Is it important to have a relaxed horse during a competition?

A point to make is you see some barrel racing horses that may be really good. They walk out calm and comfortable. Then it's time to go and they run through their routine and then they come back and they turn it off and they're calm and they're comfortable again. Then you see these other ones that are so juiced up. I don't know. Parents tie that poor little girl like a monkey and she goes through the whole thing and then everybody has to calm that horse down afterwards. I've been asked to speak at race tracks because people have started to learn that a relaxed horse is actually a faster horse than a tense anxious horse because the muscles don't bunch up as much and sprinters as well. You know those guys who really run fast, they're actually relaxed and they're just taking these nice strides one after another. I think we do everybody a service by the rider being able to be comfortable and the horse being able to be comfortable and the more you can get in harmony in that synchrony going then you're not in your horse's way. Then you guys are talking the same language and that's kind of what we're hoping to do.

~ Dr. Steve Peters.

Now let's hear from Mantz Creek Horses... Great horsemanship goes far beyond what you do when you ride. We personally know Annette and Kevin and have been to their ranch. We've seen their progress. We know their experience and we see especially the result of a great breeding program and excellent horsemanship.

Visit MantzCreekHorses.com.

Now here's more from Dr. Steve Peters on the question, do the horses have to see us as the leader?

Not really because that's one way that you know that people for years have talked about this. The funny thing is, there's different kinds of leaders. There may be that broodmare, that rules the roost around all the horses in the pasture, but you take that broodmare away from it, everybody else and it gets anxious and nervous and its identity is back taking care of the herd and they're all over the place. So a horse knows that we are not a horse. They know we are a predator. Really what we're looking for is more of a relationship than leadership. Leadership, yeah, in terms of you have to be the director and I think that may be a better term is that you know people think we have to teach so much to a horse. Horses know how already how to trot, how to gallop, how to side pass, they know how to do all that stuff. They can already do it. All we're doing is directing that energy.

For more from Dr. Peters and this full interview, visit horsemanscorner.com.

In a past interview, the late Howard Hale once asked Ricky if he had any trouble keeping all those horses sound.

We got to keep 50 riders going and then the condition is that we have to ride these horses in whether it's outside or in that feed yard anywhere it's going to be tough to keep them sound. But no, we don't. But as many horses as we have, the kind of lameness that we have are very, very minor. We don't see a lot of long term joint trouble or that kind of stuff. If anything, it's little things and it's short term.

One thing that we do at our place is all the shoeing is in-house. I brought a friend of mine in from Oklahoma named Tommy Kilgore. He's been one of the best things for my life as far as knowledge on a horse. He's been really a big deal for me in understanding movement and understanding true soundness in a horse. And I brought him in and I've got two people that I work with, two younger guys that are mid-20s and they've taken into the shoeing. So all of that is done in-house.

Having that and being able to trim these horses and balance them the way we want to balance them from an early age now all the way up into this five and six year old range when we start marketing those horses to the public. We have a really good idea what this horse is, what his soundness is, and we understand it at above normal level. So we give these horses the best shock we possibly can. And if we end up having a horse that's lame, it's usually a chronic thing that was going to happen anyway most of the time.

More great information from Horse Trainer, Ricky Quinn. From what I've gathered, the whole program you have there Ricky starts with the halter breaking.

Absolutely. You bring those babies in, you ween them off their mom. First thing we do is toss a little rope around their neck, their foot, but just toss them that rope on there, start and roll the hind quarters in the beginning and allow them all the horses to learn how to come off of the feel to understand that that rope can touch them and it's not the end of the world and just start that mind kind of coming your direction. Working off of pressure, understanding a release of pressure, starting to get them to hunt that release and start drawing that mind in the direction you want it to go.

What age do you start working them?

They're born in May and they start getting halter broke sometime in the November timeframe. We'll be done halter breaking hopefully end of the December timeframe, take a couple months. Once we go through that process, they get bumped out. We'll bring them back in as two-year-olds, they have a crew of guys that come in December. They'll start anywhere from right around 40 head of colts in December as twos, put a handful of rides on them, they get kicked out. So then the threes from the previous year come in at the same time and then from then on they really kind of get camped on as three-year-olds and they get ridden and more moving forward with them into the five and six-year-old mark. So as a three-year-old, three and a half-year-old, they're getting used more, we start introducing to the feed yard, start introducing them to the outside ranching and then really by the time they're five and six they're pretty mature and they're working full-time.

Horse trainer Ricky Quinn with some great information. Find that full interview on Horsemanscorner.com.

Here's Horse Trainer Ricky Quinn with an infamous question that is asked often.

I get questions all the time, "Ricky, in your opinion what does it take to make a bridal horse?" I just kind of shrug my shoulders now where I am in my life and I'm like I don't know the answer to that. I don't, I mean because if you go and you talk to my friend Buck about it, he's pretty sophisticated in what he's looking for to make that horse a bridal horse in the movements that he wants, right? And then if you go talk to somebody who is a trail rider, they may not need to do a honch is in on the trail and if you go back to Brannaman and say well what do you think about a honch is in on the trail? You'll just kind of say well that just means your horse knows more, right? He's more of a sophisticated trail horse. Some people don't really necessarily want to go that far. So just being a good, solid, gentle horse that understands his jobs. And around about way what I'm saying, I love my foundation and I believe every horse needs to understand where it's tying feet are and how to work them, where it's front feet are and how to work them. They all need to walk trout lope on a loose range. They need to come down through the transitions on that loose range end of the stop. I think they should understand things like ropes and tarts so that they can handle some pressure in the world and just have a really, really good, solid foundation.

Horse Trainer Ricky Quinn.

Once you get to be a cowboy there should be a lot of pride there. You should believe in yourself. You got to have confidence to give confidence to the horse to be able to move a cow that doesn't want to be moved. You got to think something of yourself. But sometimes in that world too it can be really hard to change. There's no difference in anywhere. And that change is really, really hard. But some people might try it and say, oh yeah, I'm open to learning when the new wears off it comes down to they weren't as interested as you thought. And I think really the people that I work with are very, very, very open. And they're learning so much and they're just really, really excelling because they're very open. And really there's kind of a deal where I work that if you're not open to this we're not interested in your work in here.

And the other thing that I've got in my favor is the crew that I work with, they really do believe in it. And so when somebody new comes in that's kind of off the mark a little bit and they can kind of see through these people and those people really aren't into it and they're there for other reasons. It's really not even me that discourages that person. It's the rest of the crew. Because the rest of the crew's work so hard to get the death lost down and to get these cattle handling a certain way or to get these horses away, right? The people that are part of what we call the steerhead part of the place get a lot of these horses going and then they've got to go to the feed yard. You know, we want that transition going into the feed yard. We want everybody working in the feed yard the same way that we're working at the arena and out on the ranches. And so that it's a seamless transition for the horses.

Join the late Howard Hale as we listen in to the long version of an archived interview with an outstanding horseman from Nebraska, Ricky Quinn.