Compact Tractor Hack

I don't know what I would do without a tractor, needing it to move sand that the ever present West Texas winds blow from one end of my property to the other, grading the arena, as well as using it for a host of other tasks such as moving telephone poles, pipe and panel fencing around. Only having a bucket and no fork attachment, it was always a chore to tie up poles, pipes and fencing to the bucket to move from one location to the other. Enter a friend of mine, Bud Reno of Hammer Performance, a high end automotive shop in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, who built a set of forks that attach to the bucket, which are much quicker than removing the bucket and putting an original manufacturer's fork attachment on, if I even had them which I don't. Bud's fabrication were very well built and much cheaper than buying the fork attachment from John Deere.

Bud is a master fabricator and mechanic who kept my trucks and trailers repaired and operating when I was a Range Rider hauling horses on rough roads and dry river beds into the Sacramento, Hueco and Organ mountains, so it came as no surprise that what he built works really well. He welded a short length of square steel tubing onto flat steel pieces drilled for mounting onto the top of the tractor bucket, where I can slide slightly smaller five foot lengths of square tubing to serve as the forks. He drilled and welded a set bolt into each of the short tubing pieces so once I slide in the square tubing forks, I can tighten them down in seconds with a crescent wrench.

I can make a couple easy rope loops over poles and pipes and can transport them anywhere I need to, and moving panel fencing to set up guest horse pens or catch pens is an easy one man job.

There is a cottage industry making all sorts of bolt on attachments for compact farm tractors, such as D rings, chain hooks and such, but Bud Reno's fabrication is the first set of forks I have seen offered. If you have a compact farm tractor and have a need for such an attachment, it should be easy for a local fabrication and welding shop to get something working for you. I also just installed an aftermarket set of chain hooks so I can drag heavy bridges, lift telephone poles to position wherever and to pull mesquite roots up. These after market chain hooks are under $100 and available from several manufacturers. Anyway, maybe someone can benefit from this tractor hack.

Riding with a Halter under the Bridle or Using a Get Down Rope

CJ, who I have previously known for working with him and his horse, dropped me an e-mail asking about the 'properness' of riding with a halter under the headstall so he would of course have method to lead his horse on the ground without using his reins. He rides with split reins and a broken bit with shanks, sometimes called an Argentine snaffle.

I wrote CJ back with pretty much the following: I don't know the properness of riding with a halter underneath your bridle but of course I have seen it done many times. In fact, about 15-20 years ago I was riding in a competition where a young lady carrying a clip board was going around to each competitor and asking them if they carried a halter and lead with them. I was sitting on my horse and riding in a hackamore and mecate reins, so I replied "No Ma'am, I don't need to carry a halter and lead as I have a built in lead rope" lifting the lead portion of my mecate up so she could see. She continued "So you don't have a halter and lead?" I gave her the same response a second time. She walked off and apparently I did not get 'extra points' for having the foresight to carry a halter and lead.

The photo above is my horse Hays with the snaffle bit outfit with slobber straps and mecate reins. The lead end of the mecate, as you can see is drapped around the saddle horn until I tuck a bit of it underneath my belt so it's readily accessible when I dismount. If I come off the horse unintentionally (always a possibility) I have a chance to grab that lead tucked under my belt before a horse has a chance of running off. By the way, I sometimes free lunge my horse or put him in a pen while saddled and bridled up, by tying the lead end of the mecate around the saddle horn using a clove hitch. Go to this previous article to see how I tie up up the mecate lead using a clove hitch.



