By: Brad Pedersen
In today’s society where stress plays a major role in our careers, many people are taking up hobbies on the weekends as a way to relieve tension. Many people find showing horses a perfect way to get away from the everyday and it is also a fun way to meet new people with similar interests.
As the number of people participating at the weekend shows continue to increase, so does the demand for well-trained show horses. Many of these show horses began their career as two-year-olds in training in hopes of becoming the next futurity champion.
One of the most successful ways to improve your chances of having a competitive futurity prospect is by starting with a horse that has the breeding and conformation to help it get there.
Many people believe that it doesn’t take a horse with High Brow Cat or Smart Chic Olena in their pedigrees to make a good horse and that is correct, however; it improves your chances of having a horse that is cowy and athletic enough to be competitive with the other three-year-olds that are going to be bred to work a cow.
I’m sure the world renowned jumping horse Big Ben would not have achieved the same level of success in the cutting pen as he did in the show ring because he was bred to be a grand prix show jumper. Every horse has their area of expertise, and I like a horse to show me whether or not they want to be a cutter or a working cow horse.
With this in mind, I hope this will help make them happier horses and achieve success in the show pen. If you buy a two-year-old or three-year-old that is started and already being worked on cattle or has been in a training program, you will likely pay more for him, but at least you have a better idea of what you’re buying.
Purchasing a yearling or an un-started two-year-old (usually for less money) is more of a gamble because you don’t really know what you have until you have up to four to six months of training invested. Even if you purchase a three-year-old that is in a solid program, there are no promises that he’ll make it to the fall futurities. However, a trainable prospect usually displays qualities of being cowy, has a desire to stop hard, and displays athletic ability.
Good confirmation is also a very important aspect because if you have a horse that has their front legs pointing east and west when he’s facing north you have a pretty good chance that you are going to become your vet’s new best friend.
This is also going to make it very hard to sell your horse after the futurities because no one wants to invest in an animal that they don’t know will stay sound from one show to the next.
I believe most trainers prefer their customers to use their farrier who most likely understands their training programs and the ground conditions the horses are worked in. Spring is usually the time when I have my farrier start putting shoes on them and my cow horses get three-quarter-inch slide plates slightly tapered trailers and a beveled toe and I use rim shoes on the front.
I like to use three-quarter-inch slide plates because I find that my horses can still stop, but that they’re not sliding 50 ft past the cow and losing their working advantage. On my cutters, I tend to put rim shoes on the front and just a regular flat shoe on the hind so that when they do stop there is some give there, but they are still not sliding past the cow.
I like to apply the same theory with my veterinarian as I do my farrier. I have my veterinarian look at my horses up to three times a year to keep on top of potential lameness and to ensure that my futurity horses are working at their optimum performance level.
Much like an Olympic athlete, soreness or lameness may become a problem that you have to deal with and can hopefully anticipate. I use products such as hyonate on a regular basis to help keep these horses at optimum performance level.
I like to start my futurity prospects early in their two-year-old year. The longer I have the horse the less pressure I have to put on them.
When I get a two-year-old in my barn late in the year that’s been barely started and the owners want to make a futurity horse out of him, the first thing I have to see is if the horse is physically talented enough to catch up to my other futurity horses, and then they also have to have a good mind to withstand the challenge.
In my experience, when I have had to push my prospects, this is usually when injuries occur thus making them that much farther behind. Besides, sometimes we tend to forget it doesn’t always have to be about a horse competing as a three-year-old when they can still compete in the aged events as a four-, five-, and six-year-old.
For the most, part futurity horses are ridden five days a week with Saturday and Sunday off. They are worked on cattle three to five times a week and the remaining days they are just loped or occasionally we take them for a trail ride down the road.
As far as the cow horses are concerned, I don’t do as much work on their dry work until spring when my big outdoor arena unthaws. But throughout the winter they are schooled on the basics of turnarounds, stopping, and I concentrate on working them on cattle. In the spring I work on run downs, stops, circling up a cow, turning a cow down the fence, and lead changes.
Good cattle are essential in training a cutter or working cow horse. For my two-year-olds, I start them on cattle and then, throughout the year, I will switch back and forth from buffalo to cattle. If I have a good supply of cattle I will leave my buffalo and work my two-year-olds on cattle as much as I can.
However, if my cattle supply is limited, I tend to save my cattle for my three-year-olds. With the buffalo and the two-year-olds, they don’t tend to put too much pressure on them as they usually turn away from my horse when I’m working them, whereas cattle–especially if they are sour–push on my two-year-olds and I find it either scares them or just makes them mad.
Depending on the weather or if I’m having a particular problem, I will work my horses on the flag and then I can keep repeating a situation if a horse is having a problem in a certain area. I don’t tend to work cattle in my arena because it is so small and I find that the cattle get used up very quickly, so on days that I can’t ride outside, I find the flag useful and I even use it on my older horses.
Usually in the summer of their three-year-old year, I will haul my futurity horses to shows just to get them familiar with travelling and all the action that goes on at the shows. I especially find it beneficial with studs as they get used to going to different places and not having to let everyone know that they’ve “arrived.”
At certain shows that have a practice pen specifically for futurity horses, I will work my three-year-olds to see how they measure up against the other three-year-olds and see what I have to work on at home. This also gives me an idea on how much or how little they need to be loped before I show them in the fall.
All of our horses are turned out on a daily basis. Each horse receives a balanced diet, which consists of alfalfa/grass hay and Hoffman’s Cool Feed, which is a complete feed so grain or barley does not need to be fed.
Instead of feeding glucosamine, I will give my horses, especially my three-year-olds, monthly injections of hyonate and then I’m sure that they receive the entire amount instead of the expensive oral supplement being left in their feed bucket or thrown on the ground.
If you take all these factors into consideration when dealing with futurity prospects, hopefully it will ensure success for you and your horse at the fall futurities.
Brad Pedersen owns and operates a training facility north of Lacombe, Alberta. Mainly focusing on cutting and working cow horses, he has trained and shown 11 consecutive Canadian Supreme Open Snaffle Bit Futurity champions, has been inducted into the Canadian Supreme Hall of Fame, and is also a NCHA and NRCHA Top 100 Money Earning Rider.
