They do the regular cutting classes first, which is where the horse does all the work and your hand is down on thier neck, its pretty cool, but the horse has to be well trained. After that is the ranch cutting classes which are where you can still hold on to the reins and direct the horse. This is where the horse is still learning. This is where I would have competed. Also where Jardi competed with Avril in th Open class, and Maddie in the youth class. I believe they are ACHA shows (alberta cutting horse association) but not totally sure. They call it Rimcuts, which used to be held in Rimby but has been moved to Ponoka.
After the show was over, we used thier used cattle to practice on again and I still have trouble getting a cow out of the herd, but I can scoop one off the front. After that we had a few more awesome turns and we had to quit. But before we left the arena we stood in the corners while Bill Speight worked a 3 year old, that was pretty cool to watch him work with that colt and he sure improved.
The weather looked bad, so we thought we would stay overnight and go home Sunday afternoon. I had learned so much, I just wanted to ride more, but I knew our horses were done.
The first two are Matt, a high school rodeo kid I was practicing on, and the second twoa are Jardi and Avril. I still got to practice my timing cause its not quite right, but I think I will have lots of chances in the next few weeks.
