Cutting, One Run at a Time: A Practical Guide to Cutting Success - Softcover

Schulte, Barbra; Wells, Julie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0966258509 ISBN 13: 9780966258509

Publisher: Center for Equestrian Performance, 1999

Synopsis

Written by cutting horse trainer, teacher, international clinician and author, Barbra Schulte, Cutting, One Run At A Time is sure to become every cutter's personal cutting resource guide with all the information, tips, pictures, illustrations, and quotes needed to boost their cutting expertise...guaranteed. Plus, riders from any discipline will benefit from the first five chapters which are geared toward helping riders master high-performance skills and incorporate Barbra's Mentally Tough program into their everyday riding.

Divided into two major sections, the first section covers critical foundation skills outside of the cutting arena. It will help you to: Identify your goals
Build a strong support system
Choose a horse that suits your needs
Develop basic riding skills
Learn the mental skills of great competitors

Then the second half will give you many indispensable tips about how to ride and show in the arena. It will help you to: Master riding a trained cutting horse
Maintain your trained cutting horse
Develop your own showmanship style
Study cattle to be more in control
Execute confident herdwork strategies

Plus, you'll enjoy: Quotes from champion non-pro and pro riders like Paul Hansma, Lindy Burch, Winston Hansma, Kobie Woods, and Dick Gaines.

Summarized tips for quick reference.

Resource suggestions for cutting, as well as reined cow horse, reining, team penning, and other related events.

About this title

About the Author

Barbra Schulte loves her life in the horse world because it includes two distinct, yet intertwined passions. She is a professional cutting horse trainer and a Personal Performance Coach. In her cutting life, Barbra enjoys both training and showing young cutting horses on a national level. Her world-class horses have won over $800,000. Barbra has made history many times as the first woman to win national championships, including the NCHA Derby, NCHA Superstakes, and the prestigious Augusta Futurity. She conducts cutting clinics throughout the world.

Barbra's second passion is helping riders of all disciplines reach their full potential. She is a gifted teacher and brings this talent to you through her Mentally Tough program. Barbra trains recreational and competitive riders from the inside out. She is a Personal Performance Coach, certified by LGE Sports Science. Articles in many national publications continue to feature her work. Barbra has served as vice-president of the National Cutting Horse Association. She has made television appearances on "Good Morning America," ESPN, and the Outdoor Life Network. She is a regularly featured guest on several nationally syndicated radio programs. Barbra has produced a variety of training resources for all disciplines, publishes her own newsletter, and is an author. Her first book, Cutting, One Run At A Time, was recently released. Her other resource materials include: Barbra Schulte Cutting Video Series, a three-volume video set; Mentally Tough Riding, a complete training course for the competitive and recreational rider; Riding With Confidence and Coaching For Confidence, both are single audiocassettes; and Barrel Racing Series, a four-cassette audio series. Barbra lives in Brenham, Texas with her family. Her greatest joy is being happily married to Tom Schulte and being the mother of her 15-year-old, soon-to-be-driving son, Zane.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Chapter 4 - Develop Basic Riding Skills" is a discussion of basic horsemanship skills. It is divided into two sections. The first identifies correct body position (form) and the effects on the horse (function). The second section identifies basic warm-up maneuvers that allow you to communicate with your horse, both in and out of the arena. The excerpt shared here is but a brief overview of the information contained in the book. The information is accompanied by 11 photos, 3 "Info" sidebars, 2 "Tips" sidebars, and numerous quotes from well-known horsemen and horsewomen such as the one below. "When riding a horse, on eof the most important things to learn is balance. Without balance, you will not be able to show your horse with any skill." -- Paul Hansma CHAPTER 4: DEVELOP BASIC RIDING SKILLS There are several books on the market that cover horsemanship in great detail. The comments I make in this chapter only skim the surface. But, I do want to emphasize some basic skills that I feel are important . . . The potential performance of you and your horse will be at its highest only when your basic riding skills come instinctively. I'll begin by identifying how to find and maintain your center of balance. Then, I will discuss how the rest of your body complements your center of balance. You will be introduced to and begin to understand some additional basic riding skills, how to execute them, and what effect they have on your horse. It is critical that you practice these skills diligently-they are the core of your cutting. You become consistent in the show pen when you get in tune with your horse outside the show pen.

