Ten Tips to Improve Your Cuts

“Cuts make runs. It’s a domino effect.”

These are the words of Russell McCord, Director of Judges at the National Cutting Horse Association.

Russell’s insights had laser-like clarity about how a judge views runs during a three-day showing clinic. Front views, as well as an elevated, rear video angle provided lots of situations to explain key points.

Much time was spent discussing herdwork because of the potent positive or negative consequences cuts have on a score.

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I’m Not Talking About Quitting Our Sport!
I’m Talking About Quitting a Cow!

A big challenge for many cutters is understanding the “whys” of an instruction.

We cutters have a love-hate relationship with the fact that our sport requires moment-t0- moment decisions.

It’s the nature of our sport. There are no pre-set patterns or courses. We have to make decisions on the spot. We hold the reins. 

This makes our sport exciting … and sometimes frustrating.

One of these crucial decisions during competition is when to quit a cow and go for another. Click here to read on…

Understand This and Improve Your Horsemanship
And, You Can Practice This Without Cattle

A big challenge for many cutters is understanding the “whys” of an instruction.

This article provides an outline regarding how the parts of your body (and their movements) affect your horse.

Beyond becoming more knowledgeable about horsemanship in general, my hope is that this information will give you “reasons” for the nuances in your riding. Perhaps, as your mentors make suggestions, you will think, “Ahhh, now that makes sense!”

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Make This One Little Change and You Just Might Sit Quietly In the Turn

I have a story to tell you about learning to sit still on your cutting horse.

I came across a very powerful new way to help you sit quiet in the turn … and not lean … and not twitch your body … and gain better timing with your feet.

The tips I’m about to share are novel … at least to me. They evolved because of my own need to be more quiet in the saddle.

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Misuse of Your Herd Side Leg

As you continue to advance your cutting horse skills, one of your biggest challenges could be learning how to use your feet accurately.

Your feet are instrumental in communicating lots of messages to your horse including acceleration, direction on the line, movement of one of the horse’s body parts (like a hip), softening a body part (like a stiff rib cage), or asking a horse to look at a cow … just to name a few.

And to add to your challenge, the correct way to use your feet on any given horse depends on how that horse was trained … which might be extra confusing.

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Have you ever had a cutting horse that was difficult to get to the ends, especially at a show? This is often accompanied by turns that aren’t too pretty (flips) and then ending up out of position ahead of the cow as you travel across the pen.

The whole thing can feel awful.

The reason this happens is that until you get the hang of staying even with a cow as you travel at all speeds across the arena, it feels like you are suddenly in the south 40 pasture as you travel to the wall. Early on in your learning, the middle of the arena feels safe and the ends feel vulnerable.

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a light, portable, very affordable, battery-driven flag to have at home and/or take with you!

Join me, along with Al Dunning and Nelson Sieden, this coming Tuesday, April 13th at 7:00 PM CST for a special information-packed teleconference.

We will introduce this latest CowTrac innovation and answer any machine related or general flag use questions you might have.

Go to this link now to sign-up for the call.

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I was asked this question recently:

“How do you know, honestly, what your skill level is? I might think I am better or worse than I really am. Do you tell by the judge’s score? Do you tell by well meaning peers who say you had a great run even when you didn’t? This confuses me. Perhaps the horse isn’t up to your skill level. There are so many variables.”

The beginning of my answer is a short story about an experience I had when I trained at LGE Sports Science, Inc.

The goal of one particular class exercise was to rank where we each were regarding 30 emotional variables on a continuum from 1-10, i.e., passive to aggressive, unmotivated to motivated, etc.

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