Bridle Bit in the News!
March 18, 2010
Riders learn art of ranch horse work at fairgrounds
Longmont, Colorado
3/15/2010
By Scott Rochat
© 2010 Longmont Times-Call
LONGMONT — Slowly, gently, the young rider nudged her horse toward the calves in the corral.
Not quite slowly enough. The herd began to move away nervously, making it difficult to “cut out” one calf without scattering the rest.
“OK, that’s too much pressure,” instructor Steve LeSatz of Eaton called out. “You want to tiptoe into the herd, go as slow as you can, and pick the cow that’s already looking to the outside.”
Cody Shanahan, 9, practices her roping skills during the 4-H horse clinic taught by Amy and Steve LeSatz Sunday at the Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont. Lewis Geyer/Times-Call
Another try. This time, success as the rider picked her cow and led it away, leaving the others in place.
“Excellent cut! Nice work!”
It’s not quite as dramatic as barrel racing or bull riding. But ranch horse work has an elegance all its own. This is chess played from horseback, where position means everything and a careful approach is essential.
On Sunday, a new generation of riders was learning the tricks of the trade at a clinic on the Boulder County Fairgrounds. No charging, no racing — just quiet, practical riding and roping.
“Instead of chasing the calf, you try to set it up,” explained LeSatz, who teaches the clinic with his wife, Amy. “Say you’ve got a sick animal … you want to try to lead it out, nice and slow.”
It’s done in teams, one rider separating out the calf while another makes sure the rest of the herd stays in place. And it’s not as easy as it sounds. A little too forceful here, or a wrong step there, and you can wind up having to chase down escapees.
“Got past you, didn’t he?” volunteer Sabrina Gerringer teased as a stray slipped around the rider and began to run for a few seconds. “But now you know you could have made a beautiful front-end turn and cut that guy off.”
Roping is practiced on the ground and from horseback — or at least sawhorse-back, in the case of the youngest participants.
“It’s a little harder on a horse, because you don’t want to hit your horse in the head,” said 9-year-old McKenzie Stockdale, coiling her rope for another try.
“It’s kind of easier on this one,” 9-year-old Tristan Smith added from atop the mock horse. “He doesn’t have a neck.”
The hardest part for many young riders is simply putting it all together, LeSatz said: keeping track of the horse, the cows, the rope and the changing situation.
“We try to give them a piece at a time, and then put it all together again,” he said. “It can be a years-long process.”
Given that, starting out just right can make a big difference. And so far, Jennifer Golsan likes what she sees.
“For a rider just starting out, it’s very, very helpful,” said Golsan, a Berthoud resident, as her 14-year-old daughter, Alisha, joined her after the morning sessions. Both Alisha and her horse are new to ranch work riding, she said.
“It’s good to have a kind, knowledgeable instructor, so my daughter can do well and her horse can, too,” Golsan said.
Scott Rochat can be reached at 303-684-5220 or srochat@times-call.com.
