The last cut has been run at the NHSFR of 2008. We have run the results, awarded the saddles and buckles and scholarships and boots and and and. Much as we bemoan the waiting for them to finish each performance, and the technical difficulties we usually have retrieving the official results from the arena, it's still my favorite event. Since the NHSRA, and rodeo in general, is partly the SCA for US Western frontier heritage, and specifically the skills of horsemanship, it's just possible that cutting cattle on horseback is the most authentic of the skills on display. Roping is certainly part of open-range cattle-herding, but if you can't cut the animal you want from the herd, you can't rope and deal with that animal. It's also the sport that is most dependent on the horse's skill, since the rider's contribution, once helping the horse choose a cow to play with, is primarily to put on their best poker face and stay in the saddle while the horse does all the dodging, challenging and running necessary to keep the cow away from its herd.You're given 2.5 minutes to cut. In that time, the best cutters can gently remove a single cow from the herd three times, and keep it out without having his buddies help keep it in play too much. Doing this while making it appear that the horse is doing it almost entirely on its own and picking active but not panicky cattle can earn you a score of 70+ per judge, so we have totals from three judges of 220+.
The judges' card is a series of merits and demerits that would make a figure skater cringe, however. Guessing the final score is hard for the unwashed masses, aside from obvious problems like losing a cow back to the herd or out the back of the arena, having your horse bite or otherwise molest the cattle, etc.
The fact that the horse is as much the competitor as the rider on his back means that consistently good scores in cutting show as much about the rider's ability to train and/or respect the training of the horse as their ability to perform in an arena. That's extra cool. And these horses are good.
Now, next time I'm bringin' the wifi gear to build a MESH backbone to get actual results digitally direct from the secretary's desk in the cutting barn, without having to use golf-cart-net or nasssty faxessss.
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2 comments:
I admit that there are some interesting things about cutting. It's still not my favorite thing to watch, though. Possibly I just need to learn more about it. And possible I'd like it better if it also involved roping and branding the cattle, which would be even more authentic. Or roping and branding them, and then driving them through a flooded stream and up the ramp of a Union Pacific cattle car. That would rock!
And if it's sheer excitement you're after, switching the cutting horses with bulldogging horses would certainly liven things up as well. Imagine a horse whose one training is to chase cows around the arena until the rider jumps off on one, plowing wide-eyed into the herd frothing with excitement at so many targets and totally bewildered when the rider refuses to jump on any for 2.5 minutes!
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