Arizona
It’s a beautiful sunrise and I am ready to ride, wondering to myself what the horses need today.
Training is always on my mind, but training is not the same for every horse. Does this horse need flexing today, or just to be ridden out? Does that horse need strength training before he can concentrate on moving cows? My “western dressage” sure comes in handy, but are any of them prepared for that kind of movement?
There are two critical elements to team sorting – forward movement and lateral movement. The cows are always going places, and if we don’t have movement we have no control over the cows. We must be able to move forward, laterally.
A terrific exercise to perfect this movement is the two-track. It has forward motion and lateral movement. It is a move where the horse crosses the outside legs over the inside directional legs. That is, if you are traveling to the right, the left legs cross over the right legs, which creates the forward-lateral (diagonal) movement. If you don’t two-rack off the cow as you approach the gate, your horse will block the gate and the cow will not exit.
Most other cow disciplines require us to “mirror” a cow; that is if the cow goes right the horse goes right in exactly the same way, using the same track, horizontal to the cow.
In sorting, this usually won’t work, because in sorting you perform many maneuvers at the same time. We stop and sort a cow, we drive the cow, and we two-track the cow. And, we must stop and freeze the whole heard at the same time! It is not always easy, but it is always fun!
JRayEquine is here at the Green River Ranch and ready to serve you. I am always willing and ready to train your horse or you. Maybe you would like both, and we can do that, too!
I would like to answer any questions you might have about this great new sport. Email me at www.sort10@yahoo.com or call me at 480-343-4610. We make appointments and always have friendly service.
That’s all for this month, and until our next chapter have fun, ride safe, and say hello to your neighbor.
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