I’ve just been having an interesting conversation elsewhere about turn on the forehand and some Western disciplines, specifically Cutting and Reining.
If you ride/train either of those, is a TOF something you teach your greenbeans? If so, do you use it here and there as necessary to remind the horse about moving those haunches?
If you don’t teach a TOF, why?
I sent a mule out to a reining trainer to get started under saddle this year. TOF was just one of the many wonderful skills he came home with. 
Both of mine were started with TOF in the first 30 days, as part of a basic education. They go english and western and it is a very handy skill to have - especially on the trail!
There are 4 different parts of the horse that you need to be able to control to do reining manuevers. Head & neck, shoulders, ribs and hips (TOF) and I teach a my horses to be proficient at moving all these parts or they won’t be able to do things like lead changes, spins and stops. Most of these are taught within the first 60 days but I will continue to use them forever in their riding and training.
I ride reined cowhorse and also do ranch horse versatility & obstacle races. I cannot think of a reason not to teach or put a TOF on my horses. It’s necessary in RHV/OR for gates, back throughs, side passes, etc., and generally to check that they are moving freely on request. I don’t use it specifically in the cowhorse shows, but that doesn’t mean it’s not necessary overall.
I barrel race, and I teach TOF to my horses. I need to be able to move them where I want them, and to move different parts of their body. I like mine with lots of “buttons”.
Thanks for all your replies - they were as I suspected (and hoped!) they would be :yes:
This question came about as a result of a discussion on another board where a poster said a trainer wouldn’t teach TOF to his cutting (maybe reining, doesn’t matter) horses because they might accidentally do a TOF or start “turning over their shoulders” while in a pattern/on a cow :rolleyes:
that progressed to (hence the real reason for the post) “they don’t teach it because it’s not something you have to do in a pattern” 
I just wondered if there were any REAL cutters/reiners who thought that I know enough about those areas to know there’s a lot I don’t know, but even that logic seemed really, really off.
I’ve heard a few respected trainers (Richard Caldwell from the working cowhorse side, Jane Savoie from the dressage side) say that once something like a TOF or “disengaging the hindquarters” or any like exercise is understood, there’s great value in not going back and drilling it again and again. Those exercises by definition take a horse away from the “over his hocks” stance that a cutter will need, in particular.
That’s different from saying they never teach it in the first place, however.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s not like shoulder in or trotting or cantering or half pass where you work on those things to become better at them. IME, teach TOF as a means to an end, and come back to it IF you’re having trouble moving the haunches around for whatever purpose. Teach it, teach the concept, done. It’s not a continual tool.
If you are going to compete in any trail class your horse had better be well versed in TOF. Many obstacles require it.
I’m guessing TOF is turn on forehand?
yes
JB, cutters are quite different than most other western show disciplines. Cutters that I knew didn’t go far beyond the type of handle on their horses that would enable the cutter to do a quick training correction if the horse mis-reads the cow, then let the horse go back to concentrating on the cow. That is different than the ‘willingly guided, listen to my rider’ philosophy of most of the rest of the western world.
My horse has done it before, but I doubt he’s actually been trained with a “button” for it. lol. And I certainly haven’t trained him to do it, as I don’t know where to start!
I’m not a cutter or a reiner, or even a roper.
I have a real ranch.
I spent 2 hours this morning cutting actual cows out of a real herd in a pasture so I could AI breed them.
I’ve roped a wee bit, and will continue to do so at brandings.
For handling a (loose) cow, your horse absolutely MUST know how to shift his weight back and turn over his haunches. This is SO important that I can get people that might teach their horse that they never want horse to offer turn-on-forehand while ridden. I don’t think it’s right, but I can get that people might train a show horse that way.
The horse also has to know how to face the cow, and move in a leg yield, if you are ever trying to move the cow somewhere. (A cutting horse is defense only, they’re not really supposed to push the cow anywhere, just keep it from going back to the herd.) You can direct a cow more accurately when you are pointed directly toward the cow, and any horse I’ve ever had needed to know how to turn-on-forehand before I ever asked for leg yield.
But if you go to a branding, and you can’t get the horse to step over with his haunches (a step or two of TOF), you are quite handicapped.
If your horse isn’t in a straight line with a weight-loaded rope, you’re putting unnecessary strain on the saddle and the horse. (Not to say you might stay still and dallied up, sideways to a rope, in some particular predicament.) But you can’t effect ‘getting straight’ by turning on the haunches, without either tightening or loosening the rope. The rope is attached to the saddle horn, the saddle horn is pretty much anchored over the withers and front feet. You have to get your horse straight by moving the horse’s HIND feet, so you can keep control over the rope.
You really don’t want to over-tighten a rope, the other end of that calf is attached by another rope to another horse- so if you tighten it either the poor calf ‘levitates’ between you, or you dislocate legs. And if you loosen the rope, the calf can get loose.
Now, reining…that’s another thing altogether. Modern reining is so full of hyperflexed/ rollkur-ed horses and bang, banging on curb bits that I can’t watch.
I want a cowhorse that’s super sensitive, that will stop on a dime, do a rollback into a gallop, flying changes and stay quiet. But if I’m working cows, really, that long, sliding stop? The cow will have gone around you a long time ago. A sliding stop is all fluff. And the fast reining spin is just silliness to me. A fast reining spin puts the horse on the ‘wrong’ pivot foot- if you look, it’s like a pirouette on the wrong lead, with the wrong bend. They do that so the spin can go really fast. But someone long ago asked Ray Hunt why his horses didn’t spin like reining horses, and his answer was simply that he’d never ask a horse to turn like that if he was trying to control a cow. If you want to look closely, watch a bullfighting video- the horses spin DARNED fast and get the heck out of the way of the bull’s horns, and they spin like the ‘working cowhorses’ do- exactly like a dressage pirouette.
I want to come spend a week on your ranch 
Anytime, JB!
My bestest ranch horse is an OTTB. I gave $1000 for him in 2009, spent about 5K more than he was worth at the time…but now in learning to give him what he really needs, I have learned a TON about horsemanship, stockmanship, and stockdog handling. And about my marriage- so really the horse has been priceless.
And I’d love to go riding in North Carolina, especially foxhunting. Now I have a horse that I think could do it without losing his mind!
I’ve been working with my guy on TOF. It’s sloppy but we’re getting better.
My paint gelding is a primarily a hunter, but I trail ride him western, showed him once in a WP class (http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?324286-Any-Western-Pleasure-People-Update-w-pics-30!/page2), and did ranch sorting twice with him. I train all my horses to do TOF and TOH and it came in very handy in ranch sortying when working the middle because you have to be able to move your horse’s body just right to block the cow.
Whats with all the thumbs down for every post on this thread? I think the thumb down needs to go. Keep the thumbs up.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
