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            The mission of this website is to assist cowboys, buckaroos and ranchers who handle cattle horseback, to do so with less stress on them and their cattle (as well as their horses).  This is also a good site to refer people who are members of PETA and other "animal rights" or "environmental" organizatons to show them that cattle can be handled with virtually no stress on them. As you are working cattle horseback, this site will be concentrating not only on how to handle cattle in a more efficient manner, but how to do it from the back of your horse with the least amount of effort. However anyone interested in horsemanship (even if their horse will never look at a cow) will be find useful information as well. Links to different situations are in the menu bar at the top of the page, but please read through this first page in its entirety to get the most out of the site. Each point made here is a primer to get you ready for the rest of the site. In the coming months  we are planning to add video to the site  to make it easier to understand some of these concepts.  If you have any questions about cattle handling problems you may be having, feel free to  email me.

    When cattle are acting as a herd, they bcome easy to handle. In fact these methods make handling cattle so easy I've been told it looks as if I have them "on remote control." As seeing is believeng, I have several videos to demonstrate the remote control aspect so you can see what happens when you use these methods properly. In this first video I take 150 steers out a gate, down the road, and through a gate on the opposite side of the road all on "auto pilot." This is the first time these steers have been taken this route and automatically went in the first open gate they came to.

The word “natural” is misleading, because every way our animals react to us is their “natural” reaction to what we are doing at the time. It is also very natural for us to go to a clinic or seminar and come away more confused than before we went. The reasons for this is are simple. First we are receiving more information than we can disseminate in the time we receive it.

·        Secondly, our ego has a hard time allowing us to admit we don’t understand what we paid to learn (especially when we want to learn it). Ego, leave it at the house. There isn'’t enough room in your saddle for the both of you. It also irritates the rest of the crew, your horse and the cattle, especially when it isn’t right.

 

·        Thirdly, not everyone will understand something in the same way. This is another reason why people can get confused at clinics. If you think you have tried what is suggested here, and it does not work, read it again, or feel free to email me about your problem and I’ll see if I can explain it in a way you will understand it. 

·        Fourth, the basic principals in everything being taught here is to allow the animals to do what you want. Horses already know how to do everything you want them to do. We need to learn how to communicate to them when we want them to do it. Cattle will only act as a herd if you allow them to. However so few cattle are allowed to act as a herd that most of us have never seen it. Even then, some who have seen it want to put some reason behind it like flies or better feed there, ANYTHING other than the fact the cattle are acting as a herd. (This is one place where the afore mentioned ego gets in the way, it will not allow you to see the light)

·        Remember that for these methods to work, everyone in the crew has to be on board. One person working against the cattle (especially when pulling cattle from a pen) can over ride everything you are doing, and even interfere with your horse.

        

 

         Now you are ready to begin what I hope is a lifelong journey improving you abilities as well as making life easier on you horses and cattle. I suggest you begin with economics, before reading herd behavior If you are a horseman just trying to improve your horsemanship, start with reading allowing the stop.