THE PHYSICS OF COW WORK

Learning proper position on a cow takes time, often years, and a lot of patience. Jed Lawrence offers his tips for putting physics to work in your training sessions to get you and your horse comfortable and consistent.

- KATIE NAVARRA, JED LAWRENCE 

In high school, did you ever ask your teachers or your parents, "When am I ever going to use this information?" Math and English have obvious connections to daily life. However, physics class is probably the last thing you think would apply. But riders especially cow horse or versatility ranch horse riders-relive some physics lessons out in the arena. Understanding the connection between the two can help you improve your performance and increase your scores.

In boxing and cow horse events there are two objects running side by side the horse and the cow. Both are in a uniform state of motion until one, ideally the horse, controls the cow's speed and ultimately forces the cow to stop and turn. Think back to science class and Newton's first law of motion. Every object in a state of uniform motion will remain in that state of motion unless acted upon by an external source. The cow (object) will keep running until the horse (external force) stops or changes that motion.

Remember Newton's second law, force equals mass times acceleration. When two cars drive down the same road, one at 35 miles per hour the other at 55, by the laws of gravity, the slower-moving car stops quicker. The same theory translates to cattle.

If your horse is too far behind a cow, say by a horse length, and the cow is running 6 mph, you have to run 9 or 10 mph to get by him. Then when you get by the cow, there's no way you can stop and turn as fast as the cow.

In this article, I'm going to apply physics to cow work and then show you a few exercises you can do at home to help improve your score in the show pen.

THE STATE OF UNIFORM MOTION.