You likely have a bigger chance of seeing that (halter under the headstall) with recreational trail riders and even competitive trail events. I do not have a negative opinion of it, it's just unnecesary for me as I ride in hackamore or snaffle bits with slobber straps and always mecate reins. Mecate reins are, of course, a continious rein usually 22 foot long, but I have ridden with as short as 19 feet on short necked and smaller horses. The mecate is connected to the right side of the bosal heel knot or snaffle/slobber strap then goes around the horses neck, coming back through the left side and continuing on to provide a 8-10 foot lead rope that the rider secures to his/her saddle or loops the end through their belt loop or a ring on their leggings. When I dismount or otherwise lead my horse on the ground I can use the trailing or lead end of the mecate just like a halter lead rope. I also sometimes tie up the snaffle bit and slobber straps so there is no chance of having the snaffle bit banging on the horse's mouth, with is the reason that riders will ride with a halter underneath the bridle, so they can dismount and lead the horse without having to lead with the reins and exposing the chance of banging the bit around the horse's mouth. By the way, something I do have a negative opinion on is hard tying your horse with a bit by using the reins. If a horse pulls back, the bit can cut his mouth or damage his teeth.

If I was going to ride in anything other than hackamore or snaffle with a mecate, say using rommel reins, or with one piece roper or split reins, I would use a small diameter bosal, called a bosalito, with a smaller diameter (maybe 1/4 inch) lead rope as a get down rope. If had no other option then maybe a 1/4 inch halter under the headstall, I've just never ridden with halter under a bridle as I have always had a bosalito with a small diameter lead available.

The photo above shows a bosalito using a hanger (think saddle string) connected to a 10 foot 1/4 inch diameter paracord or other rope, as a lead or get down rope. You can use any smaller diamter rope. Having having placed this on my horse, I could now bridle him. Another, option is to take a section of paracord r other smaller diameter rope, maybe 10-12 feet, and tie a bowline around the horse's neck behind the poll and secure the running end of the paracord to your saddle or tuck it in your belt as you would a mecate. And lastly, if you do use a separate get down rope to lead your bridled horse from the ground, make sure you tie the reins up so they won't get loose, drop on the ground where your horse could step on them and have the bit cut up his mouth or damage his teeth, and potentialy tear up your gear which is a secondary consideration to the horse in my view.

Go to his previous article to see how to tie a bowline (same link as the one above).

Desensitizing Horses or letting them Learn

If you asked a dozen people about desensitizing a horse, their description would be alot closer to each other than if you asked the same people how does a horse learn. I realized this as I had a fairly long phone conversation with a lady named Marti about desensitization. She contacted me on email then we had a phone conversation discussing desensitization as she said she was (in my words) casting about to get many opinions on desensitization as someone advised her that desensitization would make a dull and unresponsive horse. I told Marti I would followup our phone call with some written comments about what we talked about, so here it is.

Desensitization, certainly had a bad name in some circles, but it is much like riding with a leverage bit (or any bit for that matter) - it's all about how you use it. And when I use the term desensitization, I am meaning getting a horse not to be scared, to accept a situation or stimulus. Much like using pressure and release to get a horse to understand what we are asking with cues, be it using the reins, our seat or legs, or really any kind of pressure, and providing a release of that pressure when the horse responds even just a bit - then building on that. We also come to understand that the horse needs time to process his response to the pressure that gains a release in order to figure out what he did that gained that release. The time or pause after the release is kind of understood by the handler, but to be clear about it I tell riders in clinics that we use 'pressure, release and pause' so it is understood that the horse needs that time after the release to understand. People will sometimes ask "How much time? How long should the pause be?" Well, I don't know,......more than a couple seconds, usually less than a minute, but the horse's posture and body language, head and ears, and position should give you an idea when he is ready again.

So, in being redundant (I'm not to insult anyone's intelligence) but we use pressure, release and pause when exposing the horse to a stimuli such as a flag, tarp or an obstacle. So, the most common error is to take the stimulus away or to take the horse away from an obstacle when the horse gets scared. Then he learns that he was justified in being scared of that object. I suppose we can expose a horse to a stimuli, an example would again be a flag, where we overuse the flag - don't use it in a meaningful or accurate way - and the it becomes not much of a signal anymore. I just don't think that happens much, at least not what I've seen. What I think is more likely is confusing a horse with a lack of use of cues and a lack of accurate timing of the release.

