Too tall to work cattle?
 

I was wondering, is 16hh too tall to be a working cow horse? Would it affect his performance in any way? I am thinking of buying a horse to train for working cattle - he's almost 16hh, not quite there (but almost), and I think he's pretty much done growing as he's 4 and a half.

Do you mean working cow horse for show, or like a ranch horse working cattle?

I'm taking a Western Ranch & Cow Horse program at a college in Alberta,
and he's my pick of the lot .. it's more like ranch cattle work, not shows at all. I'm not really into showing haha

I had a 16hh Lena bred cowhorse that I did hunters on occasion. He was a feedlot horse and seriously cowy! Regardless of his size, he was on a cow super quick and worked them great. He worked the feedlot most of his life.

So long as the horse is agile and quick, then it doesn't matter what height he is. The biggest problem with that is, larger horses are, in general, slower than small horses. Larger/taller horses have that much more bulk and leg that they have to coordinate in order to get those quick turns.

That being said, my next ranch horse is standing just over 16.1hh right now...and weighing about 1400. He'll work great for what I do because I do more slow sorting and roping than I do cutting type work. It would be quite a pain in the butt trying to turn him into the next High Brow Cat :rofl:.

Thank you! Haha I was getting paranoid .. this guy has the sweetest personality, me and him really clicked. It would be a shame to have to turn him down because of his height.

Is this the course at Lakeland in Vermillion?

If so, I think a 16hh horse would be prime because it will stand up better to harder work.

I have worked a lot of cows on big horses. The only problem is after 8 to 10 hour in the saddle that tall horse is hard to get off of the get a gate and get back on again.

Yes it is :) Did you take it?

I used to have that problem riding my 14.2hh gelding after a 5 hour trail ride .. hahaha