A Manifesto and Warning

I've been hanging out on various fora, Facebook groups, and mailing lists having to do with horses in general and reined horses in particular for some time. Recently, I have come to notice that there are many folks who are interested in traditional Californio style, but very few sources of information that have to do with real rancho practices.  Quite often, when I present such  information, but it isn't what happens in a competition or in some trainer's clinic, I get responses ranging from skepticism to derision. So, herewith something of a manifesto for the blog.

Warning: You Aren't Going to Like This Blog

You've probably found your way to this little bunch of scribblings because you have some interest in bridle horses, spade bit horses, hackamore horses, or something else that falls in with Californio-style horsemanship. You likely have some interest or affection or obsession with working cattle, fine horses, maybe some California history, maybe you are just looking to become a better horsehandler. Perhaps you have a passion for hippology, and you are happy to learn anything that might benefit the horses you ride. One way or another, you've poked around in the back eddies and sidestreams of the Internet and come upon this blog, because of some pointer that said this is a work on the Traditional California School of horsemanship.

I should tell you now, you aren't going to like this blog.

Oh, I don't mean that you won't find anything worth reading, or that the work won't teach you things both practical and esoteric about the art of rawhide, wet saddle blankets, and corral dust. It's just not likely to reinforce anything you've come to believe about horsehandling, riding, history, or even your own comportment (those first two ain't even the same thing, by the way).  You see, this isn't a work about winning a NRCHA contest, or promoting so-called stock horse breeds, or buying into any of the crap that passes for modern-day riding. It won't support the idea that any style of riding (oh my GAWD, not even English!) is less than perfect for its purposes. If you think that anything just about any of the current crop of Western clinicians or World Champion trainers espouses trumps a thousand years of practical refinement, get yourself out of here and go sign up for the local circuit's High Point Buckle series.

You just aren't going to like it if any of these things are among your sacred cows:

• Every horse can slide--or spin.
• Modern Quarter Horses are best-suited to reined work.
• "Using your seat" is some sort of black art practiced only by heathen dressagistas.
• You think "snaffle bit" and "traditional California method" are phrases that go together.
• You think a spade bit is an instument of punishment (you may want to revisit high school physics, in this case..)
• You think "canter" and "lope" are different gaits.
• You don't mind that your saddle seat is so long you could hold a square dance on the space between the front of your legs and the gullet.

What you will find here is the fruit of 60 years' experience with realranch riding. You will learn what the concept of balance is to the Californio, and why it is key to making a reined horse. You wil learn what conformation to look for in a working horse, and why it is desirable. You will learn what disposition lends itself to making a bridle horse.  You will see things from the viewpoint of those who have worked cows for a living, long before there was a NRCHA, Cow Palace, or even an American Quarter Horse Association.  You will think about trotting and walking your horse differently, and you will look at Lippizans and Arabs and Morgans with new eyes.  You will know what a horse's bridle bit can tell you about his disposition. You may even look at how your own dispositon affects your horse.

So, be forewarned. If you ride along with me on this little circle, you are going to jump down cutbanks, try to hunt cows in tule fog, and do a little brushpopping in the manzanita. It should be interesting at least and maybe even fun, but knowing  a reining pattern won't help and I guarantee  you will occaisonally think I'm loca, uninformed, or smoking something I shouldn't.

So--want to take a ride the way the viejos did? 

On the Grooming of the Reined Horse

For a very long time, the working ranch horse of California has sported a very specific style of grooming, namely with a long, natural mane, and a “pulled” or shaped tail that ended at the bottom of the hocks. The only exceptions to this rule were for Morgans and Arabians.

Like much else that goes along with working horses for a living, there was a practical purpose for this.

Unlike modern show horses who a subject to hours of professional grooming, protective bandaging and tail bagging, and carefully controlled exposure to the environment, a buckaroo’s horse had to work  in all kinds of mess, uncertain schedules, and varying lighting. I’m most familiar with the working conditions in Merced and Mariposa Counties—well, a little Fresno, thrown in, too—which meant working in sloughs, tule stands, alkali dust, stands of star thistle, tarweed, and manzanita brush. A single day’s work could put balls of alkali mud and snarls of various stickers, twigs, and burrs in a horse’s  long tail.

Because of the summer heat, it also meant days that saw us a-horseback at 6 AM after feeding at 4, and  that stretched to sundown, which could be 8 PM or later. Even with a dinner break at noon, and a siesta til 3 on the hottest days, that’s a lot of hours. It was a heck of a lot more practical to shape up a horse’s tail so as to keep it out of most of the stuff that would otherwise snarl it up, rather than stand around brushing, braiding, bagging, and washing tails.

Not to say that the horses were ungroomed. They were always curried and brushed well, and had their backs rinsed off after a day’s work. Yes, there were emergencies when they got a cowboy curry job (one takes the corner of the saddle blanket, knocks off any burrs or big dirt clumps that might be found on the saddlebed, and then saddles up). While it is a good idea when washing down a hot horse to start with the legs, then work through the underline, the head and finally the back, working horses were always walked that last mile back to where they would be unsaddled. It was thus safe to simply rinse down their backs, and that practice was well-suited to a country where there were sometimes only water troughs to draw a bit of wash water from. Not to mention a certain percentage of horses who weren’t fond of showers.

