YDP back on home turf for Gayle Bersey

I have spent the last few weeks trying to work out whether it’s easier or harder to work with your friends. On one side they take the ‘mick’ out of me all day and ignore what I say and on the other hand they know what I get like when I’m stressed and ignore what I say!!!

The South West of England was home territory for me and as it’s mostly people I know it is always a bit of pressure, but this workshop couldn’t have been in more capable hands. Held at the home of the Rull herd of Ed and Claire Jones at Cullompton, Devon, and we had a master team of stockmen and women to help out too.

Ed and Claire have worked with me in the South West Club for several years and whatever they do they put a tremendous amount of effort in and do it well. We had numerous quiet animals to work with and we were fed and watered well during the day too. The job of chief trainer was the infamous Colin Hutchings who can be seen winning at most of the South West shows. Colin was aided on the day by Andrew Hughes who is well known for Herefords and turns out the Rull cattle for Ed and Claire. Also along for the day was Jack Ellicott who helps Colin out with his show cattle – when I say along for the day, Jack did help with the halter making demonstration but I did have to tell him off at one point for distracting the participants. We also welcomed along the Society’s President, Paul Jeenes and his daughter and I am hoping that Amy has picked up enough tips so she can get their cattle in the show ring, look out Southern Calf Show.

We had a good number of participants forward for the workshop but sadly four of them spent half the day sat on the M5 due to an accident but they managed to complete everything when they did eventually arrive albeit slightly more quickly than the others. The day started with Andrew showing how he would catch and tie the cattle for the first time which was really interesting as it involved sort of lassoing them first. We had a really quiet pen of heifers so everyone had the chance to have a go at putting the halters on including the very wee eight year olds. What they lacked in size they made up for in enthusiasm.

After all the heifers had been caught it was time for washing and everyone got stuck in. I like to see lots of buckets of water and hard work but Colin took pity on them and let them use the pressure washer too. Although all the heifers were quiet and broken there were one or two that weren’t quite so keen on washing and as one of the older attendees said, it is sometimes good to have ones with spirit as the trainers can issue advice on how to deal with it. The cattle were then blown dry and Colin finished the morning with a clipping demo, transforming one half of a heifer with the magic of clipping. It was interesting to see that the heifer that Colin clipped had not been very well behaved when washing but was like a pussy cat when in the hands of the experienced stockman.

After lunch we were treated to a very informative talk on health talk by Dan Leyman of the Vale Veterinary Group, Cullompton. It was great to see the youngsters asking questions as that means they were listening and interested. The vet asked how long the talk should last and I had said when the kids start fidgeting start finishing, funnily enough the first one to start messing around was the 70 year old trainer.

The practical sessions were resumed with the more experienced participants having some clipping experience with Colin and it seemed like they had a lot of fun too. The ones that had been held up in the accident washed some cattle with Ed and the less experienced ones clipped heads in the crush. Taking the head clipping workshop was well known Limousin breeder and prime stock shower, Vicky Maynard. Vicky had brought her daughter along to the workshop and was thrown in at the deep end when I needed an extra pair of hands. More body clipping was done with Andrew while everyone caught up with the ‘hands on experience’

The training continued with dressing cattle for the show ring. Colin showed everyone lots of different products and how they were used and the participants were let loose on the cattle with soap, glue, sprays and all sorts of exciting things and all the heifers came out fluffed and shiny – I only hope their hair didn’t fall out after we left!

We then moved on to the ring craft seminar. Each attendee was able to take out an animal and Colin gave them tips on how to improve their showing skills. Everyone did incredibly well and there was definitely some keen competition. The day ended with the halter making workshop, Jack had been preparing ropes all day and he and Colin showed the youngsters how to do it. This bit always creates some entertainment when people get into such a mess. One young lady must have taken it all in though as I had a face book message the next day to say she’d made a couple of halters when she got home.

Another friendly and fun workshop with many thanks to Ed and Claire Jones and Katherine, Colin Hutchings, Andrew Hughes, Jack Ellicott and Vicky Maynard.

Just two more workshops left in the 2010 programme and I’m off to Ireland this weekend and then Northern Ireland at the beginning of September. Details of the weekend event will be out soon and I hope the participants will support this new initiative. This event which will be open to all that have attended a workshop and will incorporate the final, the aim of this event is a bit if education mixed with a lot of fun with like minded people and to quote a well known supporter of the YDP ‘It’s all about the kids!’