Cutting/Penning questions

Im going to try to explain this the best I can. Im hoping rob will find this thread and help me out. He seems very knowledgeable.

A little info on my horse – 10 year old QH gelding. I bought him 3 months ago from a cowhorse auction. I don’t know alot about him but he seemed pretty snappy on a cow and he's bred well. I have no idea what he did in the past but I know he's from the states. He’s not pretty. He’s not built well. But this horse can cut a cow! I've never rode a horse that wanted it so bad! He will be my team penning horse.

Now, in the sale they listed him as a “Team Penning Prospect.” This was not why I bought him. Now that he's at home and I've been working him I can tell that they threw on some beginner that didn’t know how to ride and all they wanted was to go fast.

He wants to rush out of his turn(he will literally turn and then take off, not uncontrollably but all he knows is fast!) and push with his shoulder and not lead with his nose and stay back on his hocks.

So my question is. Do I do the “2 bump” where I stop him square on his end (first bump) then when he turns and he wants to have that forward motion bump him back and make him back up?(second bump). He’s learning that if he sticks his nose out there and leads with his shoulder he's going to get in trouble from the bump and he’s staying on his hocks. I've been doing this method on my dry work and on a cow. It has been working! But I just want to see if there is a different method I should try.

I have another question to. In everyones opinion what is the best way to turn a cutting horse into a penning horse? I have just been taking him to sorting and teaching him to step to a cow and just teaching him the position. He isn’t ready for penning yet I think.

Hi nicole,the bump method will work,but you have to hold him and turn him at the right time.do you have a flag or mechanical cow to use,cause it would be easier to fix this if you can slow it down.

Yes I've been using our mechanical cow and also just doing dry work. It is a hard method because you have to get it at the perfect moment.

I've been doing this with cattle as well. Just one on one in the arena.

Ok,firstthing is thank you for the compliment,2nd,dont worry about looks,some of your best cowhorses were ugly,but they could work,and3rd,if you didnt buy him for a penner,why did you buy him?

Rush as in unbalanced? Turns or roll backs?

If you don't know if he's been cutting, it will take a few runs to figure out. A cutting horse will make a good hole horse but getting them into the herd to seperate and push will be the hardest part. They don't want to push, they want to hold.

I didnt buy him just on what the sale catalogue said is what I was trying to say. I bought him because of his ability to work a cow

I wouldnt say he's unbalanced. I think that he has been rode in fast gear for a long time and all he wants to do is run out of his turns with alot of forward motion by barging threw the turn with his shoulder. I don't know if that made sense.

So far I've found my biggest difficulty with trying to turn him into a penning horse is just getting him into the herd at an faster speed than a walk. Even at a trot he wants to “zig-zag” in. So I've been doing lots of riding just getting him between my hands and legs then I started just trotting a straight line into a heard and parking him in the heard against the wall and stopping and petting on him. That's helped...

Im not competing off this horse yet. I wanted to just ride him all winter and take him to practices instead of throwing him into a show.

Ok,to stop the shoulder dropping,dry work or on a slow cow,stop flat,take cow side rein and leg to hold him straight.scoot offside leg back so he can't swing his hip out,when cow turns,tip his nose in that direction but keep tension on it so he don't step forward.at same time,scoot offside leg back up by girth and squeeze with heel or spur.keep that leg in him until he makes a 180 turn.if he sweeps and don't drop shoulder,that is what you want,then bump him to control speed.get back with me on other horse

When everything works out that's exactly what im doing so that's good to know im doing it right J

Ok nicole,take your cutter and one cow in the pen.alot of rating and tracking.cow picks up speed,you pick it up,keeping him always looking at cow.when this goes well,track and pick a spot on wall where you want to turn this cow but remember,stop flat,rock back and sweep.then put several cows in pen and let him trot thru them,them trot thru and push one out by itself.