Cutting Horse Methods

To an outsider, if I told you everything Cox did in the name of training cutting horses, you would think he's an asshole. The spurring, the jerking, the slapping, the brain chain. I watch schooling all the time that I don't personally agree with. It's too harsh. I have a constant moral dilemma over how much of this should I tell my mother since Mom has a mare in full time training. At what point does education become cruel? (For instance, Cox spilled after working Lucy on the flag, that she was "a psycho")

Most people in the cutting horse world wouldn't even bat their eye at Cox's methods. Taking a horse, who has talent to start with, to do this job takes hours of schooling and precision. Sometimes that "precision" means drilling and scolding, over and over again.

Thursday, Cox decided to "lay a horse down," which is when someone ties up a front leg, and waits for exhaustion to cause the horse to lay down on the ground of the arena. This trick is saved for especially stubborn or spirited horses who are not accepting training. My friend John was going to do it to Sawyer, but luckily, Sawyer turned a turner in training, and it wasn't needed. All it does is makes the horse submit to handling and to be under human control.

The blue roan stallion fought the rope for some time, refusing his fate. He even reared up at some point. Eventually though, he became too tired, and he laid down and then rolled onto his side. Chase sat on him, and patted him over and over.