How many horses should one use for checking cattle daily.

[Ranchero]

When riding 15-20 miles daily checking /working cattle in the mountains (rough country) How many horses are needed per cowboy?

1. Is 3 horses rotated daily enough?

2. Is 2 horses enough rotated daily if supplemented?

3. Can 1 mule work every day for 2 weeks straight then rest 2 weeks riding a 2nd mule?

I would like to know what other ranches are using, of course much depends on the terrain and work. All work on our ranch is done on horses and mules.

[Oldtimer]

When I was working for the grazing assoc and using the horses hard every day we tried to have 5 horses per cowboy- switch daily- or if working cattle close to the camp - switch at noon too...With horses getting bruised or hurt (and one year a distemper outbreak) sometimes would get down to 3 per cowboy-- but anything less than that gets pretty tough on horses in rough country....

[righter]

This is a real hot topic in our household.
It seems that a lot of people want to go 9-0 all the time, a long trot or some such crap.
We have found from experience that a single horse, or two at most, is way plenty, even on a big place with rough country.
If you ride slow enough to be looking at the darned cows, you won't wear out a horse. If you are close to the house, give the horse a rest and a feed at dinner break. This works, we learned it in places where it might be 17 miles or more to get to the cows, and the temps were high with 80 percent or higher humidity.
The idea of a day on and four days off does nothing to condition a horse, so they stay softer than one that has to go every day or every other day.
I know that last year during calving, used one mare all day every day, she got as hard as the proverbial rock. All summer, riding all day every day, same mare. The other half had a good stout gelding, rode all day every day. I am talking about LONG ROUNDS, 27 miles min.
Feed them good, take care of them, condition them, keep the feet on them good. Two good ones will do you.

[Faster horses]

Age makes a big difference. If you ride a young horse to hard, you will kill him off and he will never be the horse he could have been.

We worked around some excellent horsemen on a big ranch. 72,000 acres in the Powder River breaks. They rode a lot of young horses and they were very conscious of riding them too hard. They need to be at least 4 and 5 is better to stand a long ride. I mean it was 84 miles round trip to the back of that place. They would lead a colt and ride a horse. They would tie the colt up where we were gathering the cattle and when it came time to sort, they would ride the colt to sort. Every cow or whatever they took out of the herd, they stopped their horse straight and petted him on the neck to let him know he did a good job and that one was finished. Then they would ride back in and get another whatever they were after. They then rode the horse home and led the colt.

They had horses that were led so much that if they had to rope and doc
tor a yearling, the horse that was being led wouldn't even take the slack out of the lead rope. They rode awesome horses and were awesome horsemen.

We grained our horses there morning and night with just oats and you couldn't break a sweat on them. They were hard and in great shape. It is good to change off at noon if you can and ride a different horse. Maybe go back to the first horse the next morning or the following morning. But age is critical. Don't ride them young horses too hard. Just like asking a young kid to do too much work. Soon they hate it. Remember that a horse learns more when he is fresh and feels good than when he is tired and wrung out.

[Jinglebob]

On the subject of riding young horses, I never and I mean never, ride any horse under the age of 5, hard. By hard, I mean sweated up and plumb out of breath and and leg weary. I think that if you do this you will have horses who last lots longer and won't have to worry about navicular.

Although if you put a pretty hard ride on a young mare or stud and they develop any problems, you can cull them and get them out of the herd.

I agree that you can build up the stamina on one by giving it good feed and rest and riding, just like an athlete who is in training.

One winter I was feeding with a team of horses everyday. I was fighting heavy snows and hard pulls all winter long. By spring, them ol' mares could have pulled a mountain down, they were so hard. They were getting all of the hay thery could eat and about 2 coffee cans full of oats everyday. They weighed about 1500 or 1600 pounds.

[PPRM]

I have more feedlot experience than outside, but here was my take from watching one of the greatest hands I ever saw make a horse. All of his were great outta his own mares.


The feedlot would only let them keep 2 head there. The lot fed and paid for shoin on these. He lived 1/2 mile away. If he was starting a young one, he might ride or trailer it in. Ride it for a few hours then finish the day on a broke horse. However, we were able to trade horses easily at coffee break or lunch.....

After watching him and riding there myself, I felt like 3 horses was best, but went back to where they were. On young ones, less than a day was best. On some that you had going, you needed to be on them more than twice a week for sure.....

Guess my take is a lot of it depends on the horse. There's a certain age andf point in training where they need miles, other times they need to just be a horse....It is a combination of where they are mentally and physically,


PPRM

[righter]

Yeah, I got to thinking about my post while I was out and about, and forgot the thing about the age of the horse. And the size of the pasture, but the mare I was talking about is just now come five and she has sure handled a lot of long days and hard work with no problems. COurse, she is one of those good big stout hancock horses, made for this country. kind of like that old timex, takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

[RoperAB]

[Jinglebob]

[righter]

Roper wrote :I would want ten or twelve. I make my living training horses.
Isn't that kind of like asking a barber if you need a haircut?
I still contend that a few (3-5 would allow for injuries) mature, well fed, well conditioned horses is way plenty.
Think of them like any athlete in training. An athlete sure works harder than an hour a day, to get in condition. Why would a horse be any different?

[Faster horses]

They are packing a person and a saddle, for one thing. Think about it.

That's adding a lot of weight they must carry every step of the way. That's why they get footsore and weary if they are ridden every day.
Just them travelling with no one or nothing on them is a different story.

On of my pet peeves is a big guy riding a little horse, dragging calves to the fire and never quitting. Long as the horse goes, he keeps on keeping on. Then the next branding can't figure out what is wrong with his horse. And the horse gets worked over for it.



Horses should be partners, not slaves.

[Soapweed]

This rather reminds me of when OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Act) was first testing their wings, and coming up with all kinds of new rules. They were trying to insist on a porta-potty "within five minutes walking distance" of any job site. Our lady from Nebraska in the House of Representatives said, "Well, how do you know what is 'five minutes walking distance'? You would have to consider the length of the person's stride and their sense of urgency." Good point.