Reform School:
Bad Cows Gone Good

Sandy Collier doesn't rely on the luck of the draw to win fence work.

She uses all her resources to size up the cow and get it to cooperate -

whether it wants to or not.

Story by Katie Tims
Photos by Deanne Sparks

In a reined cow horse contest, the cow makes all the difference. That Hereford or Charlois cross can make or break your whole deal. But whether you draw a turbo model with its tail stuck straight up, or a slower, more docile version, the game is still the same. You must size up the situation in a heartbeat and use every trick of the trade to make that cow work for you, says NRCHA champion Sandy Collier.

Although a rider never really knows what's in store until the unwilling subject is pushed through the gate - whether you draw a fast little Ferrari or a gutless four-cylinder - positioning and attitude can strongly affect the run. How you handle that bovine, asserts Collier, can make a bad cow good or keep a good cow going.

By moving her horse up into position at the cow's ear, Collier gets the heifer to give up the game. At this point, it's important not to override the ground or the cow so that everyone remains upright.

Watch the Cattle
In the fence work there are no "picks." You take what you get unless the judge whistles a reprieve. If it's a snaffle bit event that includes a herd work, you might have some foresight from watching the cattle being cut. But at most cow horse events, the cattle come out one time. That's it - no herd surveillance here. Still, watching the behind-the-scenes preparation and your fellow competitors can provide crucial clues to the cattle, Collier said.

"There is a whole variation of personalities, but you'll see trends." she explained. "There may be common factors within the herd, such as age, breed, conditioning, and prior experience, that - when coupled with external dynamics such as weather and ground - will influence cattle behavior. That doesn't mean there won't be a couple renegades," she warned.

"Let the open class be the test pilot." Collier advises non-pros. "There's plenty of opportunity to watch the cattle and see what they're going to be like. There are lots of things that cattle tend to do as a group."

Watching cows jump into riders' saddles down the fence or race around the pen could leave the the most seasoned non-pro shaking in his crepe soles.

"You get to see all the terrible things that happen to everybody else," Collier laughed. "But I definitely think the good outweighs the bad."

Knowledge can be power. For Collier, more information means less apprehension.

"If you watch the cattle, yeah, it might make you nervous because you're thinking of all the things that could go wrong," she said. "But at least you'll ge familiar with a group of cattle that are probably going to be somewhat uniform throughout the day. Armed with that information, there's a better chance you'll make better judgment calls."

Round One
But until the gate opens, the rider has no real knowledge as to what kind of cow is in store. "If the cattle come out of the chute really wile, which sometimes they do, you might want to be farther back in the arena to give it more air. Give it an opportunity to settle down and find that back wall before you approach it," Collier suggests. "If the cattle have been quiet and pretty docile, you could probably be up closer when you nod for your cow."

But what if the rider is up close when the cow shoots wildly into the arena?
"That's an oops!" Collier admitted. "But you can usually see the cow moving up to the gate, and if it already has its tail up over its back and is banging around, then you can be moving back. There are usually a few seconds of 'heads-up' time in there.
When you want to make a scorching fence run, a lethargic cow can be the kiss of death. To increase the action, Collier drops back to apply more pressure to try to get the cow running. Be aware, however, that the tempo can change in a hurry.
What happens in the first couple of seconds after the cow comes through the gate will help the judges decide whether that cow is a keeper. Collier quickly steps up to box, explaining that it's important to do what's necessary to encourage action in a slow cow or to calm down a wild one.

"It's going to veer one way or the other when it sees you horse," Collier warns. "You need to give some good ground and be on the ball."

some cows are so bad the judges will immediately blow the whistle for a new one.

"If you are in the right place at the right time, and the cow still won't honor the horse and blows right on through, you're going to get a new cow," Collier said. "But you can't expect a new cow if you haven't gotten over there and made the effort to stop that cow. If you're just standing there flat-footed, they can't give you a new cow - even if it runs right by."

When there's no whistle, the show goes on, and it's up to the rider to reach that bad bovine a thing or two about behaving.

"If you have one that comes out and challenges your horse and you get it stopped, then it tries you the other way and yo give ground and get it stopped again - you've taught that cow to honor your horse," Collier explained. "Then when you run down the fence, there's a really good change that it will act right."

If not, then the cow gets the upper hand.

"When you've been late and behind instead of getting ahead and trapping it, then there's a really good chance that when you go down the fence, it's not going to respect you, and it'll be a horse race," the trainer warned.

"Then there are the ones that don't even look at you and they just run wall to wall. They aren't gong to get any better," she cautioned, "so you might as well just go down the fence. You're going to run fast, but if you just continue to run back and forth like that, the cow just gets numb and dumber."

On the flip side, when the cow strolls out the gate and ignores the horse, it's time to become proactive.

