we could practice holstering one and drawing the second.  On this run, I was shooting a mix of half-load .45 and .22.  You do this so you don't get in the habit of anticipating the next round - for you and the horse.  Even Washoe was beginning to tire of the noise by now, so I had to do a second run through without ammo to settle him.

This particular horse was the real trooper of the day.  We called him Eyore, because of his ears.  You can see how Washoe handled all this; just turn away and ignore the sound.

By this time it was about 2:30 and rain clouds were moving in.  Bill and I had already decided the horses had had enough; we didn't want to overdo their tolerance and develop a hate for the sport, so we did one 'clean' run, without guns, just practicing aiming with our arms, and called it quits on a good note.

It turned out not all the participants showed up and there were only four of us riding, with a couple of watchers.  We got a lot more runs in than if there had been many there, so it was a really, really good day.
Bionic Cowgirl

Really?

(Yesterday) Call to daughter GunDiva:  "So, while I'm in town today, do you suppose you could wrap my leg for me?"  (She spent many of her younger years as an athletic trainer, so this is a specialty of hers.)

GD:  "What did you DO???!"

Me:  "Well, I was sort of showing a guest a special side lunge, and my foot landed on the edge of a rug - which slid out from under me.  I just pulled a muscle; I think it would feel better wrapped."

GD: (Later, as she is inspecting my right thigh)  "Explain to me again just what you did."  So I proceed to show her.  "So, you did the second-base stretch!"

Me:  "Yep, that would be it, but I'm not quite as young as when I used that stretch."

GD:  "Have you called your doctor?"

Me:  "No.  It's just a pulled muscle."

GD:  "How do you know?"

Me:  "Well, everything still moves in the right direction; it all works, I just have no ...."

GD:  "strength in that leg, right?"

Me:  "Yeah. - and I have a knot on my knee from where it hit the floor."

GD:  "Have you called your surgeon?"

Me:  "No.  Why?"

GD:  "You could have messed up your hip ...."

Me:  "Nope.  It still works."

 I sort of forgot to mention I showed up using my cane heavily again.  She graciously did a beautiful wrap on my leg and gave me many warnings about calling my surgeon if the leg didn't feel better in a day or two.  I did my normal town stuff, gimping about with my cane and gobbling my ginger root, which I use as an anti-inflammatory instead of Ibuprofen.

Fast forward to today.

Compass (at the Livery):  "Juanita, can you come help me out for about 20 minutes?  I have a big ride going out and could use an extra hand getting people mounted."

Me:  "Sure, be right there."

We get all 15 kids on horses and just as they are leaving the yard with two wranglers, she gets a call from her vet, saying he is on his way up.  Now she can't go out with the ride...

Compass:  "Can you go out with this ride?  I have to stay and wait for my vet.  It's only an hour; take my horse."

Right.  My leg is wrapped and I don't even know if I can throw it over a horse; it was a fairly major sprain...and her horse is BIG.

Me:  "I'll go it I can get on, OK"  Amazingly, it was pretty easy to get on the horse and felt quite good, so off I went on a ride that turned into a 1 1/2 hour ride.  I even managed to get off and help with a cinch check half way through the ride.  It was a big help that I know where all the embankments are to make it easier to mount and dismount a tall critter!  (I did learn that her horse has a much rougher trot than either of mine.)

I had just gotten home, when the phone rang.

GD:  "Hi Mom.  How's the leg?"

Me:  "Great.  You do a great wrap.  Just got back from an hour and half ride."

GD:  (Silence, then..)  "What?!  Are you trying to mess up your body before your clinic?"

Me:  "Hey.  No cane; no limp; the ride felt good."  She's still a really good trainer!!!

And yes, Bill and I both get to go to a clinic in a week.  It's a beginner's Cowboy Mounted Shooting clinic, and it's the first time we get to go do something like this together.  I am mega-excited!!!  We will be taking my two grays, so they can learn how to handle all the sights and sounds involved in this type of sport.  So, I was a little worried when I injured myself, that I wouldn't be able to ride for the clinic.  I guess that's why I hopped on the horse today; it was a good test.

Bionic Cowgirl

Triple Creek Ranch Visit

A week ago, as a combination birthday/Mother’s Day gift from our eldest, the GunDiva, she and I spent the day at the Triple Creek Ranch in Longmont, CO – a training and boarding center. Julie Goodnight (of Horsemaster, RFD-TV) was donating time and the center was donating space as a fundraiser for an equine therapeutic center in the area – a noble gesture in itself. There was a large turnout and I think they probably met their goals, however, our goals were to learn more useful ways to work with our personal horses, and boy, did we meet our goals! I always need time to let ideas ‘gel’ before I can retell them, and I was so excited about MY ah-ha moment, that I am just now able to put some of this in print, so here goes ….