What Craig Cameron said over 20 years ago was one of our major responsibilities was to create a brave horse. I think about this practically daily. I try to apply the concept of letting a horse figure out the situation when he shows anxiety or fear. The latest example is that I had a horse tied to a trailer and I pulled out a metal tape measure to measure the length of a rear cinch I need to replace. My horse did not like the noise the tape measure made being extended or the crinkling sound that the metal tape made when bending. He did not pull back, just stepped back a couple steps as was very alert on the tape measure. So I extended the tape measure and laid it on the trailer fender. He was not about to approach it anytime soon. So I just left the tape measure there on the trailer fender, brushed him, got the saddle and bridle ready and let the horse generally get used to the tape measure being there. A few minutes later, I asked him to take a step forward and he did. I let him settle for a bit then asked him again to step forward. I finished saddling, got his snaffle bit in place and rode off. Coming back, we did it all over again. I also sat on the step to my trailer, held the extended tape measure in my hand and asked my horse to step forward to me. Soon I was touching him with the tape measure then using it to measure the circumference of his nose when a bosal would go - I really didn't need to do that, just wanted him to accept what he was skeptical of earlier. This is simply giving the horse think to think without alot of pressure. I can't tell you how a horse reasons, but it is obvious that they can learn to accept things as a non threat given adequate time. This is desensitization and learning at it's root.

When we are riding or even leading a horse in hand we have all experienced a horse stopping and tensing up, alert to some item or obstacle be it a trash can, a bucket or whatever. We have also all experienced the same when we have rode or led a horse to or through an area time and time again only for the horse to stop because there is something new. There is actually a term for this - coherant change detection - it comes from the military comparing imagery of terrain and things over a period of time to detect, even minutely, what has changed which could indicate enemy preparations of capabiities. In fact, this is what the horse looks at too.....what is changed and what threat does it present. So if we give the horse some time on such an obstacle, are we desensitizing him or giving him time to think and learn to figure things out?

I think we have all been successful at some point, whether intentional or not, when the horse stops at some perceived threat, and we don't get all worked up about it and give him some time, he'll move forward again towards that object. If we force him to move forward too soon then we build on that anxiety.  Just keep him straight. Give him some time and we're usually talking about a minute or two, the horse will figure it out and we now have a braver horse.                      

Texas Wildfires devasting Families, Ranches and Livestock - How you can help

The largest wildfire in Texas state history has scorched close to one million acres of land, burned hundreds of homes, barns and other buildings as well as killing tens of thousands head of cattle. To date, at least two Texans have lost their lives. All this on top of hundreds of people and families trying to find a path to recovery after losing everything. Texans and people throughout the United States are coming together to help but much is needed. If you are of a mind to help there are many avenues to do so.

Panhandle Disaster Relief Fund. You can mail a check to the Amarillo Area Foundation administering the fund to Panhandle Disaster Relief Fund, 919 S. Polk, Amarillo, TX 79101. Or you can donate online at this link Panhandle Disaster Relief Fund.

Texas A&M University Agrilife Extension is working the Disaster Assessment & Recovery Unit and County Extension Agents to help the residents of the Texas Panhandle who sustained wildfire related losses and has an online page devoted to Panhandle Wildfire Relief Resources listing livestock supply collection points and information on monetary donations.

The Working Ranch Cowboys Association are collecting donations for the WRCA Foundation Natural Disaster Relief Fund, which will help livestock producers who have been devasted by these historic wildfires. Donations can be made at this link WRCA Foundation Natural Disaster Relief Fund.

Leadership and Horsemanship

A friend of mine, retired Army Sergeant Major Kyle Lamb, who had a distinguished career with what the public know as Delta Force, wrote a book called "Leadership in the Shadows". I couldn't reading that book in the lens of what I wish I knew 30 and 40 years ago, and, also through the backdrop lens relationships with all the horses I have had since then. Kyle makes several great points in his book which directly relates to the successful horseman or horsewoman.

