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No Worries Club Imaginative Obstacle Contest

June 25, 2014 by John Leave a Comment

No Worries Club Imaginative Obstacle Contest

The No Worries Club, part of Downunder Horsemanship, holds contests from time to time. We like to participate when we can. The guidelines for this contest were to create an imaginative obstacle.

Sometimes I think I get a little carried away. But when I hear the Challenge was to create an imaginative obstacle, my mind goes into this other gear. (You’re right, I think it is called lunacy). Anyway we accepted the challenge and here is our entry. He took a couple of hours to prepare everything and then we tried to video some of the construction process. It’s a new camera and editing software I’m learning. But, I think you will get the general idea. Jessie, my Foundation Quarter Horse Mare trained in the Method, is, as usual the star of the show.

We realized right off the bat, to win a No Worries Club contest takes a big effort so, I fired up the drill press, dug out the shop vac and air compressor, rifled through old pvc parts to put everything together. This is that story…..

We had a cat repellent can with a motion detector that let off a high pitch sound and a spray mist. We had two fans, one with balloons, one with streamers. We had bailing twine with wine corks and balloons hanging from a tree. Oh, and we had a lawn spinner. And, of course a tarp.

We had some noise makers I hooked up to the back of the vacuum cleaner. The sound of the noise makers scared the crap out of every dog in the neighborhood – How did Jessie do? See for yourself. We have a video.

Below are some still photos of the obstacle, but because a still photo was not going to tell the whole story or convey the sound, we produced a short little video.

Horsemanship Intermediate Test

December 13, 2013 by John Leave a Comment

Horsemanship and Our Intermediate Test

Ranae working Dusty at the home of Doc Bar

If you have ever watch Downunder Horsemanship on RFD-TV or belong to the No Worries Club, you probably know a few years ago Cinton Anderson produced a series called Test your Fundamentals. The series took six people who had been studying his Method on horsemanship, brought them to the ranch, and critique their progress. It is a real eye-opener to see how you and your horse measure up. Well, he has plans of doing the same for the Intermediate Series. This is our application video to participate in the project going on at Downunder Horsemanship.

It is a rather intense undertaking to video thirty three exercises on horsemanship, edit them, and put together a cohesive video that show myself and my horse, Jessie, in the best possible light. I could make excuses, but the video speaks for itself – we don’t know those exercises nearly as well as we think we do. We (meaning me) himmed and hawed about making a submission at all. One of the main factors involved is the fact we do not own the new style series. Back in 2006 or so, we bought Gaining Respect and Control on the Ground and Riding with Confidence Series. There are some new exercises and different names for some of the old ones and it’s not likely we’ll get the call to go to Texas. But, hey it gives us something to work on and maybe it will inspire you to really test your horsemanship knowledge too. After all, if you want to get where you are going, you first have to know where you are at.

Horse Cleaning and Jessie

December 10, 2013 by John Leave a Comment

A Little Horse Cleaning

We wanted to shoot some video for our Testing the Intermediate Exercises and it required a little horse cleaning. Appearance is everything after all, and we needed her to look beautiful to distract the viewer from how poorly we executed the exercises (wink-wink) . Fall in California is chilly, but not terribly cold. Most of the time a good brushing is enough. For this adventure I bathed her early in the day. She was drying fast enough. My cameraman (translate wife) was worried we would run out of light on these short winter days. There was only one thing to do: pull out the hair dryer. Jessie seemed to rather like it. You’ll see in this short little horse cleaning video (it’s only 33 seconds long). Jessie is not tied to anything. There are no strings, ropes or mirrors. There are no tricks up my sleeve. However, those are mulberry leaves she is standing on. They are as sweet as candy to her. Knowing that she was just ground tied, I was surprised when she did not go after them. Needless to say we got her dried off enough to shoot the video. We did have to rush and we shot until all the light was gone. But, we made it and she looks really good in the video. Check it out!

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Trail Ride January 2012

June 5, 2013 by John Leave a Comment

Trail Ride – Kern River January 2012

It was a beautiful January day in Bakersfield. Ranae and I take the horses out to the Kern River and find some fun places to ride. We look for all kinds of trail obstacles to work on different exercises. We quite often play games with the different maneuvers. For example, these pipes were just laying on the ground and we decided it would be fun to use them to work the horses. I was able to get Jessie going at a trot. This type of work teaches her to pick up her feet. She also has to look where she is going. More importantly, she need to listen to my direction to figure out where we are going next. (Something that is quite difficult to do since I’m not always sure where I’m headed). We also did a little work on our side-pass. With pipes in front and behind, it is much easier to tell if Jessie is side passing straight.

There were also some terrain changes. Ranae takes Dusty up and around a few gullies. This helps in a number of ways. Once again, Dusty has to pay attention to his feet. He has to pay attention to Ranae’s direction. And, we also use it as a de-sensitizing exercise. When Dusty comes up out of the gully he might scare a squirrel or bird. Trees branches might be blowing in the background. He is out of sight of his buddy. He has to learn to stay calm and listen to Ranae for direction.

We hope you enjoyed our Trail Ride video. Sometimes it is just fun to see where others trail ride. We have a lot of great areas quite near our home.

For more of our videos, check out our YouTube Channel. We hope you will subscribe.

Saddle-Less ~ Bareback On Jessie

December 18, 2012 by John Leave a Comment

Going Saddle-less

From December 2012

Going Saddle-less ~ Bareback on Jessie. I’m not sure why I chose to try riding Jessie saddle-less. I had never done it before. I don’t even remember riding any horse bareback as an adult. Oh yeah, I had don the Jeffrey Method on her and she remained calm. I think there is something about the winter months. This day it threaten rain off and on. We did not want to get caught out in it. Yes, we are wimps. We decided instead to just screw around in our little riding area. We had done all the groundwork and were probably getting a little bored. The saddle was all the way over in the tack room. So was the bridle. Why not just go saddle-less?

Guys have a distinct anatomical disadvantage riding bareback. I don’t know how those Indians galloped along in all those westerns I watched as a kid. If anyone has any tips, I would appreciate hearing them. The equipment just gets in the way. There is a distraction though. It’s falling off. There really isn’t anything to hold on to. Your balance is really tested.

I was very pleased with the way Jessie took to the cues. Looking back on this after a couple of years I can see my riding style was very good back then. I had my feet a little forward. I remember wondering how much pressure to use with my legs. My wife was telling me to grip with my upper legs, but I could not separate that pressure from my lower legs. Pressure with my lower legs just made her want to go forward.

The other thing I remember about this “going saddle-less” day was want to lope but not quite being confident enough to break into a canter. There is that little moment in the transition from trot to canter where Jessie’s gait gets a little extra bouncy. I knew if I could get through that I would be okay. I just could not get there. I would start bouncing all over her back, get a little worried and ask for a whoa. The good thing about Jessie is she loves the word whoa.

I put this video to one of my favorite artists, Jeff Healy. “I Think I Love You Too Much” is from is from his Hell To Pay album. Jeff Healy was a great blues and Jazz guitarist who died way to soon. Check out his music at JeffHealy.com