# What's reining and cutting?



## Brianna6432

I only ride western pleasure, so I'm not sure what all of these terms mean. Could you please explain? 
I heard reining was where the horse performs a series of stops, spins, blah, blah, blah... but I don't understand.


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## nrhareiner

"To Rein a horse is not only to guide him but to also control his every movement. The best reined horse should be willingly guided or controlled with little or no apparent resistance and dictated to completely. Any movement on his own much be considered a lack of control. All deviations from the eact written pattern must be considered a lak of or temporary loss of control and therefore a fault that must be marked down according to severity of the deviation......"

The scoring of a reining horse is on a positive numeric scale with 70 donating a correct performance. NRHA patterns are comprised of several distinct maneuvers groups which judges are asked to evaluate on an individual basis depending on execution as dictated by the pattern description and the rules for judging. The individual maneuvers are scored in 1/2 point increments from a low of -1 1/2 to a high of =1 1/2 and a 0 denoting a maneuver that is correct but has no difficulty.

This is just a quick description of what reining is. There is so much to it. There are 10 different patterns they all contain the same group of maneuvers done is different sequences. 

The NRHA is the governing body of the sport of reining.


Cutting is a sport where the Horse controls cow that has been cut out of herd of cattle. Normally about 30. They have 2 1/2 min. to showcase what their horse can do. Then can cut one cow or 10 but must be with in those 2 1/2 min. Normally you will see them work 3 cows per run. The idea is to totally mimic what the cow is doing and keep them from re joining the herd. Much like playing defense on Jordan.


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## SorrelHorse

nrhareiner nailed it, so I'm putting a few videos for examples so you can actually see what they are.

Reining - (yes I know its really long. Kudos if you watch it all)





 
Cutting - (Introduction to cutting by the NCHA, titled "The Thrill Of Cutting")


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## Brianna6432

So reining is basically just seeing how well your horse responds to your any commands?


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## iridehorses

Not to any commands but a specific pattern of movements - think in terms of Dressage when there are compulsatory manuvers that a horse must perform and they are compared against the "ideal" movement.

When cutting, a cow is brought out from a herd of cows and the cutter relies on the natural instinct of the cow wanting to return to the herd. A horse is unguided by his rider and must react on his own to counter all the moves the cow makes trying to return.


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## SorrelHorse

Exactly. You can kind of compare Cutting to sheepdogs. Even if they haven't been trained they have the natural cow sense that makes them want to chase/cut/herd the cows. What we do is we refine it and teach the horse how to do it correctly, but in that arena its up to the horse.


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## lolayla

OMG!!! that first horse that Shawn Flarida was riding!!! i have an issue with the rollbacks that are performed in the reining world. i see way too many horses that come out of their rollbacks sweeping wide. but oh man!! shawns horse was doing the perfect 180, loved it. and his flying lead changes, god you didnt even see them. gorgeous.


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## nrhareiner

That is why Shawn is a $3+ mill rider.


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## SorrelHorse

Oh yes, I've noticed that will all of Shawn's horses. They all rollback like that, and its absolutely gorgeous and I'm very jealous. Best rollback I ever got from my own horses was still about an inch from its tracks. Toni's horses are much better than mine, and they are what I learned on


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## nrhareiner

One of the best way to train that is when you role back you do more like a 240 or a 180 and then instead of loping off in a straight line you go into a circle so they get use to going around better. Like with any thing a horse will learn and want to cheat. So you do not let them learn that. This is a good exercise to stop them from wanting to cheat and not finish the rollback.


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## lolayla

nice, i will keep that in mind when i am practicing them with my mare.


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