We'll be conducting this cattle drive in an authentic fashion like the big cattle drives of the late 1800s complete with chuck wagon cooking and camping with the herd overnight. We'll spend a day gathering over 100 head of cattle on the 5,000 acre QC Ranch. Once they are rounded up and bunched we will begin moving them across the ranch. We'll stop and camp at night bedding the herd down on the "rodeer" (bed ground). Since we will be bedding down the cattle on the open range without corrals or fences we will need to assign "night hawk" shifts throughout the night for riders to circle the herd so they don't scatter during the night. This is just the way it was done on the cross country cattle drives of the 1800s. We'll experience cattle work and life on the trail just as the old time drovers of over a century ago.

The round up and cattle drive will be lots of fun and excellent preparation for you and your horse for the weekend clinic. We'll do some break-away roping along the way just for fun! Riders will arrive on Wednesday afternoon June 2nd to set up their trail camp and stay there Wednesday night to be ready to ride out early Thursday morning to the location where we'll need to gather cattle. We'll gather the cattle and drive them to our camp arriving there by late afternoon where we will bed them down. Thursday night will be a good time to sit around the campfire and be entertained by cowboy poetry, stories and hopefully some cowboy musicians. On Friday we'll move the cattle out early in order to arrive at the arena by noon to begin the "head start" individual lessons and clinic preparations on Friday afternoon.

If you are not keen on sleeping on the ground in cow camp on Wednesday and Thursday night there will be a parking area some distance and completely out of sight from the cow camp where you will be able to stay in your trailer and re-join the authentic campers the next morning.
Rider fee for the cattle drive is $475 and includes all meals from Wednesday dinner through Friday breakfast. You may sign up for either or both the June 2 - 4 Cattle Drive and the June 5 - 6 Cow Working, Beginner Roping and Ranch Horsemanship Clinic.

Six Keys to Harmony Clinic

Both you and your horse would greatly benefit from the clinic experience. Much of what you'll learn and what you'll be teaching your horse during the weekend centers around safety, communication and developing your leadership position in your relationship with your horse.

You do not need to be an experienced rider or horseperson to participate with your horse in this clinic. Beginners as well as advanced riders have found the skills taught in Ed's clinics to be very useful. His system of working with horses builds confidence in handling horses on the ground and mounted, equips owners with natural communication skills and establishes their authority as a confident, consistent leader for their horse. You will develop a better relationship with your horse- lighter responses, more respect, trust, and harmony. You will understand how your horse perceives the ideas you present to him and how to communicate with him in the way he communicates with other horses. This is all accomplished with respect for the horse by using gentle, natural horsemanship techniques.

Ed's teaching style is very clear and straight-forward, giving students a methodical and systematic approach which is easy for both horse and rider to understand and apply. His gentle methods have been proven effective by successfully working with hundreds of horses and humans. You will learn problem solving principles and teaching techniques that work with the horse's nature and instincts in order to overcome resistances and find solutions with confidence, patience and understanding.

Thirty years of working with horses in the ranching, motion picture and training industries along with Ed's formal training in 17th century classical equitation provide him with a very unique and broad basis of skills and knowledge to pass on to lesson participants. You'll learn gentle horsemanship and classical riding techniques that you've never seen before and that are not taught in any other clinics.

For more information visit http://www.eddabney.com/clinics_weekend.htm.