Horseman’s Corner Radio

Van Hargis on Qualified Experience

Good morning everybody, this is Van Hargis with Van Hargis Horsemanship and welcome to the Ranch Road. We have a lot of students that come out to the ranch, and oftentimes on their applications, one of the first things they do to lend themselves some sort of credibility is tell me two things.

 

I've been around horses my whole life, and then second is I love horses.

 

Now, both of those are important, right? But they're not really qualifiers. And what I mean by that is, is I'll just give you an example. My entire adult life, I've owned a welder because a lot of our equipment I hear at the ranch is metal. We've got pipe and sucker rod fencing for our horses. We've got a lot of metal things that we fix and we repair. And even though I've owned a welder my entire adult life, I would never insult the welder by calling myself a welder, even though I've owned one.

 

When I mention that to my students is that I'm not interested in how long you've been doing it. What I'm really interested in is how well you've performed while doing it. Have you developed your skills enough to where you are making progress toward becoming the horseman that you want to be? But it kind of goes for everybody. It doesn't really matter how long you've been doing something. That just shows that you've got either tremendous patience and or passion, which are both good.

 

Most importantly though is what have you learned along your journey? How can you perform that of which you've learned? So just take that tidbit, we didn't appreciate you guys. And until next time, this is Van Hargis with Van Hargis Horsemanship.

Van Hargis on Using All Body Parts to Ride

Visit Equine Podcast Search sponsored by Van Hargis Horsemanship to find hundreds of great interviews with top horsemen and women from around the globe. Here's Van with a message from his program called "The Ranch Road"...

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Farm Rescue Founder Bill Gross

Farm Rescue volunteers have been in Nebraska for a week, helping farm families recover and prepare for the planting season. From delivering hay with Operation Hay Lift to planting crops free of charge, we’re here for the next steps.

 

Know a farm family in need? Refer them online.

Recalling the Nebraska Wildfires

In an article by Angie Denton in Drovers, we catch a glimpse of the horror that ranching families went through on that fateful March night in Nebraska.

LISTEN IN...

 

 

Link to article...

https://www.drovers.com/news/industry/through-flames-miracles-heartbreak-and-fight-nebraskas-cattle-country

Compass Horse Training Tips

Now here's legendary trainer, Vaughn Knudson.

"If you've opened a circle or you're in a spin, working a cow doesn't matter if you turn the left, you put your hand out there, his eye goes first and then his head. And that's extremely important because all other bits, it's the right eye that goes first and then he turns his head to the left. The best way you can ever work a horse is to have left work left and right work right."

"That's pretty amazing to know that when you learn to ride as a kid, they always tell you to look where you want to go. I'm pretty sure that if that works for us, it probably works for the horse too. So if his left eye doesn't go first, well then he's going to be delayed in his reaction."

"Oh boy, you've said it all right there, Nelseena. Not only do we have a snaffle bit, but I also found the machine that cuts out chains and we designed different shanks to go on the side of it so you can either have a slow release or a faster release or a medium release. It doesn't matter, but we've also got this mouthpiece of chains. So if I'll go to the website Campus Horse Training, that's where they'll find everything."

 

That was compasshorsetraining.com or you can always visit horsemanscorner.com for more information about Vaughn Knudson.

Horse Training with Mindy Bower

Colorado Horsewoman Mindy Bower reflecting back on her experience with Ray Hunt, "But the first moment I listened to him I was, I couldn't believe how amazing it was so it didn't take me but a minute to figure that out. But I just feel like nowadays there's just trainers or there's a million of them. They're everywhere and it doesn't take anything to get a client. I mean I've worked with a lot of trainers too that they have no clue. That just amazes me. And even after I've kind of gone through things with them I'll still get a horse from them that you just think, what? Wait, have you not been doing the groundwork? They just don't carry it forward. They think it's just a day in the life and not like a complete way of living. So I mean I just, everything I do has the groundwork in it. If I'm just walking through the corral with all the horses loose I'm paying attention to what they're doing and how they move around me and whether they want to run past me or run through the gate or run away from me. I'm trying to make sure that they don't have that feeling even when they're in the corral. But I just don't think that if people keep their horses in the stall, they can just walk in there. They don't have to think. I just went and worked this morning that they've been having now, he just, he's just a baby but now he's starting to rear. They can't lead him to the round pin. And I bet I spent, I don't know, at least an hour in this stall area just working on getting him ready to catch. And she said, I said, well how would it be for you to catch you? And I said, oh I just walked right in and catch him. And I said, yeah but you can see he's not ready to be caught."

Colorado horse trainer Mindy Bower.

Meet Bill Gross of Farm Rescue

Hi, I'm Bill Gross, founder and president of Farm Rescue.

Through the 1980s my parents had some financial hardships, our family was in danger of losing the farm. My family told me to pursue higher education and a career outside of farming. So I went on to be an airline pilot. I've been flying for UPS Airlines as a Boeing 747 captain for more than 30 years. But you know my heart never left the farming and ranching community. Twenty years ago talking to the other pilots they said, what are you going to do when you retire? And I said, well I'm going to get this big John Deere tractor and planter and be this random good Samaritan where I go around and help farm families that are having a difficult time. So one day I was visiting with a chaplain friend of mine and he encouraged me, Bill, don't wait for the future, do it now.

The challenges were huge in the beginning. I mean not just that we needed volunteers to be the boots on the ground but you know we needed to raise awareness spreading the word that Farm Rescue is for real and there's no catches that it's a free service and so with a handful of donors and volunteers we set out to help farm families.

Our 20th year anniversary at Farm Rescue means a great deal to me and the entire organization. To see the thousand volunteers come forward to help nearly 1200 farm families has been truly rewarding.

Visit farmrescue.org for more information.

Be The Hotwire Fence with Van Hargis

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That's right, if you're looking for good, Equine Podcasts, you can use HorsemansCorner.com or equinepodcastsearch.com, made possible by Van Hargis Horsemanship.

Now here's Van Hargis with his Morning Ranch Road Program. Enjoy!

Good morning everybody, this is Van Hargis with Van Hargis Horsemanship and welcome to the Ranch Road. Have you guys ever noticed what a horse does when it's in an area with a hot wire fence? I've seen horses walk over and accidentally touched the hot wire fence and the fence zaps them. It's nothing personal. There's no feelings involved. The fence just does its job and the horse respects that. Now when people ask me how do I get the horse to respect their personal space, the first thing I think of is be the hot wire fence. Nothing personal, no feelings involved. It's just that you're telling the horse where your boundaries are. You don't have to be harsh, you don't have to be mean, you just have to be consistent and persistent. So when the horse violates your space, just simply be the hot wire fence. Make your space uncoupled enough that they'll respect it and get out of it. But you've also got to be just as consistent as a hot wire fence, meaning that you can't sometimes ignore it and not be aware of the fact that the horse impeded on your boundary. You have to be very consistent and very persistent. And after a while the horse will respect your space and they don't fear you, they just respect you.

Texas Master Horseman and Clinician Van Hargis.

Visit Van Hargis Horsemanship for more great tips like these. You can find them all on Horseman's Corner.