2008 AQHA YOUTH WORLD CUP

CUTTING DOWN UNDER.

BY TONYA RATLIFF-GARRISON, FIELD EDITOR 

Team Australia's Brianna Simmons cuts a cow in the cutting clinic.

Team Wrangler member Teddy Johnson instructed the Youth World Cup participants in the clinic.

Brianna Simmons’ favorite event is hunter under saddle. But cutting isn’t too far behind.

“I’ve been training for the 2008 Youth World Cup just in cutting for a few months,” the Team Australia member said. They do a lot of cutting in Australia. I’ve been training with a fairly good trainer over there and riding some futurity horses. It’s really fun. At the last Youth World Cup try outs, we did some cutting. That was my first cutting experience.”

The first rider in the cutting clinic led by AQHA Pro Horseman Teddy Johnson on July 11, Brianna rode Shawn Minshall’s Aristocratic Trona to the herd of Holsteins and cut her first cow.

Team Wrangler member Teddy Johnson told Brianna to just take her time.

“I wanted the kids to come in here and cut cows and shake the cattle up some,” the Gainesville, Texas, trainer said. “I would talk to them when they would go in and tell them just to slow down, take your time and focus on your job.”

Brianna did just that.

“This clinic was good and really helped me get the feel of my horse,” she said. “It was great having someone telling me what to work on and how to get used to the cow. It was really good to get used to her. She’s a lot different with the cow.”

Teddy praised his students today and said they really responded to his suggestions.

“It’s a good group of kids,” he said. “They really focused on showing their horse. They didn’t get nervous when they went into that herd. And when they would finish, we would come back and have a little talk at the end of each herd. They really went back in there and focused on their job and did a nice job. I think we made a big improvement over the short time and they really tried hard.”