There’s something satisfying about watching a cutting horse doing its job well.

The speed, agility and balance of the horse to mirror a cut cow as it desperately tries to return to the safety of its herd is mesmerizing and thrilling all at once.

It was a world that Weatherford, Texas, farrier Jake Whitman wanted to be a part of.

“I grew up shoeing horses with my dad Terry Whitman in Wyoming, and it was the last thing in the world that I saw myself doing,” the younger Whitman says as he maneuvers his Chevrolet Z71 2500 HD along Farm to Market Road 51 en route to Springtown.

He was determined to make a go of training cutting horses. Whitman was well on his way, getting the opportunity to work for a quintet of hall of fame cutting horse trainers and riders.

“I lived in California and worked for several different cutting horse trainers out there — Gary Gonsalves, Jack Adams, Rock Hedlund, and Paul and Winston Hansma,” he says. “Then, I trained on my own for a year or so.”