This Will Make Your Head Turn As You Ride Your Cutting Horse

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.

Before I tell you the tips, I want to let you know how this came about.

I went to a cutting a few weeks ago and videoed my runs.

As I studied three different runs, I noticed an intermittent stiffness in my right side and right shoulder as my horses initiated the right turn.

“Hmmm … that #$@%^s. That has GOT TO GO!” Those were my soft-spoken, positive, self-talk remarks.

But how? (Old dog/new trick concept went through my head!)

Bear with me here as I digress and go back a little further in time.

Since my Dad first taught me to ride a cutting horse as a little girl, I have heard trainers try to correct all forms of aberrations of the desired cutter’s quiet, deep seat, with shoulders squarely over the hips during a cutting turn.

As you probably already know, a quiet upper body deeply anchored in the saddle, with soft eyes on the cow during the turn, allows a cutting horse to turn in correct form and rhythm with the cow … without interference from the rider.

This is one of the absolutely toughest skills for a cutter to master.

Poor execution afflictions range from slight shoulder stiffness, to shoulder dipping, to upper body leaning, to complete body writhing!

These behaviors are often accompanied by poor to catastrophic feet errors, wrinkled foreheads, clenched teeth, and little beady eyes not watching the cow … or intermittently staring off in space somewhere in the dirt near the vicinity of the cow.

Okay, I’m back now to my original story.

A few days after the show, I happened to revisit an educational manual written for ski instructors. This book was a gift to me from Ed Forner, a Canadian ski instructor. He sent it to me after reading one of these newsletter articles.

Ed shared it because many of the concepts for skiing instruction are similar to cutting coaching. The manual is interesting, and helpful. Thanks again, Ed.

I opened it by chance to a page that describes how to help someone maintain correct form and technique for a ski turn. The text recommends that a skier should allow his shoulders to remain squarely over his upper body and face the same direction … now this point is the key idea … at the same time his head turns to look in the direction of an impending turn.

It also discusses “delayed direction change”.

I started thinking about how this might apply to cutting.

At the same time, I also started watching people ride. I noticed that when people make the errors I described above, some form of rigidity always occurs on the cow-side part of the upper body.

Long story short … all this data caused me to experiment with some new ideas to help eliminate these errors and help all of us consistently feel that gorgeous, smooth cutting turn.

I practiced these tips myself and continue to do so. I also used them to coach some of my amateurs. I love the results.

So, here are the new ideas. See if they help you remain deep, and soft, and quiet as you allow your horse to turn.

1.) In cutting we are always coached to “watch the cow”. I am all over that idea. Absolutely necessary. But, no one ever suggested that we can watch the cow softly by turning our head to follow the movement of the cow with our eyes.

2.) I suggest you try the following exercise first on a flag. Then, you can put it to work on a cow. If you don’t have a flag, just go for it with a cow.

3.) Travel with the flag and do all the normal stuff you do … stop straight in the correct position and shift your horse’s weight to his hindquarters.

4.) Before you move the flag in the opposite direction, consciously soften the inside of your body (your shoulder, ribs and waist on the side nearest the flag). I’m not talking about leaning down toward the flag. I’m talking about sitting squarely over your hips and just releasing tension. You will be amazed at the stiffness on this side of your body. Release it. Breathe into it. Soften. Take whatever time you need on the flag to do this. Don’t move until you do this part. Don’t rush. Breathe.

4.) Then, before you move the flag in the opposite direction, VISUALIZE sitting squarely over your hips with the inside of your body soft, and ALLOWING your head to turn to follow the flag with your eyes. Also visualize ALLOWING your upper body to “be delayed” as it naturally stays softly over your horse as your head turns.

5.) Move the flag. Let your head turn as your eyes watch the flag. Let your body follow. Experience this feeling.

6.) Stop the flag. Do whatever “normal stuff” you need to do with your horse. Then repeat the above steps again.

Remember, you have to practice many, many times slowly at first to make anything a habit. Slow down.

I hope these ideas help you find an improved feeling of allowing your cutting horse to move like silk beneath you.

No matter what, these tips will be fun for you to try!

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Comments

2 Comments on This Will Make Your Head Turn As You Ride Your Cutting Horse

Janie Larson on Thu, 8th Jul 2010 10:32 am

TALK ABOUT AN "AH-HA" moment for this day!!!!! I skied for years with Hugh and Dolly Armstrong (Dad and Mom to Debbie Armstrong…..our U.S. Gold Metal skier in the Olympics)……from Alpental, Washington. We talked a lot about softening the body to absorb the terrain……and to "skim" the top of it as we kept our upper bodies facing the "fall line" (downhill) while our EYES….and our LOWER BODY stayed soft and responsive!!!!! So here I am riding my cutter…..going STIFF in all the wrong places……….and it’s the same deal………ride the horse straight, stop straight, await the cows movement and GO WITH IT…..keeping the eyes soft……and the lower body moving WITH THE HORSE!
In every thing, there is a nugget of information I can use and MAKE MY OWN! Thank you for this one………..

Lori Hall-McNary on Thu, 8th Jul 2010 12:17 pm

Great article on change. The tip on turning your head to watch the cow confirms what I try to teach my students who are out just "playing" cow.
Thank you. Lori

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