Little One and Buck Brannaman

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, we want to be able to halter as many horses from the herd as possible so that they can get their hoofs trimmed and they can be treated by a vet if needed.  Little One was having a hard time accepting love and training for the halter so we decided that it might be helpful to take him to a Buck Brannaman clinic. You may have seen the documentary" Buck"  that came out last year. (You can read more about him and get the DVD at http://brannaman.com/)  Buck has started horses since he was a child and his approach is gentle and kind.  He spends nine months of the year traveling around the country teaching four day clinics.  We are very fortunate that Little One was able to attend  his colt starting clinic at Red Bluff fairgrounds April 27th-30th.

It was a wonderful experience - friends and family traveled to Red Bluff to learn from Buck and they also got the added treat of watching Little One.

We loaded Little One in the trailer early in the morning and eight long hours later we arrived. He was fortunate to be able to stay in an outside pen.  Kathe Smothers, our wonderful friend and trainer, had told Buck ahead of time that he would need to rope Little One in order to get him started.  We weren't sure beyond that what would happen.  There were twelve horses with owners in the indoor arena.  We were told to trailer Little One into the arena and put him in the round pen in the center.

After talking to the class for about an hour and giving the participants techniques to practice, Buck worked with Little One each morning in the pen for about an hour the first two mornings and a half hour the third morning. By the second morning, Little One was haltered and calm enough on the third afternoon for us to do ground work with him in the outside pen.  Success!

 Little One was the star as he was the only horse that needed to be readied for a halter and he basically had private sessions with Buck.  He is one very lucky horse!

A horse needs to be roped and worked with before a halter can be put on them.  Here is Little One resisting. Buck is on his horse and  Kathe is watching outside the pen.  Kathe has studied and ridden with Buck for twenty years -we and the herd are very lucky to have her as our trainer!  You can learn more about her work at http://quietmindhorsemanship.com/  Kathe will be teaching a clinic at Sea Ranch stables in June.  I will post more information about this once the date is settled.

Finally Little One gets touched!!! We have waited a long time to be able to touch this shy sweet horse.

Kevin a friend and student of Kathe's is doing ground work with Little One  in the arena on the third day.


Buster who was adopted from the Point Arena Pinto herd by Eve Larson, about a year before I became involved with them, also went to the clinic. I don't think I have posted a photo of him before so here is a photo of  Buster I took last year for the 2012 pinto calendar and is in The Point Arena Pintos Book which you can see at http://photographycreated.com/



                                   

Here is a photo of Eve (in the blue cap) riding Buster in the clinic.  She was smiling a lot and it was a delight to watch her with her lovely pinto!

This was quite an adventure for all of us and one we won't soon forget!