Mixing Cattle and Horses

I was at work last week and sometimes feel rather like a valet parking person... for horses. One of our clients had just finished his ride and I took his horse off him and started to untack while he got the trusty animal some snacks that he'd left in the car.

Upon his return, I was amused to once again have someone comment on my age. For a 22 year old, rising 23, it's funny when people question "So, you got a day off school today and wanted to play with some horses, ey?" Where I instruct, some mothers don't consider me looking old enough to drive - I'm gonna having fun when running my property convincing people of my age and experience!

I got chatting with the client and he mentioned how he was having a few lessons before heading off on a Cattle Drive coming up very shortly. Curious, I found out from him that it's an annual event that people can take part in for five days at a time.


The drive starts in South Australia and works in around four parts, a certain number of people trek the cattle to a previously planned location and then do a swap, after the 5 days of travel, another group takes over the large head of cattle and moves them onto the next location and so forth until the whole trek has been carried out. Sounds very interesting and a great chance to see some awesome scenery in Australia's bush!

Looking at the site, it states the ride "...offers people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds, the opportunity to re-live the glory years of Australia's outback cattle drovers by riding alongside real working people, moving a real herd through real outback wilderness."

Check out the Annual Great Australian Cattle Drive at http://www.goway.com/cattledrive/.

"Heels down and head up, knees down and heart up, ankles close to your horse's side, elbows close to your own."

Jackaroo Course, NSW, Oz

So I love looking for any sort of course/holiday/work that I can do with horses that is different to what I already know... and gives me a chance to check out another place! Stumbled across this one the other day... not that I remember what I was looking for:

http://www.leconfield.com/

Tis a Jackaroo/Jillaroo 'school' set over five days that covers grooming, riding, natural horsemanship (Pat Parelli style), horseshoeing, whip cracking, lassooing, mustering sheep, barrel racing, sheep health, shearing, pasture improvement, fencing/yard building, mustering cattle, yarding and drafting cattle, using working dogs and more.

The school is run at Leconfield on a 5000 acre property in New South Wales and those that run the course offer the possibility of helping you find work afterwards if this is your desire.

So, once I'm back home from Ireland and have had enough of the racehorses for awhile, I think I'll check this out... just hope I'm up to it! Has anyone done anything like this before?

"Riding: The art of keeping a horse between you and the ground."