Tag Archives: stockmanship

Timing

This seems the perfect time to discuss my thoughts on timing.

If you have read some of my previous thoughts on pressure being what causes animals to do the things they do, and the amount of feel we apply this pressure with, then the timing of the pressure is the next logical thing to talk about.

If the timing of the pressure is correct and the proper type of pressure for the situation is used, it will work. However, the correct pressure at the wrong time may have little to no effect, or even a negative effect.

Timing may be just the opposite of feel in the aspect of learning. Timing is easy to teach or demonstrate, but very hard to learn. The more things going on, and the faster the pace,the harder it is to have good timing.

Timing has to do with the mind of the handler and the animal. The brain can only think of one main thought at a time. This is why it is so dangerous to drive while texting or trying to read a map. Your timing of driving your car is thrown off, and you will apply the pressure to the brake, steering wheel, or gas pedal at the wrong time. When a person has perfected the motor skills of driving and does not have to have complete concentration on thinking of what to do operate the car, the driver can carry on a conversation with another person in the car. I don’t know about all states but in some if you are driving a semi truck and are talking on a cell phone without having your hands free it carries a heavy fine. Timing is very important, mainly thinking ahead when driving, especially when it is hard to stop.

Livestock seem to be very single minded. The first step to proper timing is to get the animals mind in a state to take pressure. If the pressure startles the animal, depending on the animals temperament, it could cause the animal to react more than is necessary or in a negative way. Startle a sleeping horse from behind and you may get kicked or slam the door on a pickup truck with a pen of flighty cattle, and while you are limping around or building fence, it will give you time to think about improving the way you time your approach.

The way you go about changing the mind of the animal to your pressure is key to how well the animal will accept and respond to the pressure. Once the animals attention is on you, the timing of how much pressure and the kind of pressure you use is also very important to not only get the animal to do what you would like it to do, but also keeping it doing it. You must become more important than every other stimulus in the environment, but not scare the animal because of too much pressure. If we go back to the driving scenario, it’s like someone who is real jerky on the gas pedal, goes real fast, then slams on the brakes to stop fast. The smooth driver times the pressure and release of pressure with the flow of traffic and terrain of the road. The smooth stockman does the same.

Most animal abuse is caused by improper timing of pressure. When excessive pressure is applied and an animal can’t or has no place to get away, this is abuse. Improper timing can create a response in animals which creates the need for excessive pressure where it would not have been needed if the animal had been trained properly.

So here is the order I think one should take when moving livestock …

Try to approach from an angle and speed that lets the animal discover your pressure before you penetrate the flight zone. When you get a response, it is important to immediately change your pressure, to reward the animal or reassure it that you have feel, and to get it thinking out of the pressure. The timing of this is so important. The closer you make the change in pressure to them thinking about it, rather than physically doing it, the better the timing.

Once you find the pressure zone that creates movement then you can change the angle of the pressure to create direction. You may be wrong in your estimations and this is when you time your change of pressure to get the direction you want. By your timing of pressure and also the real ease of pressure, the animal is learning to take your pressure and work for you, while you are learning the best way to work with the animal to keep it on the thinking side of its brain so it gets easier to work.

No matter if is a herd of livestock or one animal, I treat it the same way. With one animal I get movement that fits the situation, then try to point the nose where I would like it to go. With a herd it is important to get proper movement, then establish direction with the lead animals with out stopping the movement of the herd.

When I help people starting and riding young horses the thing I always found myself saying to them was, “You’re late.” This is the challenge with learning timing. With animals if you don’t apply the pressure or release it at the proper time, they can’t reason it out. They are in the moment.

When you are learning. you don’t want to make a mistake, so you try to decide or think of the best option. By the time you think of all the things to do, then make the decision to implement it, you are late. So you try another set of options, then you are really late.

With real gentle cattle you can get by with thinking in the pressure zone, but the more sensitive the animal is the less time you can be in the wrong spot if you are in the pressure zone. You should step back out of pressure, quickly regroup, and then step into pressure with the new plan. If you make smooth positive movements, not quick jerky moves, the animal will respond better.

This is why I say timing is easy to teach, but hard to learn. You can be told all the right things but the only way to get experience is from mistakes made, then learned from.

The more advanced you get at handling livestock the better you can use timing to get better results. You time the change of pressure with the physical balance of the cow or the shape of the herd. When trying to load a steer in a trailer or up a lead to a chute, if you position yourself properly to apply just enough pressure to get him to see the opening, as he looks at the opening you increase the pressure at the proper time and amount. To early and he won’t be lined up to go up the chute. To late and he may choose another option. This is when proper timing really is helpful in animal handling.