"You know, we train on the slow ones at home a lot," Collier quipped. "But I tell my students that it's a two-point penalty for boring the judge at the show.

Accelerate
Moving the cow out of the box and lining her out on the fence is usually the performance clincher - or destroyer. "It's a very subjective thing, deciding when to go down the fence," Collier said. "You either go when your trainer

Collier prepares to move her cow out of the box and down the fence by steering it toward the corner.

tells you to, or when you feel like your horse is dialed in and you've got your cow's attention. You make the judgment call. Right, wrong, good or bad, once you do it, you have to go."

Contrary to what may seem like common sense, Collier said there's no way to accurately predict how is cow is going to run.

Collier's horse is squeezing this heifer like a tube of toothpaste, which makes it more difficult to get the cow to stop and turn. The horse is so close that the cow can't see any daylight behind it, so it will just keep traveling down the fenceline.

I've seen cattle that were so slow and stupid in the box, and when they go into fifth gear down the fence," she said, "I don't know what happens, but it does a lot. Then there are the ones that are quick moving in the box, and when you line them out down the fence they don't run that hard."

Before she makes the transition from the box to the fence, Collier already knows which fence she's going to use. she's watching the cows and is unaware of which fence they prefer. If she's going down the right side, then collier punches the cow towards the far side of the pan, giving herself more than enough room to set the stage.

"I'll try to drive the cow to the left of the center so that I can fall in right behind it and leave from the middle of the arena, driving through the corner and going up the fence," she said. "I put the horse's nose right at the cow's flank."

Keeping steady momentum is key to a smooth transition. "You want to drive them through the corner so there is not a big change of speed," Collier advised. "If you drive a cow into the corner, then it has lots of options. You don't want to give the cow options; this is not a democracy. Yo want to put the cow right where you want it and get the job done."

Adjustments are made, depending on the cow's demeanor and the horse's ability. Collier explained that a rider can fall back and drive the cow to make it go faster and increase the degree of difficulty. Or a rider can just run alongside the cow.

"If you leave with the cow, you're not going to have to run to catch up," she said. "If it does decide to come off the fence, you're right there, whereas if you leave behind the cow, you don't have any options and the cow is controlling the run, not you."

A cow that moves and then sets up in the box, Collier said, generally has a sensitive set of brakes.

"There's a really good chance that when you go down the fence you're not going to have to get to the cow's head to turn it," she said. "That particular tendency carries through the boxing, down the fence and when you go to circle; you'll barely get up around the cow's head and it will shut down. If I box one like that, then I make a note to myself that I'm not going to want to get to its ribcage before I hot the middle marker, because if I do, it's probably going to shut down. I also want to be thinking ahead so that I don't override it."

When a cow hits unexpected overdrive down the fence, a rider cannot do much except run fast and keep the horse straight.

"One thing that can really make things a lot worse is if your horse starts to drop his shoulder and leans toward the cow," Collier warned. "If that happens, you won't get a turn and you'll go around the far corner. You can make a good cow really stupid that way.

"If you're leaning on that cow, the cow doesn't see that space behind you and him" she explained. "It makes the cow feel like it's being squeezed like a tube of toothpaste. So instead of turning, the cow will keep going right on around the corner. If your horse is straight or its nose is tipped slightly toward the cow, the cow will see open space behind it and turn."

One goal that Collier keeps in her bag of tricks is teaching the horse to leave the box on the lead away from the cow. At home she reinforces the technique by stopping and reprimanding her horse if he changes to the inside (cow side) lead during the run-down. Then she starts over again and keeps up the routine until the horse learns to hold the outside lead throughout the maneuver. This prevents the horse from leaning. For a slow-moving cow, the rider has to encourage speed.

"A lot of times you can get behind the cow a little bit and make it run harder," Collier said. "You just need to gall back a little bit and be more in the position you were in when you were trying to drive it through the corner."

Again, Collier warned against being fooled by a cow ambling along early in the run-down.

"When it comes time to make your move and you start to get up on the cow, all of the sudden they can hit another gear and you're running a while lot harder than you thought you were going to have to," she said. "That happens a lot, so you have to be ready even if the cow looks like she's going to be slow."

Fast or unhurried, accurately rating the cow is imperative to maintain control.

"This way, when you pass your cow, you're only going 1 or 2 miles an hour faster than the cow; you didn't have o come from behind and pass going 5 or 10 miles an hour faster than the cow," collier said.

This prevents penalties assessed for going past the cow when turning it.

"During the whole fence run, you should be close enough to rope the cow," Collier continued. "You should never be farther away than that. The judge wants to see you directing the run, orchestrating what that cow is going to do the whole way through, and this is tough, especially for beginners."

Of course, spoiled cattle can spell disaster.

"What a cow does once, it will do over and over," Collier asserted. "If a cow wants to come off the fence at a certain spot and make a loop and come up the fence again, you better plan on that cow trying to do it a second time."