Traditionally, the horse’s tails were shaped by “pulling,” which is pretty much exactly like it sounds. There was a fair bit of skill to this, which amounted to selecting the longest strands of each part of the tail and basically yanking out two or three hairs at a time until the desired length and shape were achieved. Savvy buckaroos stretched this process out over a few days so as not to sore the horse’s tail. 

Although I still think a shaped tail is practical, I prefer to achieve it by barbering the tail to the appropriate length. Being tender headed myself, I can only imagine how uncomfortable pulling must be for the horse. 

As for the natural manes, that’s mostly because it was just what the Californios found pleasing to the eye, although again there was probably a certain element of timesaving. Today, on horses with very long or thick manes, I like to put them in an Andalusian  or running braid on hot days, or windy days, or if I need to keep them from tangling in reins, lead ropes, catch ropes, etc. It is not strictly traditional, but it is easy and quick to do and will stay for several days. There's a good example of a practical Andalusian braid here. I also cut a tiny bridlepath, maybe 2 inches long at most, to accommodate the hackamore hanger or crown piece of the bridle. Done right, you can’t even tell there’s a bridlepath when the horse is rigged up. It’s strictly speaking not traditional but I do believe it contributes to the horse’s comfort.

One other point of grooming: I never saw a ribbon of any color tied in a horse’s tail to indicate that he was prone to kick, bite, strike, or hum arias. It would’t be of much use in the early morning before dawn or after dark, not to mention nobody wants to run around finding a red or yellow or whatever color ribbon at zero dark thirty. The convention instead was to ride as if all horses, including the one you were on, would kick or bite. In other words, pay attention and don’t crowd the other guy’s horse. It’s a good approach, because in fact every horse kicks, but they differ in the degree of aggravation it takes to make them do it. 

A List of LInks

The Cup That Cheers

What does a blog about tea and costuming have to do with reined horses? Excellent articles on clothing in rancho era California, which includes interesting material on riders' clothing and horse rigging. There's also quite a lot of information on life in that time and place.

https://the-cup-that-cheers.blogspot.com/2015/06/clothing-californio-part-1-18th-century.html

Into History

Blog by artist, illustrator, and historian David Rickman. Very interesting articles on life in Early California, with some illustrations of interest to horsemen. I particularly enjoyed this article about Zorro.

https://davidwrickman.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-trouble-with-zorro-part-1-curse-of.html

Starting Out

Dancing in the Dust

This blog is about the art and craft of the Spanish-influenced style of horsemanship its practitioners call reinsmanship, sometimes referred to as "Californio style." It is not to be confused with reining, an arena sport that bears the same relationship to reinsmanship that a show hunter does to a field hunter. It is a sophisticated practice that is a direct descendant, and near replica, of the Spanish style known as doma vaquera. It is more than just a method of riding--it is also a set of traditions that touch on everything from the way one dresses to behavior and etiquette.

The blog title comes from my first impression of watching a finished Californio bridle horse work, long ago in a San Joaquin Valley summer. It was like watching the most graceful dance through a haze of corral dust and heat shimmer. I have never seen anything more enthralling, and I am still moved by the chance to watching this most practical of ballets.  It is my hope this blog will help continue the practice of this lovely rancho dance.

How These Writings Came to Be

I've been considering  the ideas for this collection of writing for a long time. Perhaps it would be closer to the truth to say the ideas have been poking at me for the last three decades.

I've watched the art of Californio reinsmanship change with the changes that time and history inevitably bring to all human works. From the 1950s to the early 21st Century, the effects of dwindling large ranches, show-ring breeding of so-called stockhorse breeds, the shoehorning of Texas snaffle bit work into reined cowhorse competition, and the ever-increasing pace of modern life have come to bear on el estilo Californio.  In many instances, these changes were not for the better; they overshadowed, and sometimes destroyed, traditional practices that benefited both horse and rider.

I have never thought of myself of much as a horsehand. Now, I'm not without knowledge and skill: what I know about horses and reining would fill up Lake Tahoe. It's just that what I don't know would fill up the Pacific Ocean. When you grow up surrounded by people whose understanding would fill up the Gulf of Mexico, the Carribean Ocean, and maybe the Mediterrean, you gain a sense of what a true horseman can do.

As I've rambled down life's trails, I have come to have an even greater appreciation of those who taught me. I feel that they lent me their knowledge to share, they didn't give it to me to keep. So, in the spirit of gratitude,  I have decided to begin this collection of writing.

What You Will Find Here

I will be recording the traditional practices and knowledge I learned from master reinsman who were also working cowhands. Whenever possible, I will explain the reasoning behind these and I'll try to make it clear whether that's the traditional reasoning or something I've worked out from my own years of study and practice. I'll let you know if something amounts to an old wives' (or old buckaroo's) tale as well.

That all means I might write about anything from a horse's conformation to the etiquette of trail rides and why Californians wear chinks instead of chaps.  You might learn a little about California colonial life, how to barbecue a side of beef, and how to shoe a horse if you are working in flint footing. Bitting and the action of the hackamore will most certainly come up. 

Coming Up

Next time I'll be posting a little bit about my teachers and their learning path. I feel it is important for those of us who aspire to reinsmanship to honor our teachers. After all, where would we be without them? Afoot, that's where!