There were four sessions: Ground Manners for Young or Fractious Horses; Advanced Groundwork and Liberty Work; Riding Right: Balance, Rhythm and Feel; and Training Solutions: What do you do when your horse challenges your authority, loses his focus, spooks or becomes resistant? Ground Manners for Young or Fractious Horses: The first session started off pretty excitingly with a 15 year old gelding, who had remained intact (a stud) for his first eleven years! He had only been allowed to breed two mares. It’s OK to let your imagination go for a minute; Julie did. Lots of frustration on the horse’s part and we all felt it. I’m sure you males out there think you can identify with this. The woman who had this horse has been working with him, using Julie’s methods, for the last four years (when she purchased him). It was obvious the horse had come a long, long way … and had a really L O N G way to go yet. Fractious was putting it nicely; his human called him ADD and Julie agreed. He did learn a lot about standing still and not running over the human, but was still far from being a safe horse to handle. For us spectators, it was great to see that even this type of horse can, and will, respond to the techniques we were watching.

 Each session had two horses involved, so moving on to the second horse, things got a lot calmer and behavior changes came quicker with a much quieter Arab/mix gelding who had developed a habit of being ‘cinchy’ – meaning he didn’t like to have the cinch tightened around his belly. His lady had to have someone stand on the opposite side and pass the cinch under his belly quickly and try not to get bitten in the process. Julie broke this down to a loss of communication with the horse on a couple of ground manner basics: stand still when I tell you to, and nose to the front – always (hard to bite you when the horse’s head is pointed to the front and you are on the side). Equipped with a rope halter and 15 ft. lead rope, Julie stood in front of the horse, with the rope loose enough to touch the ground, and whenever, the horse moved a foot, or moved his head outside her specified range (from the point of one of his shoulders to the point of the other), she would snap the lead rope so it would ‘pop’ him under the chin. It only took a couple of pops for the horse to decide to keep its feet still.

 A couple more pops and he had decided he should probably keep his head facing forward. Then she had the woman pick up the saddle pad and walk to the horse from the side, like she was going to put the pad on. You guessed it. If the horse moved a foot, or swung his head around, he got popped. Within a few minutes, the woman was able to walk directly up to the horse with the pad and lay it on his back without so much as a quiver. They moved on to the saddle in the same fashion. This was MY ah-ha moment, as Jesse had become very agitated with the saddle pad and I had put up with it. This explanation has been simplified, as the person placing the saddle pad had a few rules to follow also, such as a direct walk, expecting the horse to stand still, turning and walking away to take the pressure off the horse for a moment, etc. – and understanding it was going to take 50 – 100 times of doing this to overcome the older habits. The best part of this story for me is that over the next few days, Bill and I worked with Jesse like this, and although she didn’t like the first couple of pops, she quickly learned that the pad was far less intimidating than that pop, and she is now much, much quieter about the process. It still takes one good reminder (we are nowhere near even 25 tries) then she settles down – but then she is a dominant mare with an over abundance of stubbornness, so I would not have expected her to just totally give in without some resistance. This is the same process to simply make them more attentive to you on the ground, and it has helped her with that also. By the way, we went for a ride today, using the towel to keep our jeans clean, and I could walk right up to her, toss the towel on her back and not a flinch. That used to send her scurrying to the side. Yeah!

The second session, Advanced Groundwork and Liberty Work, was the main fascination for GunDiva. We learned specifics of correct leading to go forward into liberty work (no attachments to horse). It all looked very simple; refining your own body posture for the horse to be able to ‘read’ and copy. N O T!!! My horses will follow just fine as I am walking along, on a loose lead. But trying to give the proper body signals adds a whole new dimension to a simple task. I will keep trying, I will keep trying, I will keep …. We won’t discuss the clicking of Jesse’s eyeballs as they roll back in her head – trying to figure me out. It all has to do with the positioning of your shoulders, such as a slight lean forward prior to actually moving forward, straightening up prior to stopping, pointing with your leading fingers prior to turning in that direction. Are you noticing all the priors here? Try it. Grab a partner, stand side-by-side, and link your adjoining arms together. Now walk along as though talking and make some turns. You run into each other; same thing happens with your horse. So you learn to give little clues, such as motioning ahead of time with your other hand to show which direction you want to go. We need to show the same courtesy to our horses, especially if we expect them to move with us without being yanked around by a rope. It was amazing to see how fast these two horses adopted the new technique … but it’s not a simple task for the human.

