An English country girl in California: Dressage to reining and the Bitterroot style

There are three principal styles of riding in the world: English, Western and Bitterroot. The former is familiar from dressage, especially following the British success at the London Olympics in summer 2012 that made the names Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro, Carl Hester and Uthopia and Laura Tomlinson (nee Bechtolsteimer) and Mistral Horjis so famous in the UK. It is formal and highly specialized, and allows horse and rider to accomplish astonishingly complex movements, such as pirouette, piaffe (slow trotting on the spot) and half pass (moving sideways while keeping the horse’s head and body facing forwards) with only the merest visible signals. As such, it is surprisingly close to the most competitive form of Western riding, reining (check out the website of the National Reining Horse Association, http://nrha1.com/). Developed from the cowboy’s need to jink and gallop around uncooperative herds of cattle, horse and rider spin, gallop, stop and start with incredible speed, the rider almost motionless in the saddle. In Western riding, the horse’s mouth is left alone completely, the reins hanging loose, and the signals to turn are given through the movement of the rider’s body and the pressure of the reins on the horse’s neck. In fact, although English style requires the rider to keep a contact with the horse’s mouth, a stiff, hard-handed contact is increasingly shunned in favour of the light touch exhibited with such success by double gold medallist Charlotte Dujardin (http://charlottedujardin.co.uk/). Both styles have developed to work with the horse’s natural way of going, whether it is the long, low outline of the cowboy’s quarter horse or the upright, compact, powerful style of the Royal Dutch Sports Horse Valegro.

Brenna on mustang Hondo, Lisa on Appaloosa Sun-up

and Arab-Appaloosa Ranger's ears

riding up Polk Creek near the Bitterroot Ranch

At the Bitterroot, the styles are combined into a hybrid that is intended to make it as easy and comfortable for the horse as possible, without sacrificing any of the schooling that makes a horse responsive and obedient. It is closest to Western, as we use Western saddles and ride with no contact, neck reining instead of pulling one side to turn, but we stand up to canter, holding onto the mane to keep the position, instead of sitting deep in the saddle as cowboys do. It is in order to allow the horses to work freely, without the risk of an inexperienced rider bouncing on their horse’s back uncomfortably, and it is for the same reason that we stand up to go up hills – and some of the slopes round here are so steep that it is the only way the horses can ascend with any ease. On one ride, Buffalo Draw, we cross a ravine by going down and up its almost sheer sides, and if a rider were to sit slumped in the saddle, the horses would find it near impossible. Of course, such a policy is commonsense, and there have been moments hunting in Ireland when I have practically been clinging to my horse’s ears to get up the sheer sides of a massive Irish drain! But the practice of standing up, leaning forward, to canter, in the ‘two-point’ position that echoes the cross-country seat of English style, is very different to the upright seat adopted by the cowboys we see displaying their skills at the weekly rodeo in Dubois.

Hannah and Tsodillo about to tackle a typically steep slope.

Some of the youngsters, like Tsodillo, are ridden in English bridles

until they've learnt to neck rein

The cowboys sit deep and secure, legs long, reins held loosely just in front of the pommel, their horses responsive to the slightest movement of their weight. The barrel racing, usually contested by girls with long plaits (braids in American) flying, is terrific to watch, as horse and rider gallop flat out around the three barrels, leaning so far over on the turn that it seems impossible that they won’t fall and tearing across the line to finish, the rider’s legs pistoning up and down Pony Club-fashion. In the roping contests, a pair will gallop into the ring in pursuit of a steer and lasso the animal, whereupon the horse sinks onto its quarters to stop in a yard, bracing itself against the pull as its rider throws himself off the horse and onto the steer and ropes its feet together as fast as possible. Done well, it can be over in seconds, and is a marvelous display of horse and rider working together.

Cowboys chasing down a bucking bronco

Rather a bad picture of roping - a steer gallops in followed by the cowboy

wielding the rope. The circle part is called the lasso

Rather less controlled is the bronco riding, which sees young, brave – or mad – men straddle unbroken mustangs and powerful bulls armed only with a rope to hang onto, and attempt to stay on beyond eight seconds. Points are given to both the animal and the man, so if the horse or bull puts up less of a fight, the rider will be docked points for having an easier ride. The bulls are the most terrifying, as they will sometimes turn their sharp horns on the unseated rider, and the attendants have to be quick to distract it. Two mounted cowboys will lasso it or drive it into a pen, and a colourfully dressed personage on foot, decked out in streamers of pink and blue, will divert its attention. Body protectors are common, but riding hats or helmets are still shunned – they would spoil the look of the thing!

Getting ready...

Nearing the release...

Hang on!

The bull, free of its rider, is distracted by the rodeo clown in pink ribbons

Riding hats are now mandatory at the Bitterroot, something that some guests dislike, and I confess that I wasn’t keen at first – after all, John Wayne never wore one. But having joined the list of wranglers to have come a cropper, I am glad of the rule. (My horse took exception to my getting on and took off bucking when I was only half on. There are an awful lot of stones here, and I managed to hit most of them with most parts of my body on the way down!) In the first week, too, a guest fell off and put a large crack in his helmet. He was fine after a check-up at the hospital, but if he had been wearing only a Stetson, it could have been a lot worse. However, I do wear my cowboy hat on the ground, and, thankfully, the dust means it is rapidly looking rather less obviously new than it did on my arrival. The time will probably come when helmets are seen all over the American West, but nothing will ever beat the silhouette of cowboy and horse, ancient soft hat low over his eyes and bodies relaxed, riding the vast plains of Wyoming.