Originally Posted by Shropshirerosie
What does gathering the cavvy mean, and why were you holding a flag?
And ummmm what were you trying to do?
A cavvy is a bunch of ranch horses....like a gaggle of geese or a murder of crows.
Ranches that run a lot of saddle horses together gather them horseback like you would cattle to catch fresh horses to ride for the day. When training horses to come in we would use a flag or lunge whip...granted the horse that your riding is broke enough to handle it! Lol! Gathering a cavvy is a bunch easier if you have two people, one to lead and one to bring up the rear. Those horses will "latch on" to the lead horse and follow them into the corrals and the guy in the drag is to make sure they come running. We never let them trot or walk in. That is usually when they get to thinking they can peel off or get bad habits. But doing what Ian was doing is tough, if I had to wrangle by myself I would shake out a loop and bring them hard and fast! Then you let them rest/settle in the corrals, they learn where they have to go, rest and get grained. After that its pretty easy to get them in.
Its pretty funny now since we are in Texas and our horses are on small pasture compared to before, but if you trot out on a horse they will latch on and follow you around the pasture because they think they are being wrangled. Its a good thing to teach horses I think. They get used to running with loose or bucking horses while being ridden instead of acting like idiots. Posted via Mobile Device