Riding Right: Balance, Rhythm and Feel: After lunch we moved on to mounted work. Each session had a horse tacked out Western and another tacked out English, just to prove that the same techniques work, no matter what discipline you ride. The tack is basically just for looks as far as horse behavior; he should respond the same no matter how he is dressed. (OK, you’ve all seen the towels we throw on our horses and expect them to behave as though they are saddled.) This was a more relaxing part of the clinic for both of us, as we watched this at the Rocky Mt. Horse Expo back in March. We were able to focus on the finer points of getting your leg in the proper position (for good balance), relaxing your pelvis to more easily sit a trot (rhythm), and not giving conflicting cues – which is so easy to do. Example: you want your horse to transition into a trot, but as soon as he does you pull back on the reins. He balks, basically saying, “Do you want to go faster or stop?” It was great fun watching the riders learn to relax and watching the horses do the same, trusting the horse to do what was requested, learning to FEEL what he is doing, the same as he feels you.

Last session: Training Solutions. We had one horse with “no whoa” and one horse with “no go”, so to speak. It wasn’t that the horse really had no whoa; it was a horse that was more forward than his rider was comfortable with, therefore the rider would keep a really tight hold on the reins when asking for forward motion and the horse wanted to push through the bridle (his trots and canters were ‘too fast’). Julie had the girl actually loosen her rein and just let the horse trot faster around the arena until it figured out it didn’t HAVE to try to get away, then the horse slowed down of its own accord. It then started listening to a slow down cue, understanding that the ‘death grip’ had gone away. Julie pointed out that this needs to be done in an enclosure so the horse knows there is nowhere to go but in a circle. You can also start guiding into smaller and smaller circles, which is harder work for the horse. Julie also touched on the one-rein stop, but that wasn’t what this horse needed.

The “no go” horse would just ignore cues to move or to speed up. It was old enough and had enough training to know the cues; it was choosing to ignore them. Julie got on this horse and explained that a ‘spanking’ was in order. “This is your captain speaking. I would like you to move – now.” When she touched her leg to its sides and he ignored her, she again cued, then it got a smart whap with a riding whip at the same spot your leg would cue from. You have to be ready for the horse to wake up and not punish it for moving, even if it jumps forward or to the side. You asked for movement; you got movement; you don’t punish for the movement. However, the next time she cued with her leg, the horse moved off smartly into a nice walk. The next cue produced a nice trot. A few practices with up and down transitions were in order, so the rider got to take over and practice. Julie said several practice sessions, usually just carrying the whip with you, would solve this problem – much easier to take care of than the “no whoa” issues. Everything ended on a good note, with lots of things to take home and digest. In fact, I am still digesting. Now that I have gotten past my ah-ha moment, on to more fun stuff – like the at liberty work. Happy riding everyone. Bionic Cowgirl

Momentous Day

No, the weather was not great - but that didn't matter, we were indoors.  GunDiva had arranged for me to join her at a Julie Goodnight (Horse Master TV Show) clinic as a birthday gift:  birthday in March, clinic today - a bit of a wait, but so worth it.  I'm pretty sure GD got tired of me pestering her about "is it time yet?"  I can be worse than a kid!

Well, the day finally did get here and we weren't going to be dampened by any damp weather.  The Triple Creek Ranch in Longmont turned out to be a really nice setting for an all day clinic and we had enough layers on to stay pretty comfortable - well, maybe the old knees got a bit stiff from sitting ALL day - and getting to be in an inside arena was great.

Of course, I got the most important info from the least expected part of the clinic.  Ever notice how that happens?  In the very first setting, one of the horses had an issue with being cinched.  OK, really he had an issue with all of the saddling procedure, and although Julie ran out of time before the actual cinching, she addressed the REAL problem and gave me the exact information I needed to work on Jesse.  When Jesse was young, saddling was no problem, but as a six year old we had a horrible time with saddle fit and suffice it to say, she developed a HUGE dislike for  - the pad.  She blamed all the pain on that 'thing'.  By the time I had a saddle made for her, my hips had become a big problem and I couldn't physically work with her properly.  Needless to say, she developed some very spoiled habits.  Now that I am bionic, we are spending time on 'correcting' a few bad habits.  GD doesn't know this yet, but since we watched this demo together, she gets to help me out on this one.  Beel will get put to work, also, but I don't think it will take long 'cause Jesse is one smart girl and will figure out pretty quickly that jigging while getting saddled will no longer be tolerated!

We saw four different sessions of horse/rider issues, but my  mind is still having a hard time getting past this ah-hah moment for me.  We got to meet some really nice horse owners, see some old friends (Julie's crew), meet newer members of the crew - one that sort of 'married in', and shared good food.  The best part was getting to spend the day with my eldest daughter - just the two of us.  It's always a joy when I/we get one-on-one time with our kids.  Now that I don't have to be the parent figure all the time and can be a friend, it's extra special.  Thank you, GunDiva.
Bionic Cowgirl