Did you know they cut horses in Sweden? In fact, cutters there overcome many hurdles to practice the sport, such as sub-zero temperatures, a lack of heated arenas, restrictions on cattle movements and herd sizes and more!
But William Nottberg, who flew from Sweden to attend a Wayne Robinson Clinic, says despite those challenges, cutting is a growing sport there.
Will spoke to CHTO’s Simone Cobb about where cutting is at in Sweden and what he learned at Wayne’s clinic to take back and share.
It’s a sight synonymous with cutting: dozens of horses next to the show arena being loped, and in some cases loped more and a few cases, loped more still lol! Yes, there are horses that need a lot of preparation while others just need to stretch and warm up. So do you know, exactly what your horse needs and can you tell when your horse has reached that ideal, show-ready state?
Below you’ll find some great tips for loping by one of the industry’s top lopers Miranda Westfall. But first let’s explain why we even lope horses before competition.
Cutting is an explosive sport, where horses gather up their power in the stop in order to pounce in the right direction, at the right time and in just the right amount to block the cow. But if they have too much energy stored in their bodies, they pounce too far and from there it all unravels.
When people participate or watch sports many people make the statement, ‘mind over matter’ or ‘it’s all about your mental game,’ but how many athletes train their brain to prepare for a competition?
“When you get to those really elite levels [of sports], you have athletes telling you it’s 96-97-98 percent mental,” said mental skills coach Tonya Johnston. “[People need to] understand that your mental skills are absolutely apart of the package as far as seeing yourself as an athlete.”
Johnston has her Masters in sports psychology and specializes in working with equestrian athletes, traveling across the holding clinics and working with equestrian sports teams such as Stanford, Smith and USC. Johnston emphasizes in her clinics and book “Inside your Ride,” that taking time to work on your mental game is just as important as working on the physical aspect. country
“When you spend 10, 12, 15 hours a week on physical and zero hours on mental skills, that could be where nerves and stress come from,” Johnston said. “Because I believe it’s much more mental activity, my competing is much more mental but all of my practice is in the physical realm.”
Johnston states that when your physical game is to a certain level, when it comes to competition day it is about making good choices mentally while in the moment.
“[When] the physical is dialed in, they know how to get the most out of themselves, they know how to connect with their horse and communicate with their horse and they understand that on any given day it’s about being present,” Johnston said.
One of the best pieces of advice Johnston mentioned was focusing on the positive.
Many people focus on bad days [and ask] what did I do? What happened? Why didn’t I ride well?” Johnston said. “I look first and foremost at good days-what are you already doing naturally and help that become part of [your] routine.”
Some other ways Johnston recommended to become more consistent and improve your mental game in the arena is by:
Visualizing
Tracking goals
Making sure your energy is in a good place
Making sure you’ve got a routine in place
Lastly Johnston notes that it’s just as important for you to have a routine as much as your “horse before competing, such as stretching, loosening up and having a plan for when you’re in a hotel.
“When you have an amazing run, think back to how did you prepare yourself, where was your focus, what were you saying to yourself, what were you doing before you got on your horse,” Johnston said.
To hear more tips from Tonya Johnston, listen to the full interview at: https://chtolive.com/podcasts/ (Gold and Platinum members get full access to podcasts, Silver members get access for seven days when new podcasts are uploaded.)
Please review the following guidelines prior to posting in the CHTO Community Facebook group.
We at CHTO are super happy to have you in our member’s Facebook Group!
Make sure you read through this post for some awesome tips and resources.
This group is a great place to share your cutting horse experiences, your awesome results using CHTO, get to know other CHTO users, and to share/learn tips and tricks for showing, training, riding and hauling.
In order to foster greater positivity in this group and to ensure the right expectations, we have come up with the following group guidelines below:
Keep it positive. Be helpful. Have fun. 🙂
Enjoy the opportunity to receive peer-to-peer assistance. Trainers are busy and we will do our best to get a direct answer to questions however it may not be possible. All members are welcome to answer any questions.
No promos (affiliate or personal).
