Legendary Equestrian: Graham Amos - Australia’s Father of Cutting

Graham Amos has spent the past sixty-odd years working on being a cowboy and, along the way, has picked up a number of accolades for his efforts.

He was declared Quarter Horseman of the Year in 1980 and was inducted into the Australian Cutting Hall of Fame in 1993. He won the Reining Futurity in 1973 and the Cutting Futurity in 1987, 1990 and 2007, and in 1983 was the winner of the Reined Cowhorse Futurity. His full list of achievements is too long to reproduce here. However, there is no doubt that he is one of Australia’s greatest horsemen. An interesting and interested man, Graham is considered in his conversation. What is interesting is his approach to training horses, which is the same today as it was sixty years ago. “If you make a game of it, they will love it; you have to show the horse what to do; you cannot beat him into it because you are convincing the horse it cannot do it because it hurts.” We all understand that today, with Social Licence becoming a big factor in what and how we train horses. If Graham worked that out sixty years ago, why has it taken us so long to get out of the spare-the-rod and spoil-the-child mentality?

Brought up on a dairy farm at Lismore, Graham begins, “ever since I can remember anything at all, I wanted to be a cowboy, and I am still working on it. There were always horses on the farm, and Dad would ride them to bring in the cows. When I was about three, I started pestering my father to get a horse. I ended up getting a pony when I was five. I always wanted to ride to school like some of the other kids, but Dad would not let me because he said I would show off too much. So I had to walk. I didn’t have a saddle until I was 15, and my father helped me break in my first horse when I was 12. Horses should not buck when you are breaking them in, and if they do, you should kick your own backside because you have not prepared them correctly. For everything you do with a horse, you have to make sure you have explained it to them properly, and they understand, and they will do it.

“I left home when I was 17, got my licence and a little car and went up to Queensland, droving and working on stations for about five years. Then I got a job on the Northern Rivers Tic Eradication programme, and that involved quite a bit of mustering. That gave me a lot of experience with cattle, and I believe that if you cannot work cattle on foot, you are not going to do it on a horse. Where to move and how far, when to back off, etc. You learn what to teach the horses, and everyone wants a leader. Then I went rodeoing professionally for about three years and was Australian Saddle Bronc Champion in 1969—all the time I wanted to be better at riding and training the horses. I did not think that I had a particular talent for it, and I have never thought that, I had got it all because that’s where you stop; there are no two horses the same.

“The late Greg Lougher was an inspiration back then. The first time I saw him riding cutting horses I thought, ‘boy, I’d like to do that.’ I was breaking in horses at Timor at the time, as well as rodeoing, so there was no time to take Greg up on his invitation to come and stay. I got married and started a family, so I got out of rodeoing. At that time, too, I broke in a lot of polo ponies for Sinclair Hill. I never thought of playing myself; the closest I got was hitting a soccer ball with the mallet, training the ponies to follow a ball. I got into reining and cutting then, and in those days you did everything with the horse; it was not as specialised as it is today; you would take them in everything from the halter classes to the cutting. Because I had a lot of experience with cattle, I started doing well at cutting, and there was a demand for me to train people’s cutting horses, and that’s what I did based at a property we had in Dubbo.

“The way to train cow/cutting horses, and I have said this for a long time, is to first get the young horse to look at a cow, and then you get the horse to follow the cow. Then you put a style on the horse relating to how you want them to do it. However, some people try to put a style on them before they show them a cow. The poor horse does not know why it has to run over there, stop, back up, and turn around. But if you put them in a small yard and get them to watch a cow and whenever that cow goes, you go with it. That’s the way I train horses, and they pick it up in a very short time. Now they know what to do, they follow the cow around the pen, and they stay with it, and they learn that this is fun. They are not getting hurt; they enjoy it and want to do it again. You see foals playing in the paddock; they all want to play a game. So, if you make a game of it and they block a cow, they love it.”

Graham has been advocating pressure/release/reward long before it became the modern mantra when the forceful approach was often preached. “People don’t think,” continues Graham. “You are standing on a cliff, and you are not quite game to go to the edge and have a look at the view, but you would like to. If someone comes up behind you and starts pushing you towards the edge, you will panic and resist, as you don’t know how high up you are, etc, so you will put up a fight.

But if you are left alone and given time, you will walk to the edge. It is the same with the horse; you must give it time to think. It is the same with a horse that shies; some people get more after them, which reinforces that there is something to worry about. But if you let the horse investigate it, it will walk straight past the next time; it is common sense. Training a horse is no different from training people; you can talk to them kindly and explain it all properly, or you can yell at them and tell them they are stupid. That’s like jerking and spurring a horse. But if you explain why you want something done in a certain way, it will happen for you. It’s a better approach to people and to horses. If you are treating them right, they want to please, there are very few that don’t.”

“There are no shortcuts to training; you have to put in the time. Picking a good horse for cutting is the same as picking a good horse for anything; you always look at its breeding. Was its father good, was its mother good and how good was the mother’s line? You can always get a freak good horse, but your chances are better at getting it right if the bloodlines are there. All the horses in our place are bred to cut, and the brilliant ones are inquisitive. The horse that is going to be brilliant is the first one that comes up to you.”

In 2001, Graham and his wife Donna went to the US. “I knew how good they were over there; I just didn’t know how good I was in comparison. Graham took out the Highest Aggregate in the 2002 Futurity and was fourth from about 800 horses at the 2005 NCHA World Championship Futurity, and Donna was fourth in the 2004 Non-Pro Futurity riding Wendy’s Weed, a mare they imported to Australia along with the stallion, Catskills. “It was a great experience,” remembers Graham, “and I did far better over there than I expected to do. That trip enabled us to buy a property at Killarney in Queensland, where I still am. Cutting became an addiction. The thrill of training a horse; there is not too much better than for a horse to block a cow and think quicker than its rider. There is nothing like riding a horse that is trained to think for itself. If you want a great athlete under you, then you had better be one on top to show him. Be honest with yourself and do it. People don’t think enough about what they are doing because the more you think about it, the more it opens up. Every day, I learn something about horses.

I have given a lot of clinics over the years, and the easiest people to teach are the ones who know nothing, as they have no preconceived ideas; they are a blank slate. I have proven that time and again at clinics.” Graham has trained Jonnie Mitchell, Roger Wagner, Andrew Coates, Spud Sheehan, Neil Roger etc who have all had great success competing and training in the US.

“I have been doing horses full-time for a long time, and it is now getting too tough. I am thinking of selling Killarney, and I will start doing what I want to do, not what I have to do. I used to work all day, every day, but half a day’s work is enough for me now. I took on a horse to train, Yulgilbar New N Shiny by Shines Like Metallic. There were no expectations, but he has learnt in 18 months what has taken me sixty years to find out. I will always ride a horse whenever I can. New N Shiny is entered for the 2024 NCHA Futurity at the end of May, and I’ll ride over the line on my 80th birthday.

*Cutting Horse Training On-Line

Article: Anna Sharpley.

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