Cows: the Solution to All Training Problems

The title is fairly tongue-in-cheek. Well, maybe not entirely.

I didn't discover the benefits of teaching a horse how to follow and move cows until a couple of years ago. As Ober and I laid the groundwork for our small, future farm operation a small herd of beef cows was always on the list and having since starting playing with cows on horseback I am even more excited at the thought of having such ease of access to them.

Here we are, August of 2019, on a cow for the first time ever. I want to preface this video by saying that Soni had lived next to dozen or so head of milking Holsteins for at few years prior to this clinic and would routinely demonstrate a combination of perplexation and worry about them. More than once I saw him in that classic "WHAT. IS. THAT" horse stance: stock still, head up, ears hard forward, eyes wide, snorting like a dragon at some boogie thing in the distance. There was none of that during his first formal introduction.

You can hear the clinician a little bit in the background. The purpose here was to set each horse up with just one cow in a smaller area and show the horse how to start to track the cow by leaving the horse alone when his focus is with the animal and putting pressure on him (but NOT guiding him with the reins!) when he loses track of the animal. You can see Soni picks this up quite quickly - even enthusiastically - all his own with minimal effort from me. I just set him up and let him find it on his own. 

What the horse eventually learns is how to send his focus forward and set it on the cow, developing the ability to follow it even with shifts of direction, speed, etc. 

There are two main reasons - at least for me - that this is an utterly invaluable educational tool even if you have zero interest in ever using your horse to work cattle. 

1) You are teaching the horse how to follow something - more specifically, you are teaching the horse that not only can he follow something, but he can push on it and make it move away from him. 

The push is energetic: the same way a dominant horse can make a more submissive horse move without touching them, so can a horse make a cow move where he wants without making contact. This is an ENORMOUS confidence booster for any horse. We've all had one instance or another where something comes at the horse suddenly - often while we're on him - and he scoots sideways or whirls away because horses are born "move first, ask questions later" thinkers. A horse can derive a lot of confidence knowing that he doesn't have to fear everything that comes at him because he learns through working cows that he, too, can make things move.

2) Cattle work gives a horse purpose to what you're asking him. 

While you and I might see the value in practicing a 20m circle or a line of one-strides, the horse doesn't. To him, it's all work. He might be content to do that work for and with you, but it's still work. I've touched a few times on the idea that it is our job as stewards of our animals' care that if we are to keep them in our domesticated setting, it becomes our duty to make their lives as comfortable as possible in ways that are important to them. Having purpose - knowing not only what their job is but why they do it - is one aspect of affording the horse comfort. It is often the difference between a horse that just does the job versus one that actively engages with it. 

It's honestly no different than you or I in our own employment settings: we all seek purpose in our work and having that purpose makes a huge difference in how you feel when you get out of bed each morning. If I'm able to get my horses on cows every now and then and use the skills I'm working on in the arena, the horse will pretty soon figure out all that arena work is just practice for working cows!

Post cow-following. The rest of the herd was in the corner behind us and as you can see, Soni is already primed and watching them.

There is another benefit of cattle work that was my main motivator in getting Soni in particular on them: there is no better way (that I know of) to help a sticky, sucked-back horse learn to flow forward straight and calm than teaching them to set their focus on a fuzzy cow butt and march along. When I first started him, Soni was incredibly balky. He didn't really understand the leg aid but he also had a tendency to get wadded up deep inside himself mentally when he got worried which presented under saddle as being "behind the leg", constantly ducking behind the bit and being a very, very dull ride (what many people would call a "kick ride"). Getting his focus out in front of him on something external to himself acted as a draw: a mental winch, if you will. Like a little line of magnetic train cars, that draw got his attention out and in front of him, bringing his body along and freeing him of all the kinks and tight spots he might have otherwise carried.

If you've ever played with those little magnetic train cars you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you draw the engine car forward, the rest of the cars follow along nice and straight. Draw the engine to the right, the rest of the cars create a gentle right curve. Draw engine left, the cars curve left. The cars (analogous to the horse's spine) move in the direction the engine (analogous to the horse's brain, his thoughts, his focus) brings them. No help needed from the rider.

If you're interested in cattle work as a practice within itself or for the purposes I've outlined here I highly recommend seeking out a beginner cattlework clinic so you can get proper instruction. The vast majority of horses move past the fear stage and pick it up quite quickly but it helps to have a human feeding you guidance if you're also new to the cattle scene.