I have often been asked by my former bosses (in a Federal Law Enforcement Agency) how to develop subordinates, and what a unit leadership course would look like. Right off the bat, defining Leadership is much like trying to define Soft Feel in handling and riding horses...you can spend decades pondering both, and both will mean different things to most people, but when we see good leadership or someone riding with Soft Feel, we know it. So, most often my replies were the leadership (of people) were likely best drawn from experience and developing job related competencies, studying the best traits of your most respected leaders, and recognizing the worst traits in your bad leaders. Kyle points out something similar when he wrote "Believe it or not, I learned almost as much from those weak leaders as I did from the great leaders." I think this relates to what several horsemanship clinicians likely mean when they say they can learn something from anyone. Circling back, it does seem like leadership has a lot to do with horsemanship.

One of Kyle's points is you may be a bad leader and still enjoy some success by having some really good people underneath you performing inspite of you. This reminds me that many horses fill in for a lack of guidance, bad handling or just a lack of fair leadership from their handler or rider. It's not wise to count on the horse doing so, but it happens, as we all kmow that when faced without guidance the horse will go his own way as this is survial instinct.

Another point in the book relates to truly great leaders not having to elevate their own importance but instead rely on the performance or the product of their endeavors. To me this relates to not putting much stock in what others say about you, but instead take guidance of those you respect and have the knowledge and experience to give you help and guidance, and, this point also directly points to the old horsemanship adage about "show me the horse and I'll tell you about the owner."

Kyle has a Chapter early in the book, titled "What is your word?" which basically becomes an exercise in self introspection about what is the most important leadershp trait to you. Exchange the word "leadership" with "horsemanship" and now you could cast about trying on different words. In fact, you really don't need to exchange leadership with horsemanship, since what we are trying to achieve with the horse cannot be accomplished unless the horse sees the handler/rider as the leader, and more specific, see's the rider as a fair leader. The true searching comes from defining what each trait means to you. Likely some of the best horsemen would decide on 'patience' as the most important trait. To me patience means several things.....'recognizing the smallest change in the horse'; 'waiting on the horse to understand what you asking of him - that means giving the horse time to understand'; and, having the patience to understand that it takes years to build the horse you want.

What may be useful about thinking about these traits is to see for yourself how you incorporate or perform the most important trait or traits, and maybe even more important is to recognize how or what you need to do to improve. And I just don't think it's a one time process. It's sometime we should likely revisit on a near constant basis.

By the way, Kyle points out how he pondered his word (his most important leadership trait) for a long time until he decided that his word was "credibility". He points out that you are not born with credibiity,....you must earn it by performing on a daily basis. That the leader builds credibility by being accountable to his/her people......just as how we are accountable to our horses, or should be. I have been told by military and law enforcement leraders that one'ssubordinates all need to be treated the same. I always disagreed. People (and horses) are different. You would not violate anything by treating them all different as a situation dictates, as long as that treatment was fair.

My word was "balance". I tried on different words identifying leadership traits, and that word - balance - seemed to fit best, although many other words describing traits were importqnt as well. To me Balance it means balancing or understanding the many needs, among them the needs of the horse to feel secure, treated fair, given time to understand what we are asking, and the needs of the rider to establish effective communications in order to accomplish the things he or she want to do on horseback.

Despite doing our best to utilize clear and fair communications through signals such as body language, feel on the lead rope or reins, cues with our seat and legs, if we are not the leader the horse needs we are being unfair to the horse and us both. One of the things humans do that I believe pushes them away from being a more effective leader, is assigning human nature to the horse. Ths puts artifical limitations on us and the horse, and often leads to creating excuses for both of us to justify behavior. I am planning on addressing that later as it was a big topic at a recent clinic.

I hope I'm making sense here. I sometimes use this forum to juggle my thoughts and practices, and put them in more a useable form. Sometimes it is not apparent that we could do better as leaders because the horse just fills in for us. That leads me to believe that the horse's leadership word is patience.

