Working a cow has a multitude of benefits for 2-year-olds aimed at any performance discipline. NFR team roper, cutting horse trainer and performance horse colt starter Jojo Lemond explains how to do this simple exercise on your barrel prospect.
Whether a horse is running to turn a barrel, stop a cow or turn a steer, rate and speed control are crucial components of a performance horse’s education. Roper, cutting horse trainer and colt starter Jojo Lemond says working a cow on his 2-year-old prospects teaches colts how to rate, use their bodies, get light and soft and teaches them to handle pressure, no matter what arena they’re headed toward.
“It’s a grind to boldly build a colt up to where it can sustain the amount of pressure you want to put on them,” Lemond said. “I’ve found a lot with rope horses when you go to putting speed on them, that’s when all our problems create and everything unwinds. When I would try to burst into that boldness, it crashed everything for me — when the speed came, I lost turnarounds, stop, feel. This teaches these babies that if I accelerate or press on the gas pedal and let off, they come back to me. If a horse will come back to me when I let off, and the future plan for this horse is to run or do a speed event, the horse progresses faster and looks to me to relax.”
Introducing a cow in a 2-year-old’s training helps a horse develop all these fundamentals, before adding speed, in a dynamic situation that requires a horse to think and engage. It also helps a horse learn to focus on an object and gives it a reason to rate and slow its feet without the rider pulling on its face.
“If they’re not thinking about something, they’re not learning anything. But you take a horse and give him a job, it’s amazing how fast they start thinking,” Lemond continued. “There are people in [the barrel racing industry] who’ve won millions who don’t do this, but I feel that if I go through this stage with them their 2-year-old year, then it doesn’t matter what pressure you put on them later.”
Setting It Up
You don’t need a whole pen of cattle to get started; one or two slower cows will work fine for a young or inexperienced horse. Though it may be handy, help also isn’t required — Lemond frequently works his colts on cattle by himself.
He says it’s important not to think of this as teaching your horse to cut or take a cow down the fence. Don’t expect too much other than getting your colt to pay attention to the cow and react to its movement.
“It’s amazing how much forward the speed babies have. Some of them can be cowy and very smart and think a lot, but it takes a little longer for them to lock onto a cow,” Lemond said. “The difference in working [a speed prospect] versus a cutter is I’m not going to make him draw [back] as much. If he naturally wants to draw, that suits me fine, but some don’t have any cow in them at all, so I’m going to drive them into the cow a lot as we work. If he gets beat [by the cow], I’m not going to make it a big deal, because we know he’s not a cutter and not going to be a cow horse. We’re just trying to find rate, so I’d like to find a cow that doesn’t want to turn or cut as much but will let me drive off.”
Lemond starts by picking a cow out of the herd and driving it away from the rest of the herd, staying parallel with it as it moves around. He wants the horse’s eye to stay on the cow and for the horse to go when it goes, stop when it stops, and turn when the cow turns. While he’s moving the cow, he’s also letting the cow dictate the horse’s direction and speed, always staying in between the herd and the single cow.
“The main thing I want him to do is balance off the cow. If we’re in a lefthand circle, I want him in the left lead, watching the cow, arced and soft in his ribs. When the cow stops, I want this colt to think about stopping and rating,” Lemond said. “If we go from a lope to a walk, I want him to break right down to a walk. A lot of times we won’t lope the cutters [on a cow], I want them to leave out in a trot, but on these running horses, I’m perfectly OK with these horses wanting to hit a lope.”
You’ll likely have to help your horse quite a bit in the beginning with both your body and hands until it starts understanding how to stay with the cow.
“I’m just driving this cow off, and if that cow goes to stop anywhere, I want this colt to think about stopping and then pick back up and drive again,” Lemond said. “If I sit down or change anything [with my hands or body], I want this colt to find the ground. And the quicker he finds it, the better his rate will get as we get to going more.”
Staying Light
Lemond is firm about making sure the colt isn’t pushing on his hands, rooting down on the bit, or being pushy on his leg with its ribs when he asks it to rate, stop or turn, even if the horse successfully follows the cow.
“If he’s heavy on the front end, I’m going to knock him off [my hands] and ask him to come back. If he thinks about stopping and then pushes through my hand, I’ll draw that colt back, because he’s rooting into my hands rather than hitting his stop and coming back to me,” Lemond said. “I don’t want him to be heavy and unbalanced, whether it’s front end or back end. I want him to arc over, move his rib, then I can ask him to step through and make him use his feet and use his body. Once he gets soft left and right, I’ll put a little speed on it and arc him off the cow.”
Be cognizant of your hands and that you’re using a firm pull with steady pressure rather than a sharp jerk, not releasing the pressure until the horse gives in both its body and face.
“If he pulls on you, you pull back until he gives,” Lemond said. “If they make a minor mistake, I’ll use minor pressure to correct them, but you have to stay pretty firm. I’m not jerking; I’m holding. I’m not letting him pull me anywhere. People think a horse is breaking at the poll or being soft because his head’s down, but if he’s pulling me down, then no, he’s not. You can’t ride one that’s leaning on you, no matter what his face is doing. I’ll hold him until he gets soft anywhere I put him, then I can release and it’s on my terms. He learns that whenever he comes to the pressure, he’s going to get released.”
Find a positive note to quit on, and above all, Lemond makes sure to end at a time when the horse listened to him, paid attention to the cow and respected his cues.
“If he rated the cow but then rooted on my hand, you have to be very aware of those things, because if I quit him with him pulling on my hand, I have a problem next time I ride him,” Lemond said. “I’m trying to find a spot to quit and get off this cow — I want him to rate the cow and stop on his own. I’m not looking to cut, no big moves, I just want him to rate the cow, balance on the cow, and stop.”
This article was originally published in the December 2022 issue of Barrel Horse News.
