Cow Sense with Mark Buttsworth

This article is from the August 2020 Horse Deals magazine.

Mark, give us a quick introduction to yourself and your experience in the cutting and campdrafting arenas. I live and train in Kingaroy, Queenland. My career spans 40 years, starting with campdrafting and then adding cutting, challenges and team roping. I have always enjoyed the cut out aspect of campdrafting, which is what sparked my interest in cutting.

What does the term ‘cow sense’ refer to and how important is it? Cow sense refers to how a horse reacts to a cow. A horse with cow sense will show a lot of caution to the cows space. I believe that cow sense and rate combined make a great competition horse.

When you start a horse on a cow, how can you tell if they have the cow sense to make it to the top? Firstly they will show caution when they step to the cow, their ears will react to the cow’s movements, and as the cow moves they will show the desire to mirror it.

Does cow sense differ between cutting and campdrafting? Yes, the cutting horse should connect to the cow’s head, whereas the campdraft horse starts the event by mirroring the cow’s head, then as they go outside they should rate and their comfort zone should be at the cow’s hip.

Can you develop cow sense in a horse? To a degree. As a horse is a repetition learner you can improve their reaction to a cow, however I believe true cow sense is in the genetics.

Are there exercises you can use? Only through repetition by making the horse react to the cow’s movements.

How can a rider develop their ability to read a cow? The best way for someone to improve their ability to read a cow is to think about what the cow can see, and their body position will then cause the cow to react in to a stop, turn around or run in a circle.

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