Anxious Horse - Looking to Spook

I received this question via e-mail and it is something that everyone of us has likely experienced. "Hello, I am riding a 6 year old mare, she is supposedly half Quarterhorse and half Tennesse Walker. She was someone's trail horse and ridden for a couple years before I bought her. She is very gentle and comfortable to ride, but she has a habit where  she looks left then right seemingly waiting for something to scare her. When there is a noise or something that does  scare her, she will flinch or take a quick step away, never jumping or really spooking but these rides are becoming tedious where I don't enjoy them. I thought if I rode her enough, the "wet saddle blankets make good horses theroy" she would come around but it isn't getting any better. Do you have any insight on this problem or what is going on? Thank you in advance, Blessings, Myra."

Momentarily, or for longer than a moment, a horse's fear or anxiety can take over where their mind is away from the rider. This is not an intentional deal of ignoring the rider,    it is just a simple instinctive reaction by the horse. You have to get back into their mind and you do so by directing them. Directing the horse, or what some would call putting them to work or moving their feet, usually brings them mentally back to the rider. You could think of it as distracting the horse from the fear stimulus by asking them to do something.

When faced with anxiety or fear, a horse's head will come up so they get elevation for sight and can look directly out the center of the eye. One of things I do when my horses mentally stray from me is to ask them to soften at the poll (the portion of the neck just behind the ears where the Atlas and Axis vertebrae are). 

 Notes on softness: I begin to build this softness in my horses from the first handling where I can use my hand on the poll to ask them to drop their head and I use a verbal command of 'drop your head', and getting the same with a hand on their halter or bridle, or even a loose lead line. I look to get their poll on or close to a level equal to the withers with their nose vertical. This is referred to as vertical flexion. In the beginning, you'll have to apply some pressure, not a lot of pressure but really a sugestion, but soon just a touch (think an ounce of pressure) will do it and even the voice command will usually work if the horse isn't distracted. You are going to need this good on a horse in order to get him collected and better balanced later on. IA lack of balance is really apparent when backing a horse if the horse's head is up, his back is hollowed out, so when the horse moves back he is pushing and falling with the front end. It's an ugly back to be frank. When the horse is soft, head down, his back is more rounded where he can back with the back end engaged and with the some of the weight taken off the front end, he can step with the front feet as opposed to pushing and dragging them.

Back to ready to spook question,...when in the saddle and my horse starts to tune me out, I can use alternating pressure (sometimes very slight and sometimes more of a short bumping) on the reins to signal an ask for softness. Depending on how far along the horse is, the dropping of the head and the nose going more vertical, may last just a second. Or if the horse is well along in training he may hold that for several strides, in any case once you release and his head comes back up you can ask him for softness again. This works pretty well to get the horse mentally back to you.

Yet another way I would approach getting the horse back to me with his mind is to move the feet. I generally don't back a horse when he is looking for sonething to spook on, like Myra describes in her question. But I have before, and when I do I ask for a halt followed by a step backwards. Then I ask for a step forward and a halt, then before the horse can mentally disengage, ask for two steps forward. However, usually I try to get his mind back when moving the feet by asking for a short leg yield to one side then the other, or if the horse is further along, maybe a shoulder in movement followed by a reach with his inside front foot to get back straight on the line of travel.

Sometimes a horse can be distracted by things that normally don't bring up his anxiety like when he is looking to spook. This could be other horses in a distant pen, human activity, or whatever. So another thing I do is to stop my horse, bring the front end over 45 to 90 degrees then jump out to a trot or canter so a few strides, then stop, back several steps, bring the front end over in the oppisite direction and jump out to a trot or canter and repeat. This serves pretty well to get a horse mind back to you. In any event, when the horse begins to get nervous, looking for a threat and looks like they are about to spook, that fear is coming between you as a the leader and the horse. You have to get their mind back to you.