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An artful display by cowboy and horse
By Cindy Perry / cindyperry@alpineavalanche.com
There’s a graceful, artful ballet that cowboys, ranchers and West Texans can appreciate.
Its principal players are cowboy, horse, calf.
Supporting cast: other cowboys to help keep the main players in line, and other calves, maybe a mama cow or two.
This ballet takes place at competitions but its home, its roots are on the range.
It’s called the Ranch Cutting Horse Association National Finals Rodeo.
Four Far West Texas cowboys and their talented horses will display their grace and savvy at the finals this weekend in Fort Worth at the Cowtown Coliseum.
Chris Lacy of the O6 Ranch at Fort Davis, Sam Dove of S-D Ranch in Alpine, Rich Lewis of Alpine and Randy White of Triangle Quarter Horses are heading to Fort Worth — horses in tow — to show off their ranch skills at the annual event, part of the Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering and Western Swing Festival.
The Big Bend area cowboys and their horses practiced cutting for several afternoons last week at the dusty O6 Flats Arena north of Alpine, working with small herds and then larger herds of Herefords. They set aside time for the practice, despite the fact that they were in the middle of fall roundup.
Lacy emphasized that the Ranch Cutting Horse Association (RCHA) is for real working cowboys and their horses, as opposed to groups like the National Cutting Horse Association, which was formed for sport and competition.
“The RCHA is basically an association for ranch horses,” he said. “We don’t have professional trainers. And if a horse won in the NCHA, it’s not qualified for the ranch cutting competition.”
Of the four far West Texans heading to Fort Worth, Dove is the veteran of the show: This will be his sixth time competing. Lacy had entered in the past with two horses, in the junior and open event. He said he’s not eligible to show in the limited division.
There are four performance divisions at the RCHA finals: junior, for horses 5 years and younger; open age, any age horse; limited, any age horse but the rider can’t have more than $1,500 combined earnings in RCHA, NCHA or other competitions; youth, members age 14 or younger.
Lacy said cowboys and horses who aim for the RCHA finals need to show in other sanctioned events to qualify. Presently, association members come from more than 60 working ranches in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, representing almost 2.5 million acres of land and nearly 150,000 calves or yearlings.
Lacy said a good cutting horse is bred for the work; his main cutter, Pepper, is 8 years old.
Ranchers/cowboys who want a good, steady cutting horse will start training him around age 2 or 3. A horse that instinctively knows how to keep a calf from returning to the herd — and is trained to show competitively — is part of that exclusive group called cutting horses.
In addition to the cutting horse competition that’s part of this weekend’s Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering, there will be a trail ride, ranch rodeo, children’s poetry contest, cowboy music and more.
For more information on the RCHA, visit www.ranchcutters.com; for more information on the cowboy gathering, visit www.redsteagall.com.
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