If the cow tried her ploy and the rider was Johnny-on-the-spot, the learning begins.

"If the cow starts to come off the fence and you're right there, it probably won't try it again," Collier said.

Collier encourages riders to make that first run-down a lengthily process.

"It's a good idea to get a long way down the fence before you turn the cow the first time," she suggested. "The farther down the fence you can get without going past the penalty markers, the better."

The benefits, according to Collier, include a good, long run, which the judges like to see; a cow with the air taken out of it, so you might have to make no more than a second turn; and more arena room in which to negotiate the cow should it come off the fence after the turn.

She adds that riders need to gauge their run-down. If the cows are sluggish and the ground is heavy, it's probably not a good notion to push one too far down the fence.

Often, riders incorporate a loop to sustain control over a determined cow that pops off the fence during the turn.

"If you have to make a loop, stay close enough to be influencing force to make the cow get back to the fence," collier explained. "You can't just lope around and waif for the cow to find the fence again."

Knowing when to make a loop is important too. "If the cow comes off the fence at more than a 45-degree angle, then you're probably going to want to make a loop," she said. "If it doesn't come off that much, it's better to drive it back to another fence and shape it up for another turn--if you can.

"The loop can be a really smart thing to do to make sure you have control and get good turns to the right and to the left," she said. "If you maintain control the whole time, it just makes the cow better. You've shown the cow you can control it. If it comes off the fence and you're all over the place trying to shape it back, the cow knows it's got you."

It's best to avoid the extra travel if you can, Collier said, and it might be hard to make a 75 run, but she added that she would never be afraid to use a loop.

Circle 'Em Up
Just as the rest of the run, the control trick is as simple as crawling into the cow's mind and seeing the situation from her point of view. Remember, all she wants to do is get away from the horse and back to her buddies. So when circling, consider where the rest of the herd is standing.

In a typical fence work, the cow makes one turn, comes back and is turned again. It is then running away from the end of the arena again. Should the rider to in for one more change before circling?

"Most of the time, a third turn is a good idea," Collier said. "Unless you have cattle that aren't running that hard and the ground is pretty good and your horse is a good circler, it's generally a good idea to make a third turn.

"It lets you get back to the middle of the arena and keeps you away from the end where they let the cow out," she explained. "If you circle your cow after the second turn, you're down at the end where they let the cow out. That's not optimum because the cow knows where the gate is. If your get somewhere near the middle of the arena, you have a lot more options and you've created a situation where you're not going to have to run as hard."

Bovine psychology dictates that the cow goes where the horse isn't. So when pressing the cow off the fence, opt for the shortest route.

"When you turn the cow, instead of jumping out to trap it to go down the fence again, turn it and just sort of stay between the cow and fence," Collier recommended.

In most cases, the cow moves willingly toward the open space--the exception being when the cow is worn down. "Once a cow gets tired of the game, it hugs the wall," Collier explained. "When that happens, you need to circle right then. If you don't and the cow goes back to the wall, you're going to lose working advantage points."

When the cow comes off the fence, be ready to circle either direction. Remember the valuable concept of control versus chasing. Remaining flexible allows the rider to maintain position.

"If the horse tries to circle the cow and pushes at the ribs, it can make a cooperative cow stupid and you won't get it circled," Collier contends. "You also risk knocking one down, which is a three-point penalty."

So Set Your Sights
"If you aim for the cow's ear, that's a point where you can actually push it around. That gives a really good focus point and keeps your horse from dropping in, because you're focused on getting up and around the cow."

But don't forget cows have some of the best anti-lock brakes on the market.

"Be aware that when you ride up on a cow to make it circle, there is a chance the cow will shut down and you have to be ready to get your horse stopped and repositioned so you don't overshoot the cow," Collier said. "You can tell what the cow is going to do by watching its ears and its eyes."

Then, she cautioned with a laugh, "Be sure not to over-ride the ground. You earn a while lot more points if you both stay on your feet."

Practice Makes Better

There's no abbreviated course for leaning the ins and outs of cow manners. Like most skills, practice is the only thing that makes you better.

"Those choices in the arena are split-second decisions, and they only start to happen naturally when you've done it a lot at home," Collier said.

Encouraging a cow to act right or turning a stubborn animal into a willing subject is an art--something only a few master and none succeed at all the time. One thing for sure, when the rider comes into the ring, he has to be ready to work a cow, not to let the cow work him.

"You have to have confidence," Collier urged. "If the cow is being dictated to, they know it--if not, they know that, too."

But there are bad days and bad cows. Learn form those moments, Collier said, and come back loaded for bear the next time.

"When you have a fast cow and you can't do anything about it, then you lap the arena and do the queen wave as you go by," she advised with a laugh. "That just happens. But you learn, donate your money and go on to the next horse show."