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Mechanical Bull Helps Train Cutting Horses
Training a cutting horse takes a lot of cattle, according to Curt Storbakken, Bow, Washington.
Storbakken trains cutting horses and competes in cutting horse contests around the U.S. and Canada.
He says it takes a minimum of 15 fresh cattle a month (cattle that haven't been worked by a cutting horse) ove
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Mechanical Bull Helps Train Cutting Horses AG WORLD 27-4-21
Training a cutting horse takes a lot of cattle, according to Curt Storbakken, Bow, Washington.
Storbakken trains cutting horses and competes in cutting horse contests around the U.S. and Canada.
He says it takes a minimum of 15 fresh cattle a month (cattle that haven't been worked by a cutting horse) over a period of several months, in order to adequately train a horse to follow and cut an animal out of a herd.
"Cattle numbers are down and it's getting harder and harder to find enough animals," he says.
Horse trainers have used everything from poultry to people on bicycles to try to simulate cattle and keep horses working, but the results just aren't the same as with cattle.
In a fit of frustration with the lack of fresh cattle a few years ago, Storbakken put together a motorized substitute. He calls his invention the Hydrabull. It features a well-muffled 18 hp Honda 2-cyl. engine, with two hydraulic pumps. The two pumps drive motors on each rear wheel.
"We mounted a crazy wheel up front," Storbakken says. "It has a fiberglass body that looks like a steer. A rider controls the speed and steers it with two levers, just like you'd steer a skid steer loader. With the caster wheel up front, it can move as much like a cow as possible."
Storbakken now uses his Hydrabull for the routine and repetitive procedures necessary to properly train a working cow horse. "After the horse has learned what it needs to do to cut a cow out of a herd using Hydrabull, we'll bring in cattle to put it to the test," he says.
Storbakken went through several prototypes before arriving at the current version of Hydrabull. He made a few of them for other trainers, who found them to be better replacements for cattle than other training tools. "One of them told me the Hydrabull is so real it even fools the flies," he says.
Selling price, excluding delivery, is $16,500.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bob Gudmundson, Hydrabull LLC, Box 940, 18578 McGlinn Island Lane, LaConner, Wash. 98257 (ph 360 371-3623; fax 360 332-5506; email: info@hydrabull.com; website: www.hydrabull.com).
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