XO Cowhorses

    Van Batchelder, Trainer
Fallon, Nevada

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Why send your horse to the XO…

The basic philosophy at the XO is to teach the horse to follow his nose.  All of the training is based around putting a horse in position to best work a cow, whether it is cutting, working cowhorse or roping.

The first week of “boot camp” is spent entirely on ground manners, sacking out, saddling, bridling, driving and biting up.  When I climb in the saddle for the first time I know the colt is ready to ride because of proper ground work.  Of course, it doesn’t mean a horse won’t try me every now and then but I also know I can usually coax them thru the rough spots and show them there is nothing to be scared of.

As soon as I have some of the initial nervousness out of the colt, I take them out of the training pen and into the 120’ round pen.  Here the colt has a sense of the open spaces to come and can really stretch his legs.  This is the prelude to their first “outside” ride.

Location:  One of the benefits of my training location is the access to miles of desert riding.  In this part of Nevada, we have deep, sandy ground with sagebrush, tumbleweeds and the like, ideal for taking a colt thru the paces.  Once a one-rein stop is established, the colt is taken out into the desert, usually following another horse for security.  This is the beginning of many years of saddle time so we don’t make a big deal of the first 60 days…we expose them to the routine of getting saddled, standing quietly for mounting, walking out to start the day, jogging thru the brush and being soft in the face.  Some horses come to it very easy, some take a little more time.  There is no hurry, but rather consistency in the exposure so the horse has every opportunity to make good decisions.

Our training program is individually geared to your colt.  
Each colt is different in its mental maturity.  To help the colt mature mentally, I expose him to something different each day…maybe something as simple as leading to the arena a different way or loading up in the trailer for a ride at the lake.  The point is to challenge the young horse more mentally than physically.  As the colt becomes strong enough to handle the physical work, I know I have given him enough mental challenge and exposure for him to make the right decisions…at least to the best of his ability.

I have become a big believer in learning from mistakes and I think a horse can learn the same way, so I spend a lot of time allowing for those mistakes.  Rather than constantly showing the horse where he must be, I let him make his mistake and then he sees how much work it is to do it incorrectly.  These “situations” create the opportunity for him to think for himself.

For example, after a colt has been exposed to cattle a few times I will stop directing him and just point him to the cow on a loose rein.  Invariably he will go running by the cow…rather than stop him, I just turn him around and point him at the cow again.  Very quickly the colt learns it is much easier to stay with the cow rather than run all over the pen.
 

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XO Cowhorses
Van Batchelder, Trainer
11750 Fulkerson Road
Fallon, Nevada 89406
530-520-2499
 

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