Cutting Clinic Day 2

Another fun day of working cattle. Everyone's horses had showed tons of improvement from the first day. The weather held out long enough for everyone to get lots of practice in. About the time that we were done for the day, it started raining. I took Suzette this time and introduced her to the mechanical cow and real cattle for the first time. She did really great. I was surprised at how well she had a nice stop. Being half arab and half teke, I knew that I would have my work cut out for me in that department - but it was a very nice and impressive stop and "whoa". We later worked out of the herd, and she learned how to sort and split them out by herself. Some of the cows were bigger than she was...

Don and Brownie. Brownie did really great the second day.

My mom and Maggie, another horse that my parents raised. I really like taking pictures of Maggie - she is so fast that I almost have to have my camera set on a different mode. There are a couple of pictures that were so fast that they blurred. She is an incredibly nice horse.

A good example of how fast this mare is. It's hard to take photos of her without them blurring...

Jean and Shady cutting.

Cathy and Sissy. They showed really great improvement on the second day as well.

Dr. Fred and Barbie (Bar B). She is a very talented young horse.

We had two new people come on the second day. This is Debbie from Hermiston and her young horse Cody. They were at about the same place in training that I was, (just getting introduced to working cattle). Debbie is a barrel racer, and to her credit she was trying something new for a change. It's very good to try new things!

Larry Bonnet working a cow with Cody. Larry is a horse shoer from Hermiston and also an active team roper.

Rob and Scotch.

Ann and Powerball. That little arab is getting into it!

Me and Suzette working a single cow. We worked from the herd later, but didn't get any photos of that. Thank you to Jeff Wilson for getting these few snapshots of us working the single.

Jean coaching me to push it out. Suzette didn't want to get up close to the cow and move it, so we practiced riding towards it's shoulder and making it move away from us. It built her confidence up, and she learned that it was okay to get up close to it and bully it a little bit, instead of shrinking back like a scared little mouse.

Hurrying to cut it off at the other end.

By the end of the day she was sorting through the herd and bumping them with her nose to move them out. It was great improvement for a young green horse that had never seen a cow before.
-Shannon.