Here’s a simple example of timing:

A few years back I was watching the rodeo in Missoula, MT. After the rodeo I was on the track visiting with a real good steer wrestling horse trainer that I was college roommate with. He was on his bulldogging horse and the fireworks started to go off. His horse just stood there and we watched the fireworks. That’s pretty good to get a steer wrestling horse to just stand there when fireworks are going off. The fireworks had been going on for a few minutes and a barrel racer came running across near us saying to Steve (Blixt), “My horse is tied to the trailer.” He never even hesitated but said, “You’re late.” Her timing was way off.

I really feel timing is the one thing that you always need to keep working on. All the physical things you do are only helpful when you time them right. The way to get better timing is to do things and then analyze the result to check your timing. If you never think about and remember what worked your feel and timing will be off. By analyzing performance we create balance, and that will be next weeks topic of discussion.

~ Curt Pate

Feel

Lets talk about feel.  I have been asked many times if feel can be taught.  I don’t know, but I see people with quite a bit of feel, so it’s learned by some.

As I stated before, to me feel is applying proper pressure in the proper amount.  That seems like such a simple explanation for such an important concept.  Simple can be very complicated unless you keep simple, and that is the reason these things are difficult to teach.  Those that learn feel keep it simple, those that don’t make it complicated or can’t control emotion.

Pressure is what creates a reaction in an animal.  The type of pressure, the amount of pressure, the proximity of the pressure, the awareness of the animal,and how familiar the animal is with the type of pressure effects the reaction of the animal to the pressure.

Pressure creates a stimulus to the brain of the animal from its vision, hearing, or actual physical contact of the body.  I also have experienced times when the animal can seem to read the intent of another animal or human, and this is a pressure that should be examined as well.

Here’s my simple cowboy way of looking at how the brain works.  It has two sides.
One side is the thinking side of the brain, or if we are talking in terms of livestock we should call it the “gain” part of the brain.  The other side is the reaction side of the brain, and we will label it the “shrink” side.  When cattle are on the gain they are healthy and much more likely to be profitable.  Livestock on the shrink are unsettled, unhealthy, unhappy and usually unprofitable (looks like it should be the “un-side” of the brain).

Animals on the gain think about the kind and amount of feed and water they need and have the space and time to consume it.  If other animals are present that make it “think” it is safe and creates social comfort, this will help keep the animal on the gain side of the brain as well.

Animals on the shrink have unfamiliar or excessive pressure put on them which causes the brain to go to the reaction side.  If this pressure lasts it can put the animal in another state of the brain which is survival.  This is the worst place for an animal to be and it is my goal to always keep any animal from reaching this state of mind.

The environment outside of the body creates the environment inside the body.  The main defense grazing animals have is to move away from danger or what we call flight.  The amount of fear the pressure creates is what can put the animal into survival mode.  If the brain switches to survival mode the animal needs all its energy for flight.  “They load ‘er light, bind ‘er tight, and head ’em for the swamps,” as my old friend Steve Mitchell used to say.

The brain sends signals through the body with cortisone and adrenaline to increase blood and oxygen flow to the heart, lungs, and legs to increase the ability to run away from danger. Any thing that takes energy and is not needed is put on stand by or shut down.  The immune system takes a bunch of energy (remember how you feel before you get a cold).  There is no need to fight off pink-eye or BVD at the moment, if a grizzly bear, or a human that acts like one is trying to get you. This is the danger of excessive pressure too often for too long.

The environment inside the cow also has predators and they are waiting for an opportune time to attack. These are pathogens and bacteria and other things I don’t know the names of.  I look at the immune system like a county sheriff.  If he has good deputies and they are all on the job, the county has very little crime.  If they have a disaster from mother nature, big predators like fire, tornado, earthquakes or flood, they shut down the crime immune system and help people in the survival mode.  This is when the pathogens of society attack.

Hopefully this will get you to thinking how important it is to keep an animal on the gain.  This is why it is not only important to get the cattle to do what you need from a handling stand point, but also from an economic and ethical point of view as well.  The amount of feel you use with your type of pressure affects immediate and future gain.

Every experience the animal has with pressure effects how its brain reacts to pressure.  If the animal learns to take pressure he is on the thinking or gain side and will get better to handle over time.  Pressure without feel is excessive and creates shrink or survival mode. Over time this will create animals that are hard to handle and, if driven to survival mode, can become very dangerous.

No matter how good you are at handling livestock, the next person that gets to handle it may not be as handy. The situation and area it is being handled in may require an animal that is trained to take pressure and think its way through the situation.  If it has been taught to handle with feel, it will be much easier to get it done safely while keeping the animal on the gain.

If we all learn to handle our livestock with FEEL it will solve many problems.  That’s what Stockmanship and Stewardship is all about.

So, whatever method you use to get livestock from point to point, make sure you use feel and keep ’em on the gain.

