Growing Our Horsemanship with Martin Black

By Mary Gallagher

We had been looking forward to our clinic with Martin Black for months, and Martin did not disappoint! He is definitely a special horseman, bringing to us 6 generations of ranching wisdom, including the mentorship of many top horsemen. In his own career he has started tens of thousands of colts, ready within weeks to help managing cattle on the open range. Martin has also trained thousands of eager clinic participants, ready to absorb the horsemanship he has so finely distilled. Those of us fortunate to spend last week with Martin are the richer for the experience.

Here are a few of my impressions:

Balance point and flight zone. Martin opened our awareness to the flight zone and balance point

as he worked with horses in the colt starting sessions and cows in ranch cow working. 'Flight zone' refers to flight as the prey animal response to pressure from the directing human.  The horse will want to run away from danger, basically. So the ‘flight zone’ is that area where pressure causes the horse to move; in several of our colt starting sessions, Martin emphasized asking the shoulder to move laterally, while encouraging the horse to balance himself, nose to tail.

Colt Starting. Martin’s mastery of colt starting was a sight to see for us riders and auditors. He excels in moving the colts through an educational experience, while keeping it safe and simple for both riders and horses. Martin demonstrated his time-tested expertise while preparing each horse with ground work, saddling acceptance, standing for mounting and first ride from horseback.  Two of us riders over 60 and two over 70 can attest to the effectiveness of his approach, as we safely rode our colts for their first time! I feel that this colt start was one of a kind.

Four feet and two directions for each foot. In the riding sessions each day, we honed our skills by getting control of the horses feet learning how to work each foot both forward and backward. This took our stops, roll backs, turns, and most of all, our horse’s physical and emotional balance to a higher level.

Ranch style cow working. A highlight was how Martin showed us how to work one cow while moving the herd. He coached us as we each directed a cow out of the herd, and worked the cow while managing the herd. Martin called this peripheral thinking. We were all pretty smart folks in the clinic, but I think we all had our challenges here and there, working between both.

Maybe next month I can go deeper into one of these areas; I am still absorbing and reviewing the mountain of information and experience we shared, thanks to Martin Black. Thank you, Martin! See you next year!

It’s not too early to reserve a spot with Martin Black at Freedom Farm in 2024. You can get on our early list dates are March 20th to 24th.