My Princess is doing very well in all ways, but now we have a problem. She LOVES cows. She is a quarterhorse and comes from a long line of cutting horses, which isnt the problem. The other day I was riding her and across the road, one of the cowboys on the ranch was chasing a steer and she nearly got out of control wanting to go help. Every time she sees cows, she wants to go to them, which I dont mind, as long as she does it the way I ask, but this time she REALLY wanted to go chase that steer. I had to take her out back where she couldnt see them before she would settle down. She has no cow training at all, she is only 3 and we dont have any cows. I am just getting her trained to ride. Later on, I hope to train her to be a cutting horse, but not right now. She behaves pretty well when we just ride around or through a bunch of cows,she isnt a bit afraid of them but is very interested and seems puzzled when they run from her. She always runs to watch whenever anyone is driving them past the pasture, but this is the first time I have ever been on her when someone was actually trying to round one up, the steer was in the wrong pasture and the guy was trying to drive him back, I never expected her to be so insistant on going to help. I KNOW she has no experience on cow work, since I was the first-and only-person to ever ride her and have had her since she was 2 and a half. I have permission to ride her in the pasture across the road where there are cows, and do every chance I get, and she always wants to go meet every cow we pass. Sometimes I let her just to see what she will do, if the cow stands still, she sniffs noses with it, if it walks off, she will follow it a ways and then stop and ask what I want her to do, if it runs, she asks what to do, she doesnt understand why they run from her. But apparently, if someone is chasing one, she thinks she should too. At this stage in her training, she isnt ready for that, or maybe she is and I'm not, I dont know. But anyway, she wasnt asked to help by anyone. We werent even in the same pasture. As soon as she saw what was going on, she headed that was, fast. I stopped her and she started shaking her head to let me know she wanted to go, and I finally had to turn her around and go out back, she argued about it for awhile, then settled down.(she always shakes her head when she wants to go somewhere I dont. Thats her way or protesting. At least she doesnt rear or buck, never has.) She is a fun little horse and I never know what she will do next. A few evenings ago we went riding in the hayfield and found out she is afraid of irrigation ditches, Emmett, with his long legs, just stepped across them, she would have had to hop across, but didnt think she could, so that was interesting. Emmett and Jim finally had to push her to get her to cross one, then I made her cross it a couple more times just to prove to her that she could really do it. She would back up, sidestep along the edge, but refused to cross. Hopefully, we got that fixed.
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Hi phantommustang1 I was amused by your post as it reminded me so much of my quarter horse, Uggs when I first bought him to help me on my parents property with the cattle. He was only 2.5 years old when I bought him and intially I kept him with my Dad's mob of pet cows. Unfortunately I couldn't ride him much as I always had so much to do on the property in addition to looking after my aged parents while I was there. He was fine until the calves arrived while I was in Melbourne. He decided it was fun to draft the calves off their mothers and chase them until they ran into a blackberry bush exhausted. Poor little calves. When I arrived back on the property to witness this Uggs was promptly moved to a paddock by himself. He was very lonely when I was away so I was lucky to find him a companion colt. Like Princess he was incredible to ride when mustering the cattle. My Dad's cattle were pretty wild as they had been badly handled before I went to help and Uggs would just take off after them and round them up - all I had to do was stay on his back - he was very fast - thankgoodness for stock saddles! He too was totally untrained so this was just natural instinct. I think quarter horses are a bit like our Kelpie dogs in Australia - they just seem to know how to handle stock. Princess will be a fantastic cutting horse once she is trained. The running cattle seem to set them off as they just then want to go and herd them up. I found Uggs would quietly walk through a herd of grazing cattle but if he saw them fighting, or running around he would want to be part of it and get very excited as Princess does!! I am sad for Uggs as since coming to Melbourne to live with me 10 years ago he has had no cattle to chase. I almost gave him to a young girl as a cutting horse for the shows but then her older brother indicated that he would tie his legs up and give him good bagging down if he misbehaved - end of deal! So Uggs has no cows just me, Tricka and Chester the shetland. Hopefully Princess will be luckier. They are great horses.
Maggie, Uggs is better off with you and no cows than he would have been with them. Glad you kept him.
Thanks phantomustang - Me too! He is my favourite! But I know we shouldn't have favourites with our children!