~ Curt Pate

Cowboy music

I really enjoy what I call cowboy music.  When I was in high school Chris LeDoux was my favorite. Red Steagall was added in my college rodeo days.  Ian Tyson, Tom Russell, Dave Stamey, R.W. Hampton, Don Edwards, Wylie and the Wild West to name a few sure helped myself and family enjoy our barn and riding lots of horses.

This song and these images by my friend Stocklein say it all as it pertains to this weeks subject in my blog.  Many of the people in the photos helped me or inspired me to improve.

Matt Robertson, a Wyoming boy, with a Canadian wife, is a great new talent in the cowboy world and also writing and singing about it. Corb Lund, Linda Thurston, and Adrian Brannan are some of my new favorites.

I have not put very much “cowboy” music on the Friday feel good music because it is real hard to find cowboy music that fits the theme I am trying to talk about.

I have listened to Marty Robbins for as long as I can remember, probably before I was born.
I used to sing “160 Acres In The Valley” when I was riding my pony Pee Wee, dreaming about my outfit I wanted to have.

Most of the cowboy music is about things that may not go along with what we are discussing here.  The songs portray some of the same skills and lifestyles that we are trying to overcome in having the livestock industry fit with modern day production and the consumer of this period in history.

I think this is a very important issue to look at.

First things first.  We have to define what we are talking about.  Cowboy is the most common word to describe our western tradition of handling cattle horseback, but in some regions they would rather be called a “buckaroo.”  I prefer the term “stockman” for myself, because it pertains to not only the handling of, but care of the animal as well.

The cowboy really came from the southwest (Texas and surrounding states).  This is harsh country, and after the Civil War times were tough. If you had the skills, it was possible to capture wild cattle and make a living from those skills.  These were wild dangerous cattle, in wild dangerous country, and it took wild dangerous men and women to do it.  The cattle did not belong to anyone, so you had no ownership to tell you how to do things, and if you could not capture them quickly, and get control of them they would be someone else’s to capture.

This created a cowboy that had the skills to get ‘er done and get it done now with no room for error.  They were not concerned too much with style, just getting the animal in their control before someone else did, or the beef learned how to escape them. This created gear that was tough, horses that were tough, and cowboys that were double tough.

The buckaroo name derived from the Spanish word “vaquero.”  It meant a cattle driver.  This style was developed from the “Californio” region where the Catholic Missions controlled much of the livestock grazing areas.  This was paradise for raising and caring for cattle. The vaquero did not have to concern himself with anything other than the skills of horsemanship and handling cattle. The Missions had peons and slaves to do other work.  This created real style and finesse in the horsemanship, roping skills, and cattle handling.  They were able to take time to create gear that was not only useful, but showed pride in craftsmanship. They had highly trained horses and cattle that were easy to handle because of the owners’ requirements, as well the time to teach them to handle.

This was the two main styles of cattle workers in west.  As time went on and cattle ranching expanded the style went with the expansion.  My home state of Montana is a perfect example of this.  In western Montana the Californio style was more prevalent. Across the continental divide on the eastern side you saw a strong Texas influence, because of the trail herds coming from the south.

This is a modern look at ranching with a great song that I feel shows the “feel” the Texas drovers had for the cattle they were in care of.

We have seen a huge change in the ranch or stock horse in the past decades.  This is mainly because of the work of Ray Hunt.  He traveled the country showing people how to work with their horses.  The so called “old way” of horsemanship has changed so much in the past years and now it is becoming the norm to work with the horse rather than forcing the horse to do what we need of it.  I don’t believe this is something new, and I don’t believe only the people doing clinics were or are doing it.  I also don’t believe every one who did things the “old way” did things that were abusive to horses.

Ray Hunt was the first and most mentioned person I am aware of to do clinics in this style (Monty Forman also did clinics, but it was more on performance horses).  Ray was the pioneer and many have since followed.  Next we had video, then television made it possible to get information without actually being with the teacher, and the Internet has been great for getting information.  This has been great, and some have even called it the horsemanship “revolution.”

I would say that much of this style of horsemanship came from the Californio tradition, as well as some of the methods of the Calvary.

This goes back to the environments and lifestyles of the time and traditions in California and Texas.  The Texans had no choice but to get ‘er done to survive, and survive and thrive they did.

They were the best at what was required of them and really fit the time they were in.  I’m not saying the Californian style was all easy, but I do think they had it easier, as far a survival, than the Texas and southwest waddies .

I remember how people used to question, and even criticize Ray Hunt when he would come to town. Many people did not even know what he was doing but still criticized it.  As time went on it became more of the norm, as more and more people started doing it. Now it is accepted by most, not all as a good thing.

Horses for most people are a source of pride and pleasure, even if they use them for their livelihood.  This type of horsemanship is popular all over, even in Texas.  Times have changed. The way we do things can change for the better.

