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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
I want to tell you what I was up to yesterday because I was in Timahoe in County Leash, about what, 25 minutes, are all of you people here from Timahoe? Keeping the side out, beautiful place. I was there yesterday. I went to a place that you probably know, the Fosse Mountain Spring Ranch. hidden down a country lane, and yesterday when I visited there, it was basking in sunshine.
It's a place, I'm going to surprise you now if you're not familiar with it, that could be straight out of Texas, because it is, to all intents and purposes, a western ranch, complete with scenic trail rides.
arena lessons all of these fabulous saddles hewn out of leather often decades ago the cowboy boots the hats and so on and it offers a unique western horse riding experience like no other that I've certainly experienced in my lifetime and I want to bring you a flavor now of how we got on
Chapter 2: What unique experiences does Fossey Mountain Spring Ranch offer?
You might think I'm in Texas. You might think I'm at Yellowstone on the ranch. I am on the ranch, but I am in County Leash. I'm in Timahoe, to be precise, at the Fosse Mountain Springs Ranch. I've got my hat, I've got my boots, I'm ready for action, but I'm not quite sure what that action is going to be. I don't know what they have in store for me. Let's find out.
How you doing? Michael O'Cumber is my name, and this is Fosse Mountain Springs in Timahoe in County Leash. I teach western riding and we also do natural horsemanship and horse psychology and all aspects of western weather. It's raining all the way up to barrel racing. The reason why we call this place Fosse Mountain Springs is because everywhere you dig a hole you get a spring.
So I have these in all the fields all along so all the horses can get in and keep cool all the time. This is Old Red. 26 years old. This here is Spot, Spotted Eagle. All the horses are called here after American Indian tribes and American Indian names. You have Ghost Dancer, we have Little Eagle, we have Sun Dancer, we have Lakota Blue and
So they're all different, but they're all gentle, all easy going. They're all so placid, aren't they? All really, really soft, gentle, easy going girls.
Chapter 3: How does the ranch environment resemble a western experience?
So anyone can do anything they like with these girls.
I have nothing for you. I should have brought you something, shouldn't I? I should have brought you something.
She's up again having her baby now shortly. Oh, she's the one who's in full. It's not about how good your skills are. Horses are in your head. It's all about your energy. And the more energy you control and soften energy and bring up energy when you want things and cool off energy when you don't, horses react really well to that.
So if I was nervous and kind of anxious, she'd know that.
Anything that you feel, she feels it. So what you have to do is learn how to control those feelings in respect to the horse so then this horse can communicate with you and they'll know where you are. Like if I come in here and I'm in bad humour, they know. If I come in here and I'm fed up, they know.
Like this morning I was up here and I was busy doing something and little Sundancer, she wouldn't leave me at all. She followed me all the way down to the house along the ditch. And I kept rubbing her and said, go on Sundancer, go back to your sisters. And she wouldn't go. There was a little thing there because I was a bit pissed off. So she knew, so she stayed with me.
And that's the way they are. They're very personable. So Michael, we've met some of the horses. What have you planned for me? Well, I'm just going to introduce you to a nice, gentle little girl up in the round pen. And I'm going to explain a little bit about horse psychology, not the horses. Just what I've been talking about here. How you communicate with horses gently and softly.
You don't need to dominate them.
Right, come on, so you're going to teach me from scratch. Come on. Yes, all from scratch. I'll figure out how to do this. Sort of.
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Chapter 4: What types of horse riding lessons are available at the ranch?
Okay, will we walk down and we'll see what we can do?
Come on, little girl.
Come on.
Sometimes these lessons take like three hours, but I won't do that. Right, come on over here, Clare. Yeah. Right. A few things that you really need to know. A horse is blind in front of her face. So they can't see anything for the first three feet. The higher the head goes, the farther away the blind spot becomes. And the lower the head goes, the closer it gets.
But they can never see their food or anything like that. They always smell it and feel it with their mouth, their nose. A horse's nose is so sensitive that you can paralyse her whole body by squeezing her nose. That's why years ago people used to use what they call a twitch. It's a short piece of wood with a rope on the end of it.
You just catch the horse's nose, pull it through and twist it really tight. creates so much pressure here and pain that you could do minor operations. So a lot of vets in there use it when they have to. But I don't let my vet use anything like that here. These girls know they can trust me and whatever's going on as I'm here they're happy to pop whatever's going on.
But a lot of places will tell you that when you squeeze the nose it releases endorphins which calms the horse. That's just a big load of let's be nice about it and make out a nice little story. Humans used rings in animals' noses for years for control. And that's just another way of controlling them. Okay? So always be gentle.
When you go to a horse, don't ever try and touch her nose because she'll just annoy you. Same as if I went up to you and said, how's it going? You'd think just like that. You know? You know, but if I touch on the shoulder, see? Neutral area. So this is the neutral area. She still just wants you, look. Yeah, she's mad at me. All the girls are now, she does all the little- That's what I hear.
So now, come back over this side now and just pet her, tell her that you're okay on both sides. Catch her by the bridle and just let her know that you're the boss, but you're gentle, all right? And you're happy and you're calm with her, because you're going to get up on her now.
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Chapter 5: How does horse psychology play a role in riding?
Okay.
So I'm going to show you a technique I show all the people how to get up and down. No matter what weight they are, they can all get up and down. Shoulders up, sit tall. Have you ever seen Clint Eastwood riding into a movie set? The only place you can be balanced is on your two hip bones equal pressure.
But I'm just worried that I'm not capable of staying in this saddle.
No, you are. You're well able. That's a good saddle and you're good. You have a good back line. Let's go again. Go on little girl. Go on. Wait for me. Now get your leg off. See the way it's hooked under her belly? Yeah. That's what's making her run. Soft legs. All in your seat. Now, isn't that much better? Because you're not hooking on. Yeah. Straight away you can see the difference.
How long did it take? Like two minutes? I just have to have the confidence that I'm not going to fall off because when I start moving out of the saddle... Now look, now you think you're doing it every day. She really loves the camera. She's following you. You must do the red hair. It's the red hair she's following. Now change hands for me. You know me house. Change hands again.
Change hands again. He'll then throw up a hill. Okay. For the few minutes that you're up there, you're doing really good.
I don't know about that. I felt like I was just sitting there.
When you see it on the video, you'll probably think, yeah, it wasn't too bad. Because you feel like you're bouncing a lot, but you're not bouncing at all. Your C is good. You're hooking one leg, but you just feel... Now, when...
right thank you cloud yeah you've gone mucker out now yeah michael did not make me muck cloud out i'm happy to report huge thanks to michael and everybody at fossy mountain spring ranch in timaho in county leach it's a really fabulous place if you get a chance to go there now i wasn't great i mean i think michael has been very kind to me but he is a great teacher and a fascinating person
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