Working Cow Horse on a Budget

Have you always wanted to work cow? Even bought a horse that has cow horse training or breeding only to find out that it's so expensive for lesson or training? In order to competitive you need to work cow an a regular basis and that can get out of reach for some of us, like me. I had specialized in Reining and wasn't that far off from being able to do working cow horse I had the dry pattern and now all I needed was the Cow work. I had been attending the Snaffle Bit Competition as a spectator for years and always wanted to try it.

When the Northern California Reined Cow Horse Ass. was being developed, I happily became a member and soon served on the Board for three years. it was a great place for me and my clients to school our Reining horses. It wasn't long before we all got the Cow Horse bug. Two big problems, I didn't have any cows and as a straight Reiner, I didn't have fencing to hold cows. My area was a big open area with limited fencing around it. As a single mother of two kids, I was struggling to keep my ranch and I didn't see the state of my fencing problem changing any time soon. Frustrated and feeling left out of the fun, I started working my horses on a flag which I found very beneficial but kind of boring after a while. I talked to as many Cow Horse trainers as I could who had worked goats in years past and I decided that's what I should try. I called on some goats I found for sale but their goats were already tame and wouldn't work for what I needed. She did have some wild hair sheep and that sounded intrueging. I would have the smell of the male goats and the hair sheep shed so I wouldn't have to sheer them. She warned me that they are wild and hard to tame, this was sounding like just what I needed. I bought three little Barbados sheep to start.