Horse and cow eye-to-eye. Noses to the ground, ears forward, forelegs spread, haunches firmly planted, breathing quick and deep. Horse against cow . . . same as it was 100 years ago. And again just yesterday.
First to move, always, is the cow, then the horse. Good horses do, anyway, within the fluttering of a cow's eyelash. Those that don't look back toward the herd for another, less formidable cow, and try again.And the rider? Oh yes, the rider. He goes with the saddle. Nothing more. That's the way it's supposed to look, anyway.
Cutting is to show off good horses and good cows, but not necessarily good riders. The better riders blend into the horse.
That's what cutting is . . . and was back when early wranglers applied their trade of cutting out cattle to a little after-hours fun. This was back when a rider was no better than his horse, and proof was in doing the job before a crowd.
It's different today only in that modern wranglers do it for sport and money. Big money. More money in just one event than an early cowboy would likely see in 100 lifetimes. More than $1 million was awarded at the last World Cutting Horse Championships.
Cutting is, as it was then, the simple act of singling out a cow and then, for 2 1/2 minutes, keeping the cow from rejoining the herd. Cows like herds and will try every move to get back in the group. The horse is supposed to counter these moves, quickly and gracefully, to stop the cow from going back.
According to Bob Condie, a Utah breeder and top cutting rider, one cow usually doesn't do it. Judges, he said, look for excitement in a ride. A tired cow isn't exciting, nor, in a judge's view, is a horse cutting a tired cow.
"So when the cow starts to lose its snap, you signal you're pulling off, then go into the herd for another cow. Ideally, you want to work two cows. Each time you go into the herd you lose cutting time. You've got to be careful though. If you let a cow back into the herd, you're through. You lose too many points," he explained.
And therein rests one of the main duties of the rider. That is, to pick the cows for the horse to work. Good cows show off good horses, bad cows don't. Good riders learn to pick good cows.
They pick them as carefully as they would an apple on a produce table. They see which cows have been worked and which are fresh. They look for spring in the steps and a quickness in their moves. They also look for distinguishing marks to identify the good cows. There isn't time when the clock is running.
In the arena, too, riders pay a great deal of attention to the cows. They are quick to pull off a slow cow or a cow that is tiring, and quick to pick up a cow "that'll go out there and try to eat your horse's lunch," said Condie.
"You can't sit back and coast. Not in the big events, anyway. Not anymore. There are too many good horses. To win you have to go all out."
Which is why cows are so important. Cows must be active. So in some cases, in order to get the best stock, cattle are selected months in advance of big events. As many as 8,500 head may be used for one seven-day event.
In actual competition, 15 horses, one at a time, will work a herd of 45 cows. Those riders at the top of the draw can usually cut any cow and feel comfortable, but those at the bottom have to be very selective.
Rider and horse are judged on many points during a ride, among them difficulty of the cow, how effectively the cow was "cut" from the herd, how stylishly the horse worked and whether the rider was visably aiding the horse.
Ideally, said Condie, it should look like the horse is doing all the work and the rider none of it.
"Really, though, the rider helps. There are a lot of subtle techniques you learn. To win you have to have a lot of subtle controls on the horse. It can't get to a point where the horse is waiting for you, but you have to help.
"That's when it's exciting, when the horse really gets into it . . . its head is down, its nose almost on the ground, just standing there eye-to-eye with the cow, just like a pointer on point. There's so much expression there."
Most of the horses used in cutting, said Condie, are quarter horses. They are built for this type of work. They are quick, strong, sturdy and have well developed flanks and lower hocks (lower joints on a horse's hind leg) for quick turns.
Training, said Condie, begins when the horse is a yearling. By the time the horse is 2, it's ready to be ridden. Not long after that the horse is put with a cow. As more cows enter the pen and training continues, it will become apparent to the trainer that the horse has the ability to "cow," as they say in the trade. Not all horses can, and some are better than others.
Then it's a matter of time and repetition.
"You find that some horses like to do it, some do it more out of training. If you've got a great horse, you let the horse show its desires. The exciting ones you spend a lot of time with and are consistent in the way you train them," he said.
Very good horses, he continued, are pulled off the local circuit - Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada - and sent into the big area where a world champion is crowned. Not many horses make it to the top, only 35 - one a year - since the world championships were started.
Condie was there once, in 1981, with a mare called "Doc's Marmoset." The horse, in fact, won the triple crown of cutting - the World Championships, the Futurity and the Maturity - and is the only horse to have done it.
"And," admitted Condie, "I think she'll be the only horse to do it, mainly because of the (large) numbers (of horses) involved now."
The fact that Utah has horses winning major events - Utahn Bob Mendenhall also won a national futurity event - points to a growing interest in cutting in Utah. Although the numbers are low - of the 14,000 in the National Cutting Horse Association only 200 have Utah addresses - the quality is high.
Growing interest is one reason. Another is an expanded schedule. This year, on the "local" circuit, which includes competition in neighboring states, there will be about 35 events.
Among the scheduled events is one at Island Park, Idaho, July 22-24, and a Futurity, Derby and Aged Event in Ogden starting Oct. 5.
Another reason is, of course, what Condie called the excitement of the "look" . . . head down, ears forward, forelegs set, staring eye-to-eye . . . "That's cutting."