May 11 – June 5, 2025

When you’re ready for the real deal…

4 Weeks  Horsemanship and Ranch School

At Shoofly, Bruneau, Idaho

Place deposit here.

Martin Black is a 5th generation rancher with years of teaching clinics all over the world. Martin has successfully competed in high performance events showing horses and rodeoing. While at home, he works cattle with the Vaquero (Buckaroo) style of traditional stock handling.
Ranch School is all about getting you better prepared for cattle work and ranch roping. The emphasis will be on low stress stock handling where slow is the fast way to get the job done.

Martin will help you with the three most important skills that will improve your cattle handling success: stockmanship, horsemanship and rope handling. These skills all need to be working together, in some fashion, as any shortcoming in one area will impact the others.
Martin has a unique way of seeing things from the cattle’s perspective, teaching stockmanship by using the cattle’s self-preservation, balance point and flight zone. He emphasizes the importance of rodear and traditional cattle handling – keeping them in a herd is the least stressful way of managing them when sorting, doctoring and even branding. You will learn that even the smallest change in your horse’s positioning, even the tilt of the nose, can make a big change happen in an individual cow or even the whole rodear. Practical learning experiences and saddle time will be emphasized. Foundation horsemanship exercises will be taught that directly apply to your stockmanship and roping.
For those of you already roping, you will be working on improving, refining and learning new shots, dummy and hot heels roping and live cattle. For those who have never handled a rope, and are interested, Martin has taught countless people how to rope who had never even picked up a rope before. Quite often learning correct muscle memory instead of retraining incorrect habits leads to success earlier. This is meant to be an inclusive school, no roping or cow experience is necessary.

This is a progressive school for advanced riders comfortable at all gaits. Riders and horses should be confident riding out alone for extended periods while doing the day’s job (i.e., gathering or driving cattle)

Day:
The morning will start with a quick meeting to lay out the day’s objective. One certainty when working with cattle is that the specific plans will change but that the objective remains true.

The day’s work will vary, and may appear to have no rhyme or reason but trust that it will all make sense in the end. One day we might be working on getting our horses, and ourselves, prepared by using the hot heels or dummy. Another day we might be trailering out to gather hundreds of cattle, sort them and ship cattle off the winter range. Or we might be at the other end receiving the truck loads of cattle, mothering up the babies and trailing cattle to the summer range. We may even have the opportunity to participate in a branding. Then the next day we might be riding out into the desert but working on timing and foot fall exercises. The only limiting factor during these learning opportunities will be what your mind can absorb.
Martin has a unique awareness of reading and handling cattle – this school is a fantastic opportunity to learn some of that. With Martin’s guidance, you will gain experience in stockmanship and roping, while creating those good experiences we all want for our horses.

  • Information and Some of the Details
  • $1800.00 non-refundable deposit to reserve your spot in our most popular session
  • School pricing will reflect your choice of included accommodations
  • School pricing will reflect your choice of needing horses or if you are bringing horses
  • Accommodations are first come first serve, if you do not find them listed at the time of registration – they have been reserved.
  • Limited to 10 participants
  • Pricing ranges from $6600 – $5500 depending on your choice of Private Rooms or living in a Tee Pee, whether you need to use Ranch Horses or you are bringing your own.  Please make your selections here

 

Preparation:
While all of Martin’s books and DVDs will be helpful, these books and DVDs will be especially so for the Ranch School:
· Rodea Style Ranch Roping Series (DVDs)
· The Bridle Horse Series
· Working Cattle in the “A” Pen (DVD)
· Cow Horse Confidence (Book)
· Hackamore Reinsman, Reinsman of the West and Vaquero Style Horsemanship by Ed Connell (Books)
· The Essential Martin Black Series (Books)

Please Note: Deposits are non-refundable.