Hey, I am not really sure exactly how to phrase this question (these questions?) so please give me a break...the thoughts are still kind of a diffuse mess in my head.

OK, Western horse sports when they do the real shit: Cutting, reining and what not. What is the training and stuff for this type of discipline. I don't mean "how do they train the horse to follow the cow." I'm more talking, I guess, about the horses' way of going??

Example: You know when somebody is just starting out riding or when somebody doesn't ride at all and they watch, for example, an equitation course. It looks, to them, like all that goes on is the rider pointing the horse at the jumps and the horse jumping over them. They wouldn't really imagine that the horse needs to be "trained" to do anything more than hop over shit. But we spend fucking YEARS training/flatting/schooling but, AGAIN, when somebody doesn't know about horses and they watch you schooling, it probably looks just like a "warm-up" that a human athlete might do before they pole vaulted or something. Or maybe it just appears to be "exercise". They don't understand the crap that goes on in training.

I feel this is how I am when it comes to western riding. I really do not understand how they are training the horses. As far as movement, carriage, and all that other shit: What are they looking for in a good cutting horse and how do you improve on any natural abilities?? Is there as much to be discussed as all the DQs can talk about regarding their sport?

Sorry that it took me more than a month to see and respond to this. I have been graduating and student teaching, got engaged, and am generally super busy.

From what I understand (which is apparently more than you, but not by much, and I am by no means an expert) training cutting horses is about improving on the gifts they are given. Horses are either cow-y or not, and there isn't a whole heck of a lot you can do about it. I would not compare it to dressage, although I have heard people do so. I don't think cutting requires the same level of refinement. If you are trying to compare a western sport to dressage, I would look to reining first, and western riding and trail second. Cow sense is considered a genetic trait. We have all probably seen cattle dogs or herding dogs who run fences and nip heels. This is the same thing, but magnified and perfected. When you show a cutting horse, you drop your hand and let them work the cow. When you pick your hand up, it had better be when you're done, or you will not score well. Everything comes from your leg. This is pretty similar to reining. A lot of horses do reining and working cow horse, and a lot of roping horses are also used in team penning. Cutting is a little bit more specialized. I have owned quarter horses who were deathly afraid of cows. It is really a gift that some have.

Good cutting horses control the cow completely. They stay lower to the ground, and are able to work the cow in a smaller area. They anticipate the cow's next movement. A good cutting horse will make a cow will quickly give up. One of the requirements is also making a "deep cut." A cutting horse has to be able to walk through the middle of a herd of cattle and separate one. There are people "settling the herd," who help contestants pick their cow. Some are more stubborn, or bigger, or more tired than others.

It is easier to distinguish levels of skill in reining than it is in cutting. This is one of the things that makes it more similar to dressage than some of the other western sports. There are RQs just like there are DQs. My sister had the chance to spend the afternoon on a couple of really nice reining horses over the summer. She said the thing she couldn't get used to was that they were so reactive. Shift half an inch, and they're stopped, or spinning, or changing leads. I would imagine a top notch dressage horse would be very similar. She's playing with a lot of very expensive toys in this video, but I think it is too funny! So this is what happens when someone who has been riding hunters and HUS horses for 10+ years gets on a reiner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV54yrApNMg
She would be a good resource if you were interested in learning more.

Thanks!!

When I was a working student for a dressage trainer, she used to take her trick-trained movie horse, who was trained to ride western, to some lessons with a cutting trainer in Pawling so she could ride him better. They would say that the horse either "had cow" or didn't. Like, "that new horse we got sure has cow." We thought that was funny...