English

Alternative forms

• cutting-horse

Noun

cutting horse ‎(plural cutting horses)

1. A horse which has been trained to assist its rider in managing livestock by separating selected animals from a herd.
   • 1911, Andy Adams, Wells Brothers, ch. 21:

     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.

   • 1953 April 13, "Sport: Cutting Horse," Time (retrieved 8 May 2014):

     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.

   • 2006 Jan. 2, Verlyn Klinkenborg, "The Rural Life: Magnus," New York Times (retrieved 8 May 2014):

     [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.

References

• cutting horse at OneLook Dictionary Search