Cutting Horse showing his skills
 

That is very cool
Must take a lot of hours of training.

Horses can be pretty GD smart

Our horses used to chase them for fun. Naughty.

That has GOT to be serious saddle time for the training.

Amazing how low down the horse gets. The rider is just that, a rider, along for the ride!!! Lol.

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I'm not sure we can actually "train" a horse for that. Breed them, yes, train them, no. That is a lot of breeding and instinct with very little real guidance.

I've learned two things from being around these darn things way too much. One, the smartest horse on the planet is one hell of a lot dumber than the dumbest dog on the planet. That's the only reason we get to ride them. Two, the best horse in the world is someone else's horse. Who lets you ride it...

Let's see them do it without the rider.

Cutting horses? They need to know which cow to cut, after that the rider just stays out of the way. There's a fair amount of breeding/training involved, but beyond that its up to the horse.

Are they crazy smart? No, I'd sorta agree with Jeff. They're prey animals in the wild, so their behavior patterns are more built around that. A good one will eventually learn to trust its rider, but when the feces hits the fan bets can be off even with a really good one. I've learned over the years to value steadiness more than beauty or athleticism, as its harder to find.

And yes, they can be like boats money pit wise.

I bet once the rider has shown it which one, he could probably get off and watch from there.

And yes, prey animals. That run, as their only real form of self defense, in spite of their size. Oh, we have all heard of them stomping cougars, coyotes, and the like, but believe me, their first instinct is to run. Right after they panic...

One of my favorite, illustrative horse stories: I used to stop after work to help my sister in law exercise their horses. One day we were riding from her place to a trail about a mile away, just riding down the shoulder of the road. I was on Maverick, their new American Quarter Horse. Pretty green, I think maybe three or four years old. Laura was in front, on Primo, her 20-some year old on whom my boys learned to ride. Steady Eddy all the way.

At one point Laura looks back at me and tells me "you need to cross the road".

"Oh, why is that? The trail is on this side."

"See those sheep?"

"Yup."

"Maverick is terrified of sheep."

And yes, by then, I could feel him getting jittery, so we crossed. He wouldn't take his eyes off of them, and it was all I could do to keep him somewhat "calm".

Next thing I know, Laura tells me to cross back over to the other side again. So I told her we were fine where we were for now.

Now she says "see those mail boxes?"

There was a stand of half a dozen mail boxes coming up. So I said "your kidding me, he's afraid of mail boxes too?"

"No, not at all. But he thinks they're sheep..."

You have not met my mother in law's dog. That dog was by far the lowest IQ of any animal I have ever seen.

Horses think everything is a horse eating alien.

Another fun horse story. This time I was riding Primo, out back in his own darn pasture. We were in a light canter, just enjoying the day. Laura was inside the house doing something, so I figured we would go between the barn and the house and check on her. Next thing I know, Primo has locked 'em up - full on stop as fast as a horse can stop. Caught me completely off guard. I was riding him bare back, as I mostly did with Primo, with just a blanket on his back and no saddle. So, with no pommel in the way to slow me down, my chest hit the back of his neck and head and over I went. Full somersault to laying flat on my back on the ground in front of him. Wind knocked out of me, wondering what might be broken, gasping for air. Primo standing over me like nothing had happened.

Next thing I know, Laura is standing over me asking if I'm o.k. I was, thankfully, but now I'm wondering "WTF???!!!"

Well, her and my brother in law, Allan, were going to put up a greenhouse between the house and the barn. They had it staked out, with stakes and string. We've all seen that - white string, about 3-4" off the ground. So Laura points at the string and says "oh, he won't go over those strings. They scare the hell out of him. Probably should have told you..."

So, yeah, white string, close to the ground. Something new in his pasture that he had never seen before. Terrified. A 1,200 pound god damned animal, over 20 years old, a very experienced horse. And a piece of string.

Yeah. Just put a trashcan out by the road where there wasn't one yesterday and let the fun begin from there....

I saw a great video of a real cowboy in the wide open spaces checking a new calf and tagging the ear. Momma cow was not happy about it. His horse just blocked the cow from getting close to him at every move. The cow circled around the the horse just stayed between the cowboy and the cow all on it's own.