cutting horse

plural cutting horses · alternative cutting-horse

1. A horse which has been trained to assist its rider in managing livestock by separating selected animals from a herd.

   A cutting horse needs high spirits and a high I.Q. His highly specialized ranch job is to nose into a herd and cut away calves marked for market.

   1953 April 13, “Sport: Cutting Horse”, in Time, retrieved 08 May 2014

   2 more examples

   The average cow can dodge and turn quicker than the ordinary horse. . . . Cunning and ingenuity, combined with the required alertness, a perfect rein, coupled with years of actual work, produce that rarest of range mounts—the cutting horse.

   1911, Andy Adams, chapter 21, in Wells Brothers

   [T]he other day Magnus, our 300-pound Tamworth boar, got out. . . . Remedy, the retired cutting horse, cut left and right, agile as a cat, flaring and snorting, to keep Magnus at bay.

   2006 January 2, Verlyn Klinkenborg, “The Rural Life: Magnus”, in New York Times, retrieved 08 May 2014