Horses for a cattleman
Host: Monkira Station
Written by Deborah Desreaux – Manager, Monkira Station.
Having grown up with cattle and horses all his life. Anthony Desreaux sees a big need for horsemanship skills to be continually taught in the cattle industry today.
With OH & S being so important and the high rates of motorbikes, quad, and horse injuries in the cattle industry, horsemanship needs to be a high priority to any manager or station owner.
Horses are the best way to work cattle. They keep the cattle quiet and the stock much more willing for handling going into feedlots. Good horsemanship and horse husbandry is a high priority on Monkira Station and our low rate of injuries is a testament to the station’s practices.
For Anthony riding horses is not work. He enjoys starting colts and teaching his staff how to work cattle from horseback. He has ridden with some of the World’s master horsemen such as Ray Hunt, Buck Brannaman, Pat Parelli, Craig Johnson, and Australia’s old legendary horseman Gordan McKinlay. From these men he has learnt many great techniques and has over the years taught all his staff these methods.
We take on a less stressful approach to starting colts. Less is more. The less pressure you put on the animal the more results you get. It’s the release of pressure that teaches. It’s the same with cattle when you take the pressure off. People say they don’t have time but they will do the wrong thing over and over and actually take more time.
Monkira attracts staff a lot for the horsemanship principles that we follow and we thoroughly enjoy seeing them progress in this area of their job.
