During the week, Lisa Britz is an agrologist at Viterra Industries in Humboldt.
But when the weekend rolls around, Britz, her husband Evan, and their two children spend their time on horseback — riding, practicing, and competing in the sport of cutting horses.
“That’s our life, that’s our hobby,”said Britz. “We do cutting and horses for our hobby. Our whole family does.”
In 2011, Britz won the $15,000 Amateur Division Champion award for an accumulation of events she competed in over the season in Saskatchewan. Her prize was a big, shiny buckle that she was given at the Saskatchewan Cutting Horse Association’s year-end banquet in Regina, January 14, 2012.
Although she didn’t grow up in the saddle, Britz says she and her husband have been involved with horses for over 20 years. In the last 10 years, however, they have taken it more seriously, moving into competitions and being involved in performance-type events.
Cutting, she explained, evolved in the same way rodeos have to become a competitive and performance sport. So, although cutting is done on a farm or ranch when a cow needs to be separated from the herd, now the practice has developed into a national sport with competitions that run from March until September.
“There are about eight or nine shows in a year,” said Britz. “We travel all over Saskatchewan and parts of Alberta, to where the competitions are. It’s also very big in the States.”
In a competition, the rider has two and a half minutes to show how well a horse can cut cattle. During that time, the rider must select the cattle to be cut from the herd, then with the aid of four helpers, also on horseback, they proceed to cut each cow, one by one, before letting it return to the herd.
“When you’re cutting a cow, everything is very controlled,” explained Britz. “You walk into the herd really quietly, you want to keep the cattle very quiet and settled. To really cut well, you need them not to be wild. You really want your horse to be in control of that cow, that’s really the ultimate goal.”
To visualize a horse in the act of cutting, you might imagine a cat or a dog when it crouches down on its hind legs with its front legs splayed out. There can be a lot of movement back and forth as the horse tries to keep the cow from re-joining its herd.
Ideally, Britz says the rider tries to cut fresh cattle — cattle that have never been cut before.
“Timing is of the essence,” she said. “You don’t want to cut the cow too long, and you want to pick a fresh cow to cut because they get savvy really fast, so you want one that’s not going to know what’s going to happen next.”
And, like any sport that is practised at a competitive level, it requires hours of personal training for both the rider and the horse. The Britzes keep a few cattle on their property just for practice purposes.
But the most important element in cutting is the nature of the horse that the rider will be working with.
“I owe so much to my mare, Ruby (whose official name is Precious Smart Date),” Britz insisted. “I’ve owned a lot of good horses over the years, but never one like her. She is such an amazing athlete, and is always wanting to please.
“For cutting, they have to have the instinct or be what they call really cowy, which means they love to do this. Not all horses have it, and not all quarter horses have it,” she added.
Training a horse for cutting is very specialized, and Britz says they are fortunate to have some really top-notch trainers in the province.
“We’re very lucky in Saskatchewan – we don’t have many, but what we have are very talented people,” she added.
The National Cutting Horse Association has a website that provides good background information about the origin of cutting, and the Saskatchewan Horse Cutting Association’s website lists information on competitions and events.
For Britz, the first competition of the 2012 season will be March 10-11 in Melfort.
Photo courtesy of Barbara Glazer
