Cutting cattle a healthy change of pace for Smith’s customers

Chuck Smith and Deb Bicknell have been together for the past 25 years, operating Chuck Smith Cutting Horses, just north of Canal Winchester in Fairfield County. They are in the process of moving to a new facility a half mile up the road from their old location, which will allow them to double the number of customers they can serve, from 20 to 40.

Chuck Smith has been training customers how to become better horsemen, and eventually how to cut cattle, at his training facility just north of Canal Winchester in Fairfield County for the past 25 years. And while some of the customers at Chuck Smith Cutting Horses are truly interested in becoming competitive in the equine sport of cutting, many simply enjoy the change of pace that working with their horse and learning to cut cattle provides.

“This is obviously an expensive sport, because the horses have to be of great quality, and they require a lot of training and maintenance,” Smith said. “But people’s lives today are so fast-paced and pressured, and to get to work with and enjoy horses of this type requires the exact opposite. So, it has turned out to be challenging, yet stress relieving for a lot of people.”

Most of Smith’s customers are 45 years of age or older, have been successful at what they do for a living, and they are looking for another challenge.

“The relationship they develop with their horse, and the teamwork they develop with their horse to work cattle, is a lot of fun and rewarding. Horses could care less about computers and cell phones,” Smith said. “It just is a complete gear reversal from what their life is like every day. They can get down in the dirt, learn how to handle a cow and learn to stay balanced on a horse when it’s making the athletic moves.”

About 80% of his students are male, and 20% female, but that ratio has changed over time, and Smith eventually thinks it will be closer to 50-50. But regardless of gender, already about half his customers train with him with little interest in actually participating in cutting horse competitions.

“They just enjoy the weekly practice work on cattle and receive great enjoyment from that,” he said.

Smith has practice times at his facility every Tuesday evening, Thursday evening and Saturday morning.

“I’ve got businessmen, doctors and lawyers who mark off those times in their calendars as their time,” he said.

And his customers aren’t just locals from central Ohio. Some travel great distances to learn to work cattle with their horses.

“I’ve had people from the East Coast, to Canada, to North Carolina to Indiana,” Smith said. “I had a guy from Rhode Island who trained with me for 10 years. He kept his horse here and flew in as often as he could.”

Customers have entered these doors to be trained by Chuck Smith for the past 25 years. He started the business in partnership with Dan Evans, former CEO and chairman of the Board of Bob Evans Restaurants, and still leases the property from the Evans family.

Traditionally, Smith has been able to work with about 20 customers at a time at the facility he has leased from the Dan Evans family for the past 25 years. But a move a half mile up the road by the end of the year to a new facility being built on his own property will allow him to double his customers to about 40, because the new site will have more stalls for boarding horses. While in the past he just trained cutting horses, the new facility may allow him to do more general horsemanship training.

“This new facility is big enough now that we can take some people who just want to learn how to become good horsemen,” Smith said. “Our plans are also to be able to produce about a half dozen National Cutting Horse Association-approved events annually at the facility.”

In addition to himself, Smith has partnered with Deb Bicknell for the past 25 years to produce training programs. They have one full-time and two part-time  employees who condition horses and help with the stable work. As time goes on and the program grows, Smith plans to develop some assistant trainers as well.

Training the horse, and the rider

Customers come to Smith in one of two scenarios. They either bring a horse to him to train and teach the rider how to ride better, or they come to him wanting to learn to ride and cut cattle but have no horse, so he arranges to buy a horse for them or sells them one of the roughly six cutting horses of his own he trains each year. Once each customer has a horse, the true training begins.

“I work with them and their horse to help them become competitive,” he said.

For many, it’s a process that starts totally from scratch. While Smith grew up riding horses and working with cattle on his parents’ farm in southern Fairfield County, a lot of his customers did not have that luxury.

“I get a lot of city people who haven’t been around horses much and have never been around cattle, and it takes them a while to learn how to deal with them,” he said. “When you grow up with them, you tend to take it for granted.”

Smith is moving his training operation a half mile up the road from its current location to land he owns. This large new barn for training and working cattle is under construction and is attached to an existing barn on the property. While muddy conditions this year have slowed progress, Smith hopes to have things up and running at the new location by the end of the year.

Smith’s training program has three phases. First, he teaches the individual to become a better horseman and rider. Second, he teaches them how to work cattle. Finally, he trains them how to be competitive cutting cattle and to be proficient in competition.

Smith won a world championship in reining horse competition in 1981, before shifting his focus to cutting. While his training commitments have prevented him from competing in national cutting competitions, he has had numerous wins at regional events over the years. And that’s just fine with him.

“Since I’ve already experienced being a world champion, my greatest enjoyment is to be able to pass on what I know about cutting horses to my students and to see them advance in their skills as a horseman,” he said.

As for the horses themselves, almost 100% of cutting horses are Quarter Horses, and they simply want to work cattle.

“They have to have the genetic instinct to want to control cattle. A good comparison is in the dog world — the cutting horse is the border collie of the horse world,” Smith said. “They have to have that desire, and then it’s up to the trainer to mold that in a way it can be useful in handling cattle.”

It takes about two years to train a horse to be solid enough for an amateur to compete, he said. Normally, cutting horses start training at age 2.

“We have horses that are in their 20s and still competing,” Smith said. “They probably have more longevity than any other horses in equine sports, and the main reason is the horses want to do it. You’re not having to make them do it.”

If someone sends him a young horse to train, Smith can usually tell within 60 days if it has the desire to work cattle and the athletic ability to be able to handle the rigors of cutting cattle that would justify further training. The horses he gets have good cutting bloodlines, and about half of those normally merit further training.

To learn more about Chuck Smith Cutting Horses, visit www.chucksmithcuttinghorses.webs.com/ or call 614-402-3189.

Editor’s note: To learn more about Chuck Smith and his new cutting horse training facility, see the Mid-October issue of Ohio’s Country Journal.