"Cow Ponies"? Pfffft!

Fantastic Ted is a dude. I just do not want to meet you down a bridlepath. I see you are from Yorkshire are you related to the chap who used to take his bullock hunting up your way?
 
Wow, that was fantastic!

We used to run a big display and one year we had a lady come with cows that ran with a small cart behind. She did all sorts of stunts, jumping the cart with ramps and finishing up jumping a fire jump. I seem to remember the cow was quite enthusiastic and she had to have a seatbelt to stay in the cart.

I must say this ride out looks a lot more like I would enjoy (and the cow)!
 
Thanks all!

Will try to answer all questions:

Cattle are super easy to back: Ted has barely clocked up any time under saddle really, mabe a handfull of hours all told? They learn extremely quickly and once it's in, it's in. They hate repetition so usual 'schooling' has to be done verrry carefully. This vid was the first time he's been ridden in 2mo aswell, they are brilliant for that I could leave him feral for years, get him out the field and he'd be fine. They never forget.

I've tried allsorts of saddles, I start them all treeless and then once they are mature will look at treed if necessary and I can find one. I've found western tricky because there is more in contact with the back and cattle have such a straight back compared to a horse, you can't easily find a saddle without the bend in at all! With english there's just the two points in contact really and the rest is padding, this is an old english saddle which must have been flat to start with and has flattened over time so it's perfect!

No bit, equine bits don't really work for a bovine mouth IMO and the alternative is a nose bit which is similar to bull ring and which I wuld NEVER do to my animals. I've never found any form of bit necessary - if they want to take notice of me they will, if they want to completely ignore they would bit or no. Generally if they are completely ignoring there is a good reason for it and pouring pain into the equation aswell would only make it worse! If you try forcing them with pain they just shut dwn and stop altogether, they'll even lay down and play dead - they don't have the 'flight' instinct of horses the same!

I'm not related to Colin Newlove but I know people who knew him, he was local - Bugthorpe. We also have Jemmy Hirst who used to hunt a hereford bull named Jupiter in the 1700s (I think) with trained pigs instead of hounds nr. Goole so it's a veritable hotbed of saddlecattle activity! I moved here to be with my husband so it was a complete, bizarre fluke!

I do have a website and FB page but as it's for my cowhire business I can't share it! The blog isn't though: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7705518.N_Stoppard_Rose/blog

I can't take him out hacking due to the cattle movement restrictions. There are some places I can go and I am licensed to go to a few more for performances but they are few and far between. That's the major bummer with cowriding, hence me having horses aswell! 9yrs of going round my own land got a bit samey....

I've done a handy pony class, little dressage test is next...

He's very smooth - you get that swaying motion but not the jouncy up and down of a horse - anyone can come and have a go! (few people are brave enough; silly!)
 
Great vid, does ted have a FB page? Love the country side, love ted, music fitted really well....made me smile
 
nope, they're not. They do take notice of stuff but they tend to slam the brakes on to think about it rather than jumping about or anything. That *can* be tricky, as you have no withers or neck to rely on, I've been shunted off the front when going from canter to dead stop in a split second before!
 
This is brilliant, OP, you have fascinated me for a long time. I wish I had known about you years ago, we had some Hereford cows, two in particular were so quiet and reliable (now lost to TB sadly) but I'm sure they would have allowed us to ride them.
 
That was amazing. I love how he "investigates" rather than spooks! Wish my pony would do that rather than one of his dramatic spooks!
 
This put the biggest smile on my face this morning . . . if/when I retire Kali, I may find a Ted of my own!

P
 
That's my forum Jingles but we mostly use FB now, it's a bit dead...

Yes Ted lives with other cattle, he has as 'natural' a life as possible. I find it very important in the training of saddle cattle that they socialise and get REAL 'downtime'. Lots of people have come unstuck keeping a single animal and not giving them time to mooch outside and forage enough. When cattle aren't brought up properly they don't get 'silly', they get aggressive to their handlers........He's a steer, Jersey bulls are NASTY!
 
that's awesome! I so want to have a go now :D Ted is just a little star isn't he, going over to investigate things and then just accepting them as they are and toddling off quite happily after his investigation, bless him :)
 
Yup, they all are. I have a couple of dexters who are a bit more jumpy because they lived wild for the first 6mo with barely any human contact before being orphaned so I took them on, but even they have surprised me. i didn't think they'd ever be suitable for public events at first but now I think they will :)
 
At the risk of sounding dumb, whats a steer? Is that the equivalent of a gelding?? Fab video, really interestng thread.
 
I've never considered having a bucket list before watching the vid, but now I think I have, and it includes having a go at being a proper cowgirl! Really interesting stuff.
 
Blimey! it's amazing what people get up to! what a fantastic vid that was. I shall look at cows in a completely different way now....
What a clever/brave/bonkers lady you are!(bonkers in a good way tho..)
 
Made my day! There's a lot of cattle riding in malaysia (obviously) but never seen it done here!
 
That's amazing. How old is Ted?

I've tried leaning across the backs of some of ours but never had the guts to sit on! But ours are sold as stores so we only have them to max. 24 months.
 
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