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Cutting Horse Woes

2K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Cherie 
#1 ·
Does anyone have any tips on my cutting horse? While cutting cattle he gets waaaaaay too close and we lose the calf....I try to pull him back but it hasn't worked well he just jolts forward.. Does he not understand? I don't have a problem with any other horses that get too close, they always keep back after being reminded. Help!:oops:
 
#2 ·
A book could be written on this, but the overly simplified answer is to drive him up into the cow softly. When he gets too close he'll lose the vow. HE must lose the vow on his own for this to work. When the cow gets by kick like hell to make him catch up. Right thing Easy, Wrong thing Dificult. He'll learn (if he really does have any cow sense) that he needs to play defense more and stay back rather than charging in. I want to have to really ask my horse to move up or drive cattle, and the second that cow stops, changes direction, or I stop driving, he should shift his weight back to his hocks. This is how they develope draw.
Some will not figure this out and will constantly want to lean on the cow. These need to become team penners or ranch sorters.
 
#3 ·
Your problem is call 'feeding out'. Do you have a video of this horse working? I would need to see how well this horse is 'holding its ground behind' to tell you exactly how to get it to work right.

First of all, was your horse originally trained by an NCHA trainers that shows (and wins) in NCHA cutting shows. If he was professionally trained, then, at one time he was taught to stay parallel to his cow. It is absolutely imperative that a horse travels parallel to the cow and STOPS STRAIGHT, back straight 1 step and rolls back toward the cow WITHOUT MOVING ITS BUTT OUT or away from the cow. If it does not do this, it will automatically be out farther every time it changes direction.

When a horse is parallel to their cow, they MUST be 'pushed' away from the cow with your 'cow side' leg. This allows the horse to stay parallel to the cow, allows the horse to look at the cow with both eyes and still lets you keep the horse's butt straight behind him.

Horses learn this posture working one cow in a big (150 foot) round pen. The horse is constantly moving off of the rider's cow side leg while staying parallel to the cow. But, even then, it is really easy for an inexperienced rider to let the horse 'flop' its butt out (away from the cow) after it stops.

Once a horse has started feeding out badly, they best way to correct them is to go back to a flag or a round pen with only 1 cow. That way, the horse can be spurred AWAY from their cow or flag while they stay parallel to it.

It is also imperative that you work fresh cattle when you put this horse back to working out of the herd. Sour cattle will dive under or past a horse and they finally quit trying to hold them. You can work sour cattle -- one on one -- in a round pen, but not out of a herd.
 
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