Bob Coates of Prineville rides Calvin, a 20-year-old quarter horse gelding. The best cattle for cutting are yearling cows, which typically exhibit more pep. Older cows, like the one pictured here, don't adequately challenge the horse.

PRINEVILLE – Shelley Santucci rides her sorrel quarter horse into a herd of cattle and carefully picks out the cow she wants – the one she thinks will best showcase her horse’s quickness.

Then, the Prineville horsewoman ushers the chosen cow away from the rest of the herd. With a draped rein and her hand resting on the horse’s withers, the gelding points his nose to the cow, turns back his ears and goes to work.

As the cow runs from one side of the pen to the other, eager to return to the herd, Santucci and her horse, George, are one step ahead, responding with diving side-to-side motions to the cow’s every movement.

”It’s all instinct,” says Santucci at her vast horse and cattle ranch, located about five miles north of town. ”Everything they’re doing is action for a reaction.”

So, it is in the sport of cow cutting, a discipline marked by intelligent, athletic and ”cowy” horses, and rooted in Western frontier traditions.

”(During a cattle drive) they would go in to a group of cattle and take one out to the fire so it could be roped and branded,” says Bob Coates. ”Cutting horses kept the cow away from the herd of cows.”

Coates, a Prineville horseman and president of the Central Oregon Cutting Horse Association, says that for years he ”always dreamed of owning a horse that could move like that.”

About three years ago, he bought his first cutting horse and ”caught the bug big-time.”

Cutting horses typically stand 14 to 15 hands tall (a hand is four inches). Taller horses normally lack the quickness needed to be a proficient cutting horse.

”This is such a physical sport (for the horse),” says Coates. ”It’s difficult for them (taller horses) to turn and get down on their hocks.”

The overwhelming majority of cutters in Central Oregon are quarter horses, adds Coates.

”It (cutting) really does showcase the American quarter horse,” says Coates, ”and particularly the cutting-horse-bred quarter horse. They are remarkable animals, so intelligent and so athletic.”

Coates believes that the High Desert has become a mecca for the sport of cutting.

”We’ve got some very good world-class cutting horses in Central Oregon,” he says. ”We have a good supply of cattle here, which is key for working and training the horses. We have a number of well-known trainers that have settled in the Central Oregon area (including National Cutting Horse Association Hall of Famer Phil Hanson of Prineville). People kind of migrate to those folks.”

The secret to hosting a good cutting show, says Coates, is having good cattle, which in turn elevates the performance of the horse.

”If the cows are good, the horses bear down,” Coates explains.

The term ”cow” is actually a misnomer, as the animals used in cutting typically are 1- to 2-year-old calves weighing about 500 pounds.

”Young calves strenuously challenge the horses,” says Brent Clark of Tumalo as he watches his daughter, Emily, cut in a nearby pen. ”Cows poop out too quick.”

So, what makes a good cow for cutting?

The cow has ”try”, asserts Santucci.

”One that has honor, meaning it respects the horse,” she continues. ”One that has try, meaning it doesn’t just sit there and look at you. It tries to get back to the herd. That’s why the challenge is there. The one cow separated from the group wants to get back.”

In a competitive cutting class, riders have 2> minutes to demonstrate their horse’s talent. Commonly, a rider will work two to three cows in that amount of time, and judges add or subtract points from a base score of 70.

Cutters say a successful cutting horse is one that has the desire and willingness to perform.

”The fun part,” offers Brent Clark. ”is that the horse’s participation is absolutely huge. The training is to teach the horse how to beat the calf. Once the horse is trained, the horse has got to want to do it in order to do it well.”

As evening sets in and the cutters wrap up their practice, Santucci leads her horse back to the barn. She insists, with a smile, that ”the worst day of cutting is better than most people’s best day.”

The Central Oregon Cutting Horse Association (COCHA) is an area club that hosts a series of cutting shows and practices throughout the year. The key purpose of the club is to rent cattle, a necessary element of a sport in which few riders have access on their own. The 51-year-old club includes about 100 members, and each year it sponsors eight COCHA shows and three National Cutting Horse Association-approved shows.

Cutting enthusiasts can see beginner to top-level cutters from the Northwest and Canada at the Ed Freshour Memorial in Madras, June 16-18. The show is a tribute to Ed Freshour, a noted cutting horse trainer from Madras who died in 2005.

For more information on the Central Oregon cutting club and its schedule of events for 2006, visit www.cochacutting.com or call 504-8381.

Bobby Ingersoll, one of the most famous names in working cow horse circles, will be in Central Oregon June 3-4 to offer a clinic.

The clinic, called ”Ride With a Legend 2,” will feature Ingersoll along with seven invited riders. Spectators are welcome to attend the two-day clinics, held at Little Remuda Ranch in Tumalo, for $40.

The cow horse clinic will address the theory and practice use of the snaffle bit and hackamore through lectures and riding.

A working cow horse class – also called reined cow horse – combines cutting and reining disciplines. Ingersoll, who hails from Reno, Nev., is a multiple-time world champion and a member of the National Reined Cow Horse Association Hall of Fame, into which he was inducted in 1996.

The longtime competitor and horse trainer will also serve as judge for the Ed Freshour Memorial cutting show, June 16-18 in Madras.

For more information, contact Fran at 388-3949. The clinic begins each day at 8:30 a.m. No advance registration is required for spectators. Little Remuda Ranch is at 20350 Tumalo Road.

– Heather Clark