[endurgirl]

Okay, I am riding my cutting horse 6 days a week. On Tuesday and Thursday he is worked on cattle or on the mechanical cow. On Saturday he is shown, and Sunday is his day of rest: he is out on the pasture all day. But on M, W, & Friday, I have been loping him 20' around the hay pasture per trainers suggestion. I know it gets boring to him so I occasionally go lope on a wooded-type trail. Other options are slow trail rides with some trot/lope on good ground (did that Monday), horsewalker at a jog, etc. I don't really want to get into detailed cross-training because I want him to concentrate on cutting and don't want to risk injury out roping cows or jumping logs, for example.

So, what are some other options and some fun things to incorporate into his regime, because I know this repetitiveness gets boring.

[mustang_dodger]

maybe do some reining exercises with him.

[endurgirl]

He can do most of the intricate, but that still consists of loping circles, and I was trying to get away from that.

[mustang_dodger]

you can trot the circles. i would play around with him. just have fun.

[Lindsayanne]

You could put ground poles down, work lots on transitions, lead changes, etc. Going over ground poles isn't very hard or challenging for them, but it does engage their mind, at least the first couple times, so it can help with the boredom problem.

Maybe he would like to try barrels? Not hardcore, but working in around around them and doing the pattern at a nice lope so it's just something different from just running along a rail. Couldn't hurt, and if anything doing them nice and slow would lay a foundation if you or another person riding him might ever want to try him on barrels seriously.

[endurgirl]

Yeah, I thought about doing some weaving thru barrels to change up the routine. He neck reins so well that he'd just do a rollback by the barrel, LOL. Some slow curves, maybe we'll do that today.