During my career as a professional
horse trainer, I’ve heard horse owners tell all kinds of reasons why
they think their horse could be a winner in the cutting arena.
Unfortunately, when it comes to cow horses, a lot of folks are
misinformed as to what is fact and what is fiction.
And of course, any time you're talking
about horses, there are always exceptions to the rule. But, for the most
part… Here are a few of the most common myths.
Myth #1.
My colt should really make a great cutter. Whenever our "dog"
goes into the pasture, the colt chases him around and works him just
like cutting a cow. (For the word “dog” you could substitute
“goat”, “another horse”, “a person” or “whatever”).
I wouldn’t enter him up at the Fort Worth
futurity just yet. Here’s the usually disappointing truth. The dog
isn’t a cow… The colt is doing this without a rider on his back…
And most importantly, the colt is doing this activity without any rules
he has to adhere to. In reality, there are a lot of colts that like to
have fun chasing something around. It’s play, pure and simple.
It’s another thing entirely for a colt to become
a cutter. First of all, the newness of working the cow will wear off and
the training will eventually become work. When the colt finds out he has
to work the cow with precision, form and style, he might not want to do
it.
That’s why it’s so important your cutting
prospect is bred to be a cutter. If the sire and dam have the attributes
to be successful in the cutting arena, the colt has a lot better chance
of being successful also.
Myth #2.
My colt should make a great cutter. I rode him out to gather some cattle
for the first time and he was really good. He wasn’t bothered or
scared by the cattle and acted like it was nothing new at all.
Like I said earlier, there are always exceptions to
the rule. But, when a colt doesn’t show much of a reaction to a cow it
usually means he’s not going to be a good one. Every top cutting horse
I’ve ever trained, either was fearful of the cow and wanted to keep a
safe distance from it or was aggressive towards the cow and wanted to
dominate it.
The 1990 NCHA futurity champion, Millie Montana,
was the dominant kind. The very first time I worked her on a cow she
wanted to take charge. Her head went down, her ears went back and
everything about her body language told the cow that she was the boss.
The great NCHA world champion mare, Doc N Missy,
was the exact opposite. She was in my string when I was working for Gene
Suiter in Arizona. I’ll never forget her reaction the first time I
introduced her to a cow. She was so scared of it she literally tried to
jump out of the arena.
The cow would be 150 feet away down at the other
end of the arena, but that was too close for comfort for her. It
actually took a couple months before she got confident enough to move
the cow.
Myth #3.
My colt should make a great cutter. He is 99% foundation bred. His
bloodlines trace back to Wimpy P1 five times on the top side and three
times on the bottom. Those old foundation horses were real cow ponies.
Now, if you own a foundation bred horse, don't take
what I'm about to say the wrong way. Our topic here is
"competition" cutting. I've ridden plenty of foundation bred
horses that were great for other uses.
But, if you go to any of the top cutting trainers
and ask them to describe what it’s like to try to get one of these
“foundation bred” horses to cut, here is the answer you’ll get 9
out of 10 times:
-
Most don’t have enough cow or intensity to
make it in competition.
-
They’re difficult to train to cut. For
example, they either learn too slow or want to argue too much.
-
If you manage to overcome A and B, you still
can’t win because many of them don’t have the athletic ability
and style of well bred cutting horses.
If you want your colt to be a good cutter, the
least you can do is make sure he comes from bloodlines that produce good
cutters. And yes, there are horses that are exceptions to the rule, but
they are few and far between.
Myth #4.
My colt should make a great cutter. I’m going to put him in training
with this hot shot trainer for six months and have him shown at the
cutting futurity.
Actually, this is a misconception a lot of people
have about training a cutting horse. It takes a long time to get a horse
to the point of being "showable" at a contest. To have a colt
ready for a futurity takes a minimum of 18 months of training.
If the colt is an exceptionally fast learner, you
might get lucky and have him ready in just one year. This means to have
a colt ready to compete in the fall futurities as a 3year old, he needs
to be started on cattle in early spring of his 2 year old year.
Owners hesitate starting their colt that young,
fearing injury to the colt from starting him too early. In reality, a
good trainer never works a colt that young very hard. The idea is to
give the colt a solid foundation built slowly so there is no stress.
When this is done right, seldom will a colt get hurt.
Myth #5.
I’m going to buy my first cutting horse and take him to a show next
week-end. I should do pretty well. After all, cutting horses are trained
to work on their own. The rider doesn't have to do anything but hang on.
I sure wish it was that simple. It would make my
job as trainer and coach much easier. It’s true, cutting horses are
trained to work on their own. However, the rider has a "big"
influence on how well the horse works.
An inexperienced rider can cause even the best
cutting horse to make mistakes. The most common ones are… rounding the
turns, missing the stop and being out of sync with the cow. Most new
cutters don’t realize they could ruin their horse if they don’t
learn to ride correctly in a relatively short period of time.
So, it’s important to kinda know what you’re
doing before you cut very much on your new horse. Find a knowledgeable
coach that will help you learn to ride your cutter the right way.
If you're looking for the best cutting videos,
click here: Cutting
Horse Videos
Good luck,
Larry Trocha
Teach
Your Horse to Stop, Spin, Change Leads and Work Cattle
California cutting and reining trainer, Larry Trocha has created the
ultimate horse training videos. In each video, you'll see proven, easy
to learn methods that are guaranteed to work. Also get Larry's online
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