The Battle With Cattle

by Allison Trimble

It can be a real challenge in the Northwest to train a horse in cutting or working cowhorse. It takes typically two years of training before a horse is ready to show, and a large portion of those days need to be on cattle. In the Northwest we don’t have the large feed lots or grazing operations that make cattle readily available, and hay and fuel prices are so high right now that everything costs an arm and a leg.

Trainers often have arrangements with cattlemen to feed leased animals. They promise a certain weight gain on the cows in exchange for the chance to use them in training. The other way to get cattle is to go to an auction, buy a group of cows, use them, and then return them to the auction, resell, and buy a new bunch. This ties up a large amount of cash and has higher personal risk, but can be easier than finding someone to let you work their cows. Both scenarios require a cattle facility, hauling, time, and high feed expenses. Cattle also go sour very fast. It is a bad feeling when you are standing in your pen watching sour cattle eating little bales of dollar bills.

There is no way that a horse can be finished without working a lot of fresh cattle, but there are some proven ways to cut your cattle costs by using training devices.

The Flag or Pro Cutter
The original flag was designed as a feed sack attached to a rope that on one end ran through a pulley and on the other end looped around an ancient stationary bike. A person would sit on the bike and run the sack back and forth for the horse to work. Later, the Pro Cutter was developed. It is a sack or fake cow that is on a pulley system similar to the flag, but is driven mechanically by a control box on one end and manipulated by a remote control. With the Pro Cutter it is also possible to train using a preset program.

The advantages to these training tools are that they are relatively inexpensive, they let you get your horse correct because you can go at any speed you like (or as fast as someone can peddle), and they allow you to “pattern” your horse, or make him comfortable going straight across the pen. You are able to teach your horse the basics or clean up his movements without using up valuable cattle.

The disadvantages are that it can be hard to use the remote while riding, so you often need someone else to run it for you; the cow only goes right and left and has a very mechanical feel to it; and it is hard for a horse to learn to really read a cow using this tool.

The Human Cow
This is where you con one of your friends or your husband/wife into emulating the movement of a cow, walking or running back and forth. A horse will often hook onto a human as well as they will to a cow. The advantage to this is that it has a “real” feel to it, and the horse can learn to read a human’s movements as they would those of a cow. This technique, unlike the flag, can be three-dimensional. Your cow can come toward you as well as move side to side. It is also a great way to lose a few pounds if you want to volunteer your services to a horseman in need!

Obvious disadvantages are that it is hard to get someone to fall for your trickery, and even if you do, your human cow sours fast. This is not often used as part of a training program, but is commonly used at horse shows to tune up a horse before competition.

HydraBull
The HydraBull is a relatively new invention that is the life-sized shell of a cow that sits on three wheels, driven by a person sitting inside it. For the past couple of months, every Tuesday morning I've loaded up some horses, gone to meet a group of girls at Curt Storbakken’s place, and worked the HydraBull. I have really enjoyed this time and have been surprised by how much can be done with this training tool.

The advantages are that it can mimic almost every move a cow can make in a very lifelike way. It can go fast or slow and it is three dimensional, having the ability to go side to side and front and back. You can use the bull as a training tool for fence work as well, and that is something not offered by other cattle replacement devices. When you work the HydraBull, it is amazing how similar it is to working a cow...but it's like working a cow that knows exactly what you need to do to train your horse.

The disadvantages are that it is much more expensive than a flag to purchase, and you need a skilled person to drive it.

Spotlight on the HydraBull and its Creator
Curt Storbakken began his horse training career while he was a school teacher in North Dakota by riding horses for people before and after his school day. After ten years, he picked up and moved to Anacortes, Washington with a brief one-year stop in California in between. When Curt met his wife, Linda, also a horse trainer, they decided to join forces and start looking for land to build on. In 1971 they purchased a piece of land just north of Burlington, Washington and Curt built by hand the arena and home they still train out of today. He has trained halter horses, pleasure horses, reining horses, and cutting horses. Though he loves all types of horses, Curt’s passion is the cutting horse. He has had many successful years showing and training cutters and helping non pros achieve their goals.

Anyone who knows Curt is familiar with his propensity to tinker around with and improve things, whether they are horses or mechanical devices. Curt was the guy who first had the idea for the bicycle-driven flag, and then the first guy to motorize that flag. For many years, there was a mechanical bull that was driven similarly to the present day HydraBull. Curt had one, but it ran on batteries and had a lot of limitations to its use. In 1999 Curt bought a Dixon lawn mower that could turn on a dime and was run by levers. When the two machines were combined, the first HydraBull was born.

One of Curt's clients was Bob Gudmundson, a Washington ship builder whose kids were riding at Curt's training stables. When Bob saw Curt's mechanical cow, he said, "I can build one of these."

For a ship builder used to making 240-foot barges and tug boats, you'd think it would be a cinch to make a mechanical bull, right? Still, it took eight years of work and field testing in real-world training settings to perfect the design. After intense research and development through countless live training sessions, the HydraBull was ready for commercial production. It is now available to the horse training community.

Last week when I was at Curt’s, we tested a bull that was about to be shipped to a ranch in Italy. This innovative training tool has the potential to revolutionize the cutting industry worldwide.

For more information on the HydraBull, go to www.hydrabull.com.