For example, when your center of balance is properly anchored, your legs will be in the correct position and your upper body will be aligned. Those positions allow your horse to do his job. When your center of balance is off, your upper body is naturally out of alignment, your legs and arms are stiff, and you inhibit your horse. Sometimes the effects are minor and your horse is only slightly off. But, at other times, rider errors can give a horse confusing or incorrect messages. As a result, your horse might miss, come out, or run off. Often, our horses are unfairly blamed for our errors. I urge you to be fair to yourself and your horse and master the basic riding skills outlined in this chapter. As you develop synchronism with your horse outside the arena, watch the results carry over naturally into practice and show situations. As you read this chapter, follow these steps in your learning: 1.

Intellectually understand correct riding positions while in the saddle. 2.

Know and be able to physically find the correct position on

demand. 3.

As you ride, consistently monitor yourself, remaining cognizant of when you are correct or incorrect. 4.

If you check in with yourself and know you are correct, continue on and experience the feeling. If you check in with yourself and you know you are incorrect - no

problem! Just make the necessary adjustments. Be

kind to yourself as you learn. Keep self-monitoring and self-correcting as long as it takes to master the skills. 5.

Let go. Allow yourself to feel your horse and find synchronism and rhythm in your riding. During these next two sections, I will be very systematic in my approach to describing form, function, and feel. I will tell you what, which refers to a description of the skill being discussed. Next, I will tell you why it is important. Finally I will tell you how to get it, which will outline key ideas to help you develop the feel you seek. PART ONE: The Skills A Secure Center of Balance What: Your physical center of balance is located in your lower abdominal area, which is the very core of your body. A horse's center of balance is located deep within his barrel behind his wither area. Your goal as a rider is to keep your center of balance in line with your horse's. When properly aligned you will feel connected with the horse as if an anchor has been dropped from within your center of balance directly into your horse's center of balance. You will feel stable, secure, and in control of the rest of your body. Why it is important: How far things go astray is in direct proportion to how far a rider's center of balance is off. There is nothing more important that you will learn in this book. When you maintain your center of balance, your mind and body follow naturally, which will allow your horse to do his job. How to get it: Position your seat in front of the cantle of your saddle. Rock slightly back on your seat bones. Instead of forcing your seat into the saddle, imagine things that evoke a feeling of softness and heavy weight in your hips and seat. Imagine that your abdomen and hips weigh 1,000 pounds. Then allow yourself to sink your weight softly into your horse. Imagine when you exhale that your breath drops through your abdomen, all the way into your horse's rib cage. Focus on mental images that evoke feeling. Images are powerful because they take you where you want to be automatically. As you find your seat, do not coach yourself to push hard into the saddle. When you concentrate on pushing yourself down, you create stiffness and tension throughout the rest of your body. For all your efforts, you will still feel that you are on top of your saddle and not connected with your horse.

When you lose your center of balance, regain it simply by bringing your awareness back to your abdomen. Repeat the steps above and focus on the feeling of being secure and easily anchored to your horse. This conscious awareness and focusing exercise will accelerate your ability to regain your center of balance. There is no cookbook approach to great herdwork. But, there are guidelines to help you feel more in control.