Please do not post video, live or otherwise!
No seeking of website support. If you have any other questions or concerns, please reach out via the email support@chtolive.com or call us on 877-395-4888
No making rants. Please direct those to the Support team (to those in the company who can actually address your issues properly).
No tagging of anyone on the CHTO team (unless you’re reporting a violation you feel they need to see).
No negative or “public shaming” posts of any kind (whether of CHTO, its team, or of other group members). They will be deleted and you will most likely be banned.
Duncan helps you to cut through the sometimes overwhelming amount of video content on CHTO and highlights a great video you should be sure to watch. This month, Duncan puts the focus on master farrier Wayne (Link) Baumann’s videos about how to keep your horse sound by using x-rays to ensure you shoe each foot on your horse correctly!
Click on the video below to watch. If you’d like to watch Wayne’s videos, you will find the link directly below the video player.
Duncan’s hot tip for April is to watch Morgan Cromer’s video for a great exercise on improving your cuts. Listen to why he thinks it’s great timing to check it out now by clicking on the video below.
Tatum Rice made history last night when he won the 2017 NCHA Super Stakes open final.
All three generations of the Rice family have now won at least one major title in the famed Will Rogers coliseum. You could easily say the Rices are cutting’s most successful family in the sport.
Tatum rode Hashtags and marked a 220 that couldn’t be beaten.
Tatum told CHTO’s Simone Cobb he had a good feeling coming into the final.
Tatum took home just over $74,ooo for the win, taking his lifetime earnings to more than $1.43-million.
It was a close contest with Clay Johnson clinching Reserve just half a point behind on Melting Snow. James Payne came in third with Hot Revolver on a 219.
After an exciting four-person run off, Joel Colgrove finished victorious in the Amateur Classic at the 2017 NCHA Super Stakes.
Joel rode Preycious Gem and marked a 220 to beat out Kenny Warner, Jimmy Baros, and Katherine Vanboekel.
All four scored 217 in the final to force the runoff.
Joel told CHTO’s Simone Cobb, despite the extra nerves, he had a lot of fun with the extra run.
All four competitors shared the prize money, each taking home approximately $7,000. By winning the run off, Joel claimed the title, buckle and other prizes.
Rowdy Larson dominated the 2017 Super Stakes Limited Open Final.
Rowdy rode Johnny English to victory scoring a 222 and was Reserve champion aboard Metallic Ina with a solid 217.
Rowdy has now won in excess of $292,000 in lifetime earnings and he spoke to CHTOs Duncan Steele-Park about his first title in the Will Rogers Coliseum.
What a day for the Colgrove family! Grandad Joel, won the first final of the day and then his fifteen year old granddaughter Blakley Colgrove won the Classic Non Pro Finals at the 2017 Super Stakes!
Blakley rode her six year old gelding Paradox Cat to victory scoring an impressive 225 winning $17,412, adding to her current lifetime earnings of $539,323.
Blakley spoke to CHTOs Duncan Steele-Park about her win and where she plans to show Paradox Cat, now that he will be out of the aged events at the end of this year.
Traci Burgess won reserve on La Deja Vu with a 223 and Amando Costa Neto came third aboard Watch Me Whip just a half point behind.
It was an overjoyed Jessica Feiner who won her first major title in the Will Rogers when she placed first in the Limited Non Pro Classic at the 2017 Super Stakes in Fort Worth.
Jessica rode B Nimble to mark a 220, first out in the herd. Jessica bought the horse, by Dual Smart Rey out of Dennys Freckle, at the Breeders Invitational last year. Collecting just under $10,000 for the win, B Nimble has doubled its lifetime earnings, while Jessica’s now come to $156,000.
She told CHTO’s Simone Cobb she was excited to also make the Non Pro Classic finals on the horse, another first for her.
Reserve champion was won by Debbie Day on Ringtime Style scoring 216.5 and third was split three ways between Tracey Woodward on Stylish Look Bella, Hilary Watson aboard Shady Lil CD and Don Smith and his horse, Shes Precious Metal. They all marked a 212.
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