This past Saturday I took Lefta to an "Introduction to Cattle/Team Penning" clinic. Yes we have a few Dexters at home, but there is a huge difference between taking her into our little herd and taking her into a herd of 15+ and all the other horses, pressure and excitement that happens at penning.
I've taken the clinic before but seeing as I haven't really penned very much the refresher was good for me too.
I was pretty proud of my little greenie. She may be a 5 year old but as far as experience she's more equivalent to a 3 year old. She handled meeting the cows and going into the herd pretty well. She started to learn how to rollback and when we got to tracking she was catching on to locking on to her "cow".
There was penning in the evening but we had left home at 8am and the clinic started at 9 so I wasn't planning on staying, that would be a looong day. Of course as I was going to leave I ran into some friends coming in for penning, they twisted my rubber arm and I ended up staying lol
Although the clinic started at 9 the riding portion didn't start until sometime around 1ish, then we had a lunch break and we were wrapping up by 5 so Lefta hadn't worked too hard or long plus she got about 1 1/2-2 hours to rest at the trailer before penning started.
I was glad I stayed, it was lots of fun and Lefta got some more experience
(and improved over where she was when the clinic ended) :) Kimfer came and she & I were drawn on a team in the first half
(along with another girl that neither of us knew). I think that was the first time we've been on a team together, if it wasn't the first then it was one of the very few times we have been on a team. After the break Kimfer & I got drawn on the same team again!
:o We joked that we'll
never ever get drawn to pen together again lol Our 3rd person was Kimfer's Auntie Jac (my "adopted" auntie). We did okay, not great but we're there for fun.
Another reason I was glad I stayed is that I'm not sure how many I'll be able to make it out to, I am hoping to make it to some but that will totally depend on my work schedule. Although it was after midnight by the time I got home so it was a
LONG day for me!