"Chapter 8: Gain Control in the Herd" introduces you to seven basic fundamentals regarding herdwork: * preparing to enter the herd,
* walking toward the herd,
* entering the herd,
* making the turn,
* making good, spontaneous, moment-to-moment decisions during the cut,
* putting your horse on the cow with authority, and
* developing feel with experience.
To help you get a "feel" for this chapter, I share with you here only a brief excerpt. There are 12 photos, 4 "Tips" sidebars, and 2 diagrams used in this chapter to help illustrate the seven specific skills covered, plus several quotes from well-known cutters that will help and inspire you. CHAPTER 8: GAIN CONTROL IN THE HERD Depending on how challenging you perceive a particular group of cattle to be, it's easy to feel vulnerable and out of control while you are in the herd. At some point, each of us have frozen up in the herd and merely hoped everything would work out. But, when you understand some basic dynamics of herdwork, you'll gain a wonderful sense of control. In essence, you'll approach the herd as if you are its manager-in charge of making a plan, setting out to execute it, and then responding to a three-dimensional, ever-changing scenario. Herdwork is a dynamic process. No two situations and no two cattle you encounter will be the same. Your job is to simply execute fundamental herdwork skills. Only then will you gain a sense of confidence and maximize your horse's show potential. As you experiment with the techniques in this chapter, you'll soon begin to trust your feel and instinct. You'll become flexible and responsive to changing situations. You'll be like a symphony conductor, orchestrating gorgeous cuts with authority and presence in the middle of the arena. You'll maintain your cool and keep the calm demeanor necessary to execute make-it-or-break-it decisions. The Ideal Cut Let's begin with a vision of the ideal cut. Once you have this picture in your mind, I'll describe the steps that lead you there. My description starts from near the finish of the cut and works backwards. The most important goal is to cut clean, in the middle of the arena. In order to best accomplish this, you want to end up with cattle driven up to the center of the arena forming a loose, fan shape in front of your horse. Ideally, they should be 15 to 20 or more feet beyond the rest of the herd on the back fence. When cattle are loosely grouped or spread out in a fan shape, you can view individual cattle better. You can make better decisions about their behavior based on what you see. It also helps cattle stay more responsive to the horse because they are not in a tight wad, and they are in a position to see the horse. In this situation, you and your horse have a better chance of connecting to cattle in a smooth, effortless way. What you do not want is for the cattle to be driven out so that they form a tight, milling, anxious group in front of your horse. When that happens, you can't read how individual cattle will act because they are moving in mass and in circles and don't show their individuality. As cattle drift back to the herd during the cut, your job is to observe, moment to moment, and respond appropriately to cut the best cow for that particular situation. You then take charge of the cow you choose in the middle of the arena by stepping confidently to her head and neck area. Make sure you pause your horse's forward motion. Smoothly lower your hand and begin working. The most effective cattle selection strategy is a combination of cutting specific cattle and cutting for shape. At this point in our discussion, I believe it's important to define cutting for shape and cutting specific cattle. Cutting for shape is the process of driving a group of cattle out to the center of the arena and cutting whichever cow best presents itself on that cut. You do not have specific cattle in mind. During shape cuts, you use your eyes to scan the group of cattle in front of you as you patiently wait to make your decision about which cow to cut Cutting specific cattle is the process of entering the herd with the intent to cut pre-selected cattle. Cutting specific cattle involves watching them as they are settled and/or worked by other cutters in order to select the best cattle based upon your observations. You switch to a shape cut if your pre-selected cattle can't be cut smoothly in the center of the arena. Many experienced cutters enter the herd with three or four good cattle in mind. As they walk through the herd, they manipulate it through movements and turns, placing good cattle in prime cutting positions. If a cutter's game plan begins to go awry-because of the ever-changing dynamics of the cattle, helpers, or their own moves-their finely-tuned instincts allow them to be very flexible and cut the best cow for the situation-always in the center of the arena. With that picture planted in your mind, this chapter will talk you through seven steps during your cut. Follow me now and begin to see your herdwork skills as a step-by-step process.

Edition details

• Publisher: Center for Equestrian Performance
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0966258509
• ISBN 13: 9780966258509
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320