Here are some gold nuggets of knowledge that Buck talked about during the clinic:Don't back a cinchy horse much. Go forward! Backing a cinchy horse can cause them to go up.
Good horsemanship is a fine art, and one that is pretty rare.
Think about moving your horse TOWARDS a release, instead of AWAY from pressure.
It is 100% impossible to have a horse that is light to the rein and dull to your leg!
Well educated horse = 1000's of soft feels on the reins.
Until you can walk, trot, and canter on a loose rein, you cannot have collection.
If you are holding a horse back on a consistently tight rein, you are building up pressure in the horse - can lead to an explosion if not defused or released.
Lateral work is a pressure release for the horse.
Leaving your halter on under your bridle is what a pig farmer would do, not a horseman.
There are too many horses living a life of crime, because they are spoiled and underworked.
Timing of the release is critical! Release when the foot STARTS to move. Just releasing the reins doesn't mean you are giving the horse a properly TIMED release.
When sending a horse somewhere - (over a tarp, into a trailer, etc), you will drive them at first, but the goal should be to lead them there with no driving. The horse needs to give to the feel on the halter and follow it. Makes them soft!
If a horse is punchy into the canter or throwing their head when they pick up a canter, their hindquarter is not engaged. They need lots of transitions - use lateral work to get a horse engaged, and hindquarter to forequarter turns.
HURRY down to the walk - NOT wrestle or waller your horse down to the walk.
If you are not important enough for your horse to pay attention to, you need to be.
When doing leg yields, yield to the outside only. Leg yielding to the inside will encourage a horse to drop their shoulder.
If your horse has trouble with a lead, back him in a circle the opposite direction. For example, if your horse doesn't take right leads well, back him in circles to the left.
The advanced horsemanship class did a really cool exercise. The roped a barrel, and then cantered a circle around the barrel letting the rest of their rope feed out and loop around the barrel. The goal was for your loops of rope to lay evenly around the barrel and touch each other. Once you got your rope looped around the barrel, then you change directions and canter on the opposite lead while coiling your rope back up. Gives your horse a job to do, and causes the rider to multi-task and do a job while riding. Very cool to watch!
The first day there was a black mare in the Horsemanship class that was completely ignoring her owner. She was screaming, wheeling around, dangerous, and almost completely out of control. Buck had one of his apprentices take the horse and saddle it up with his saddle. The apprentice was still having trouble with the mare, so Buck decided to ride this mare himself. He worked with her on the ground first to get her attention on him. He had to give her several very firm corrections on the lead rope before this mare thought he might be important enough to pay attention to. When he rode her, this mare was dull and slow to respond. She was slow to go, and he had to pull on her a lot to get her to stop. Buck used his heels to convince her that it would be worthwhile to listen to his lighter cues, rather than wait until he had to kick her to go. He only rode this mare about 30-45 minutes. In the beginning, it was not pretty. By the end, it was amazing! He had her sidepassing both directions, doing leg yields, and almost performing a slide stop.
She was light and responsive to the lightest of cues. This was truly the ART of horsemanship.
She was light and responsive to the lightest of cues. This was truly the ART of horsemanship.