Summarize this article in one sentence.
You will want to do and try different things with them, and they will certainly be posing different challenges for you that you need to be ready for and let the animals teach you about. No herding scenario is going to be perfect each and every time. Watch their behaviour before you go in and gather them up. They may already be laying down or watching you intently with the ears pricked and heads up. You will need to react and start them accordingly. The first thing, and most important thing, that you need to do is to get the herd started. This is also the first part of training of both you and the cattle to drive properly. Getting started is generally getting the herd gathered up enough that you're getting good movement from them. The herd, as from step 2 above, may either be calmly laying down and chewing their cud, or watching you intently as you move closer to them. The added difficulty will be when working with cattle that have not yet been trained to herd properly, so be prepared for some flighty animals at first. It's important to give them time to think and gather themselves uplet them stretch, if you have cows to gather up and join up with their calves, take a few bites of grass, etc.before getting them moving. Allow them to take a few steps ahead before you begin pressuring and guiding them to generate that good movement. Good movement means that animals will be moving freely and comfortably, acting and feeling relaxed with their heads bobbing as they walk along. When animals are going in the direction you want them to, stragglers will be drawn in to the main herd, and they will even stay where you "place" them if good movement was used to get them there. If they are flighty and high-headed, don't feel the need to rush into things. Instead, go slowly and take your time. If they run away, let them. But you will need to keep moving and trail them where they go, never moving at them, directly behind them, nor curve around them. Make straight lines as a form of pressure-and-release until they settle down and realize you are not a threat. If animals are laying down and quietly chewing their cud, then you will need to get them up. To do this, walk to the hip or shoulder until they make the movement to get up, then immediately move away to the next animal. If there's an animal already getting up before you get to it, move away from that and keep going until all animals are up and ready to go. It's so important to never ever give that one little extra push when they're already doing what you want them to do. Once they're already up and/or moving away, then just let them. You can come back and correct where they're going soon enough. The hardest part of getting them started is actually getting them started. The next problem is getting them going in a direction you want to go and leaving them alone as soon as they do so. The other challenging part is how far out, in a straight line, you need to go to get animals moving or to turn them without compromising movement or direction of travel. This will take much experimenting on your part and continual reading of how animals will respond. Once the animals are up and beginning to move, you will need to move in straight linesnever straight to the head nor straight at the rearto get the herd moving in the direction you want to go. The rule of thumb to use is to generally move perpendicular to the direction the herd should be going; when walking behind a herd in a pasture, this means straight zig-zag patterns. When making zig-zags, it's completely fine to cross behind an animal, and to make an angle to the hip, shoulder, belly or neck of the outside animal to get maximum influence of movement. Just remember, once the animal is going in the direction you want it to, leave it immediately. Think of moving a herd being like moving a wall by yourself. You have to walk to one edge and back to another to get movement going straight ahead. If you want to turn a certain way, little movement is needed on one end versus the other, depending on how sharp or wide a turn that needs to be made, and how much space you have to do it. To move a herd to the right, go left. To move a herd to the left, go right. This is no different when trying to turn an individual cow. In order to get her moving straight, zig-zags back and forth to guide her is what will get her going straight, relatively speaking. Depending on how far strung-out the herd is, the zig-zag pattern may vary from one step in one direction and another step the other, or several steps one way and several steps the other way. Use your animals (and your choice direction) as a guide to tell how many steps you need to make one way versus another. As already mentioned, good movement is achieved when animals are relaxed, their heads are bobbing as they walk, and they're moving at a comfortable pace. Other stock will be drawn out from wherever they are hiding, and come in to the main herd. It's important to not pay much attention to these stragglers, but also to make sure you are not ahead of the rear-most animal. You too must maintain that zig-zag pattern to keep that good movement going, as the points and steps above have already mentioned. There is no defined number of steps you need to cut in or out to maintain good movement and direction; this is far more of a matter of constant trial-and-error and learning to read your animals effectively. Good movement isn't always nor necessarily slow and steady. If animals are feeling a little frisky and lively, they may run for a little ways, and you'll have to do your part to keep up! And if they want to move slow, then let them move slow. You can also control their speed. If you angle a bit more harder into them, they will speed up. Angle less into them, they will slow down. A herd with good movement will always draw in the stragglers, no matter where they are. Animals will tell you if you are too close or too far behind. Too much turning may mean you need to back off and give them a little more space. But if they're turning around to look at you, you may need to either move up closer, or move farther out. It's less important to know where the gate is than it is to get them going in a direction you want them to go. Adjustments to direction may need to be made if there are certain objects in the wayranging from a hill to a telephone polebut generally the direction of travel should go back to where you are intending. While this may sound like a scary challenge, it doesn't have to be. Just remember, always "T to the gate." Think of an upside-down T, with the end of this upside-down T at the gate, and the perpendicular line to this T your direction of travel. The herd is along the line between the gate and your perpendicular direction of movement. Your job is to guide the herd from the rear towards the gate opening, guiding from the corners and pressuring from the side. This T will be continually shifting according to the changes made by the herd. Remember, you are always working back and forth in a straight, zig-zag pattern. If the herd is not moving in a straight line to the gate, then shift your line so you continue to work in a straight line to the gate. Your "angle of attack" should always be move right to move the animals left and move left to get the animals to move right. Continue with this T to the gate even as they go through. It's very important to never encircle the herd or create a horse-shoe because this could cause one or more animals to break away from the gate. Keep working in a straight line until all animals are through that gate. It's also critically important to never post someone near the gate. This actually distracts the animals and causes some to break away. In other words, if you are worrying about animals not going through the gate, and feel the urge to go and "correct" some potential movement, then don't. You are more likely to create the very problem you're worried that's going to happen; rather, you are more likely to make animals not go through the gate if you try to "correct" them versus if you just maintained your T to the gate movements until all animals are past that gate. The "T to the gate" is very similar to and can be also used when loading cattle onto a trailer in the middle of a pasture. It's also used for any size of herd. But the larger the herd, the larger the T, and the more people that may be needed to form this T to the gate. This method, used properly, will eliminate the need for using fences as wings to funnel cattle into a gate or onto a trailer. Wings to a gate only act as a bottle-neck to crowd animals in, and can cause more trouble than they're worth. In order to slow them down and stop them, walk parallel to or with the animals. This will naturally get them to stop or slow down. Stopping is another part of a training exercise that is important with working cattle. They are easier to handle when they (and you) understand the art and science behind starting and stopping movement.
Realize that each situation you walk into will be different. Assess the animals. Get them up and started. Develop good movement of the herd. Maintain good movement. Move them towards and through the gate. Slow them down or stop them.