///////// CIRCLE UP where the worst case scenario is that I’ve got to kick and make that horse go farther ahead, but I’m kicking rather than pulling,” said Crawford. “I’ve trained that rate in; I’ve trained that stop in. It doesn’t matter whether I’m cutting or whether I’m going down the fence, I will run up alongside that cow and if that cow signals, I’ll hit that stop and I’ll let that cow go on. By doing that and getting that stop deeply ingrained, then, most of the time, I don’t have that much work to do in the reining because I already have that stop kind of implanted.” Crawford emphasized that it’s just as important, if not more so, to be as vigilant about your own riding habits as it is to focus on schooling your horse. “You have to discipline yourself to watch your cow,” he said. “Most of it is
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me working on my self-discipline about watching the cow and being consistent in what I’m doing. It’s almost like I’ve got to work on myself just as much, if not more, than my horse.” Without that mindset, Crawford says it’s tough to avoid sending mixed signals to your horse and, as a consequence, shaking his confidence. “If I’m not disciplined to think that way, there’s no way my horse is going to be consistently thinking the way I want him to,” he explained. “If you’re not consistent in what you’re doing, your horse is not going to be consistent. You’ll be sending mixed signals.” In lockstep with reading cattle well, Crawford says approaching the stop, whether it’s in the reined work or the fence work, is just as important and boils down to speed and body control.
“I have to make sure there’s no lean in the run,” he said. “I don’t have to stop a lot, like run and slide, but the approach to the stop is so important— the run—just as it is running down the fence with the cow. In other words, that horse has to let me put him in position so that when the cow stops, he’s in position to turn.” In order to be able to put his horse in the correct position to turn a cow, Crawford says he has to have taught the horse to respect all of his cues. “It’s just a lot of maneuvering and handling, teaching the horse to run with the cow. I have my stop ingrained, but I am teaching the run, the softness and the steering. “You know, when he’s good in the face, good in the bridle and reads a cow, then I think you have a cow horse.”
