Cutting purgatory

Cutting is a rodeo event. Cutting involves:

1. Unloading cattle herds
   
2. Culling unloaded cattle herds
3. Changing culled unloaded cattle herds
4. Settling changed culled unloaded cattle herds
5. Raking an arena for the settled changed culled unloaded cattle herds to mill about in
   
6. Arraying 4 herdholders, 3 judges, 1 secretary, 1 event director, 1 timer and 1 announcer, and possibly an anthem singer
   
7. Ummmm....
8. Oh, yeah. Occasionally we let a contestant walk a highly trained, expensive quarterhorse into the settled changed culled unloaded cattle herd and try to separate one out to play with for 2.5 minutes per turn.

As you can see, the priorities are heavily on the cattle, and not so much on the proceeding with the competitive event. This is probably why cutting lasts so long.

< Announcer Voice >
"Cutting horse competition! Lasts 35% longer than any other event on the market!"
</ Announcer Voice >

It takes longer to have 2 groups of 20-25 cutters complete their event than to operate 5 of any other rodeo events. By at least an hour. This is why many of these blog posts are likely to appear during the long tail of the rodeo performance comet - that point after the bright chunk of rodeo rock in the timed and rough stock arenas is gone, and before we can run the cumulative award results, like all-around cowperson, state team ranks, and AQHA Horse Of The Year.

We are trapped in a cutting purgatory. Help!