horses afraid of cows (long)

["RACHAEL WARD" <rward@admin.hilconet.com>]

Hi,
	I thought I would share with ya'll my experiences regarding getting Arabs,
etc. over their fear of cows.  My old LD horse was TERRIFIED of cattle for
the first year or two that I owned him and I avoided cows, goats and
everything else because I didn't know how to deal with him.  But, one day I
was forced to use him to gather steers.
	We got to the pasture and right away there's this big black steer standing
there "glaring" at him, of course he's scared to death - I could feel his
heart beating through the saddle, I'm thinking "He's gonna run away with
me!"  So, I figure he won't run away with me as fast if I aim him at the
steer!  :-)   I pointed him in ol' Blackie's direction and forced him to
approach, which he did.  It dawned on me then that maybe if he realized
that cattle were more afraid of him than he was of them, it would cure him.
 I was still about thirty yards from Blackie and my horse had decided he
was close enough, I yelled and waved my arms to spook the steer.  It
worked, the steer turned and started away from us and Robbie followed him,
nervously at first but as the day progressed and all of the steers ran away
from him - well, he figured it out.  
	BTW, this has worked for me with goats, dogs, cows, everything.  Once they
learn that _______ (whatever) will run away from them, they aren't scared
any more and get quite aggressive.  Rob was my #1 cowhorse from that day on
and was much nicer to do rides on.  In my area, rides are often conducted
right though pastures with livestock in them, so getting him over that was
a BIG help.  
	Hope this is helpful to some of you, I thought of it after reading the
Renegade Ride story.
Rachael & little Cien (Sunny's gone back home to be a roping horse again...)


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