Hancock Horses question

[TWOROPES]

The last picture you posted is where I see the Hancock in him, I love them, they are not the horse that comes up lame the morning of a big cow work. There is a trade off with some of the ranch horse bloodelines, you get durability, stamina, and cow sense for cold back, freshness, hard head, but your damn sure mounted.

[PPRM]

Moody,

Welcome,


I have some nieghbors that have driftwood and hancock lines. Seems like folks that like one like the other around here. From the pictures, I'd say the two of you are getting alng fine with each other, so what do you want to do with him that you can't???? I guess I am not understanding the problem. If it is the opinion of others, well, I always figure I can't make everyone happy, so I concentrate on making numero uno happy. Yes, make the wife happy, LOL. Ya know, she comes by make the right thing hard pretty well, LOL....


Anyway, the one thing on both Driftwoods and Hancocks is they are all day horses, and take a lot of riding. One of th best hands I ever knew said they were best if used a lot and really didn't come into thier own until they were 9 or so. I am not in the position to do that, so they aren't the bloodlines for me, but I can tell you do work a lot with yours, so enjoy him,

The *g is something I haven't seen before, what does it mean?

PPRM

[Tumbleweed]

This is a picture of a Hancock horse I used to have. He was a horse I liked more than any other horse that I've ever had. I've never paid much attention to papers or breeding just rode what ever was handy and that I could afford. He was a quiet horse and alert. Would do pretty much what ever I asked him to. When ever he would see me coming he would look at me and nicker. Kind of like where are we goin and what are we gonna do now? He would take a notion to buck once in a while but I always got his head pulled up and around to stop him before he got me throwed off. One time I was going to gather and move some cattle and stopped on the way at a neighbors who trained border collies.
Got off and was visiting with acouple of fellows my neighbor was showing one of his dogs to working sheep. Guess my horse didn't like the look of those sheep or dog and he pulled away, stuck his nose in the dirt, went to balling and trying to throw the saddle off. He done a good job of trying and I was sure glad I wasn't on him. Guess he got it out of his system cause I got on and went and moved the cattle with no trouble. Just one more thing to like about him. I used to spend a lot of time riding and doctoring cattle alone like this yearling or cows that had foot rot. This old horse got pretty wise to it and was sure good help.

[sw]

I have ridden quite a few Hancocks, would not usually trade them for anything. I would bet that my yellow grade gelding is somewhere one of them, he will not wuit, will go all day, there is not a cow that will get the best of him if the rider is cowboy enough to go with him. I was going to post this picture of a double bred Hancock and see who could figure out the bredding, he has the smallest head and actually looks feminine fro the neck on, then look at the Hancock fro the rest of the way down. He is definitely a double Hancock, he is going to be a challenge as he is already, but like Tumbleweed says, they are as good as they get, just takes them longer to get there.

[Faster horses]

Soapweed, your horse looks like he was a great partner.

sw, your young horse is very nice-looking.

We had 2 Roan Hancocks. The were full brothers and one wasn't worth much. You couldn't get your work done on him because he wouldn't quit bucking. He didn't buck hard, and never bucked anyone off, but he just wouldn't quit. We finally gave up and got rid of him. The other one bucked our brother-in-law off and hurt him so he sold him to our son-in-law who was a good hand. That horse bucked HARD, but when he quit he was a really good horse. He bucked for a long time, every time he was saddled. Our son-in-law got badly injured (not by this horse) and the horse was sold. I just received an e-mail of the horse, now about 25 years old in a kids barrel race! So, as has been mentioned on here several times, if you can get 'em broke, YOU'RE HORSEBACK and they last.

A friend of ours who trains barrel horses was a good cowboy in Montana and he had a double bred Hancock that he said was the best horse he ever rode. Double bred and double nice. He called that horse Champ and he was NOT your typical Hancock. Didn't look it and didn't act it.

[Tumbleweed]

My neighbor bought a couple of hancock bred colts and got them started a couple of years ago. They needed a lot of riding and had it in them to buck when they wern't getting rode enough. He had a couple of young fellows riding them for him for a while. One of the horses just had to much buck and fight in him and got dangerous so he canned him. The other horse got ok if he was getting rode alot but my neightbor wasn't able to do that enough so he sold him last spring to a fellow who was calving out a bunch of cows and heifers. The fellow who bought him, his boy and hired hand just took turns day and night riding him and he got enough riding that way. Guess he got dog gentle. Most people have several horses to ride but I guess some of those hancok horses need several people riding them.

[Jinglebob]

I don't know much about Hancocks, but thats sure a good lookin' filly in them pictures!

Hancocks were said to have big butts and ugly heads, but ranch and cowboy folk liked them for their ability and endurance. Makes me think of a joke.

A young ranch girl came home from a date with the neighboring ranch son and she was just beaming. Her mother asked her why she was so happy. The girl said, "Oh, he just gave me the nicest compliment. He said I was as nice as a Hancock filly!"
Her mother said, " Hell of a compliment! A big butt, an ugly head and a bad attitude!"