I want you to know I was not friends with Ray Hunt (he really made me nervous and afraid I would do the wrong thing) but I was fascinated by his skills in working with a horse.  Ray Hunt dressed like a cowboy or buckaroo, had all the skills it took to be a top hand.  He seemed to be in perfect balance with a horse no matter if it was standing still, bucking, or any thing in between, and was an excellent roper. He could get a horse to perform at the top of its athletic ability, had a wealth of experience, and could read livestock well.  He had the skills to be just as tough and rough on horses as anyone going.  He could have roped and choked, tied horses down and thrown a tarp over them, tied their heads around for hours, or many other things that have been done to horses in the name of western training methods.  But he did not do these things.  Instead, he worked with what he spoke of as “feel, timing, and balance.”  Other horseman had the same style of gear, same clothes, the same physical skills, but not the same feel, timing, and balance.  This makes the difference.

When we talk about cattle handling in the western tradition,  it is much the same as western-style horse handling.  You must have skills.  You can not read a book or watch a video, and simply walk out of the house and start a colt or rope a bull, and you would probably have a hard time even moving cattle if you had no previous experience. It is a learning process.  The more you work at improving the skill the better you should get at it. The physical skills must be there, but how you use them is the important part.  I think this is where feel, timing and balance become important.

The main motivation for livestock to do anything is pressure.

Feel is applying the proper pressure to get the animal to do what you would like it to do.

Timing is applying pressure when the animal has the ability to respond first with the mind, then with the body, and reducing or taking pressure off after the animal responds to pressure.

Balance is combining feel and timing of pressure to keep the animal in a thinking state, rather than in a survival state.  This creates trust and acceptance of the pressure, and allows the animal to learn or think its way out of the pressure.

The reason I think the type of horsemanship Ray Hunt brought us has become so popular is because first of all it is real.  If you develop skill and use feel, timing and balance to use those skills, you will get better results in a much better way, for the animal and the human. The other thing that has been so great, is that when people start using feel, timing and balance with the horsemanship, they learn to use it in their human relationships as well, and that is when quality of life really goes up.

If you are a horseman and you have not experienced the feeling of working with the horse to get what you want, I feel you are missing out on great personal satisfaction. To me there is an added satisfaction in taking responsibility to not expose the horse to unnecessary pressure simply for human pleasure, or what seems to be pleasure, but for many turns to frustration.

In the cattle business we must handle cattle.  No matter what type of operation at some point we must control the movement and placement of the cattle. This handling will cause some amount of stress to the animal. If it is excessive it can cause problems that effect production and therefore profit, quality of life for animals and humans, and could create a negative desire for the consumer of beef.

Much of the cattle handling that is done in modern age is done in the horseback traditions. If we really want to improve cattle handling, this is the most important and most difficult place to make change.  The reason are similar to the reasons Ray Hunt created some animosity at first.

Let me list some reasons I think cowboys and buckaroos are skeptical.

  • To force and fight animals takes talent and skill that is exclusive to a certain group, and if you make it so everyone can do it cowboys and buckaroos loose some status.
  • It is exciting and fun to do the high pressure types of cattle handling.
  • There is much honor in being a good cow fighter.  It is easy to see the skills it takes to rope a wild cow, or cut a animal out of a bunch with a athletic cutting horse, or make a hard run to turn a steer.  We show case these skills in cutting horse contests, team penning, ranch roping, ranch horse competition, and ranch rodeo.
  • The majority of the cowboys and buckaroos are young with a need to live on the edge and be wild and free.
  • You must have control of you emotions.

I know these reasons are true because I have lived it.  I am so thankful I have had the opportunity to work around some great hands.  I developed my cow fighting skills and feel I was very good at it.  The lucky thing for me is that I got to experience how real and effective horsemanship can be with skill and feel, timing, and balance and was able to see this would also improve the way I worked with cattle.

I feel the late Ray Hunt did so much to help horses and people have a better deal.  In the cattle business we can benefit greatly from this style.

No matter if you are of the “Texas” or “California” tradition or a mix of both, if you add feel, timing, and balance to the tradition of cattle handling you will add to and improve the tradition, as well as improve quality of life for every one involved.

I have spent many years working on this and hope with my sharing of ideas through print and live demonstrations, it will help you on the journey to become better at working with animals.  I take it very seriously and hope you do as well.  It is important to improve.

I feel it is very hard to teach someone better cattle handling skills, but it is very easy to learn better cattle handling skills.  All you need is the desire and the time and you will get better. Learn as much as you can, figure out what will work for you, put effort into it and you will be on your way to improvement.

As a tribute to Ray Hunt and all the other great livestock handlers before us lets not forget.

FEEL. TIMING. BALANCE.

~ Curt Pate