[MoodyMare]

Rancher, my husband is american, so after his tour we moved to the US, upstate NY first, and I hated it up there
I didn't mean to say that western riders are mean, i meant that in a sarcastic way We had lots of fun, my friend, who runs barrels (the girl who put me on her barrel horse) rode my back than dressage horse (thoroughbred) for about hmmm 5 minutes, she dismounted, handed me the reins and sayd: thank you but no thank you
It is a huge difference in every way I think, specially the real western riding, which in Europe we have the fancy fufu western riding, but they want to be soooo american, but if you try to tell them that a real westernrider working on a ranch does not sit in a western saddle as on a dressage saddle worring that the riders legs run parrallel to the riders shoulders OH NO we ride sooo good, and that than is no real western... tz

The *g means something like *smirk or *lolsmirk, sorry, this is german.

Oldtimer, so for his pedigree he is not the *typicall* hancock?
I just found that horses who are said to be dumb, are actually smarter than the average horse, you just need to know HOW to work with them, since they are more likely to outsmart you in playing dumb.
Mine for example, he switches in what I call the donkey modus, in this stage he just stands there, hanging ears, plantd feet and his eyes in lala land.
But as soon as I get him interested again, he is all there, learning superfast. most of our tricks he learned within one day, though it took me a year to get him to learn is very first trick, that is when I noticed that this horse does not learn like other horses, but is smarter and wants to be challenged in every way every day or else he switches to the doofus modus.

But he is VERY stubborn when it comes to things he does not want, like going in a trailer, he will actually (and this is no lie!!) sit in front of the trailer on his butt, planted, and will not get up for several minutes, until you let go of the pressure on him.
As soon as you try something with pressure, force or dominance on him, he will switch to: doofus, dangerous or simple stand there in lala land planted like a tree.
He does know how to buck actually, and that very well. Mostly when I am pissing him off... meaning i am not using my aids corectly and i am confusing him, instead like a *normal* horses reacting, he will buck.. oh well, at least he lets me know I am doing something wrong very generous of him, to let me know to change something in my riding.
If it is not buckingtime, it is *going-where-I-want* time, meaning, he is all there on his aids, next thing you know, for not paying attention for one second, he is gone,usually out the gate or up to the treat lady on the fence... and that so fast that the rider barely has time to react in time.
If you pay your whole attention to him, he is doing wonderful and does not goof off.

I enjoy him very much. Through him actually I feel like i am becoming more sensetive to things, like I can read what is going to happen next.

[Oldtimer]

[sw]

I was out messing with the two year old this morning, just got them in yesterday to start school as I have some time now. I am trying to do things different and more in line so I am paying more attention to the horse and trying to get him to do what I want, not make him do what I want and I came to this conclusion: I think as moodymare suggested, these horse learn in a different way. He picks things up fast, but he is easily bored to the point that it is hard to keep his attention with this boring ground work, he was paying attention to the dogs, then a cat, he even was listening to a cow bawling out in the field rather than pay attention. I think the panic sets in when he is drifting in and out of paying attention, he's watching the cat on the fence, comes back to me and goes "what the heck is he doing?" and panics because he was not focused on me. After about 30 minutes of this, I took the halter off of him and instead of leaving, he followed me around like a good dog. So I walked around out there to see what he would do and he kept going with me 2-3 steps behind, even when the other colt came running up trying to get him to play, he stayed right with me until I went out the gate and then he put his head over the gate until I was out of sight. Maybe he was paying more attention to me than I thought. Most of the time it was like a kid that has been labeled ADD. This is the first Hancock I have started so I may have a differnt opion of them in a year. I did ride a started four year old for a while riding pens in a feedlot, every day for the winter. Come spring, I was given new horses and I gave the forman of the place the Hancock for his horse. First morning that he went to saddle up the horse I heard this gawd awful bawling coming from the barn, looked up and here came that horse bucking for all he was worth stirrups flapping, bawling with every buck until he got over to me on another horse. I got him up, the forman would not get on him, I got that horse back and he never ever even tried to buck with me. I think that he and I were of the same mind, that forman was a butt head and niether one of us wanted anything to do with him.

[Aztumbleweed]

Hancock Horses I have owned one really good and one really bad Hancock horse and they were the same horse. You could ride that boy every day for 2 weeks and he would be tougher every day when you got on him. Not like these ones I own now ride them a day then rest. I really liked that pony you just had to pay attention would go any where catch anything. I think that was the only harsh words my wife and I had he had unloaded me and while I was in the hospital she sold him when I asked her why she said it had to be before one of us killed the other or both. Man that horse could buck.

[Fireweed]

We love our Hancock horses! I especially like the Blue Valentine colts. Cross them with Driftwood lines and you got yourself a horse! I like a horse that can take a long day in any kind of country. I will admit that, on ocassion, they may border on the stubborn side, but mine don't buck... much. They are just as versatile, intelligent, and athletic as any other bloodline. And some even have cute heads