Guy Robertson working a cow. When you think of horses in England, it’s generally the sport of kings (thoroughbred racing) or the aristocracy in their red jackets hunting foxes on horseback over the rolling green hillsides that comes to mind. But did you know, there is a small but growing interest in
Hannes Winkler goingdown the fence at theAmericana. Feeling a horse hook up to a cow and work it by instinct is a feeling few can ever forget. The sport of reined cow horse is capturing rider’s hearts around the world. Not everyone has the cattle but they have the desire to find
Total Earnings: $624,535 Three time World’s Greatest Horseman, Russell Dilday, got his start in the cow horse world after watching the 1993 Snaffle Bit Futurity in Fresno when Sandy Collier won. His father-in-law was also a cow horse trainer. Dilday had grown up around horses. His family ranched and roped for fun. Dilday’s dad
Kimberlee and Metallic MaverickPhoto by Shane Rux Photography Kimberlee Gabel has been involved with reined cow horses for five years. Previously, she had rodeoed and competed in stock horse versatility before making the switch. “For me, the pinnacle has always been the reined cow horse,” she said. Gabel bought her current horse
Total Earnings: $65,471 Straight out of high school in Idaho, Tyson Benson went to work for Corey Cushing in Arizona and stayed there for six years. His dad Rick had given Benson a solid foundation with horses and he spent time with Al Dunning and Bobby Ingersol at clinics alongside his dad. Benson went
Betty and A Shooting Spark Reined cow horses have been a consuming passion of Betty Lou Valdez for more than 10 years. She bought a finished cow horse and liked it so much she then got her first futurity horse in 2010. She remembers one year she and her daughter travelled to
Preparing the arena forshow time. Good groundis crucial. You’ve gone to plenty of shows, you’ve seen good ones and not so good ones. But wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t always have to travel? Wouldn’t it be great to grow the sport in your own backyard? While it does take some
Clay Damuth has a ranching background but he has always had an interest in cow horses. He was advised to go work for trainers to learn the trade. He first went to work for a cueing horse trainer at 20 years of age and then branched out to cow horse trainers with a foundation
Total Earnings: $268,631 Ben Baldus has always wanted to be a cowboy for as long as he can remember. At 17 he went to Pennsylvania and worked for Christian Evangelist, Lew Sterrett, who used horses to preach. Sterrett gave Baldus a foundation. Then, at 20 years old, Baldus moved to Texas to work for
NRCHA Executive Director, Anna Morrison When Anna Morrison stepped into the position of executive director of the National Reined Cow Horse Association in December last year, she felt she was taking a leap of faith in the middle of COVID-19 uncertainty. But Morrison soon discovered the NRCHA had done an incredible job
Sandy and MH Boon In My BloodPhoto by Fletch Sandy Jirkovsky has spent most of her training career working mainly with Appaloosas but has had Paints and Quarter Horses come through her barn. Her husband started showing in the cow horse world in the Appaloosa circuit and she thought it looked like
Total Earnings: $56,064 After 25 years of training reining horses and earning $1.7 million showing reiners, Dell Hendricks made a big change. After winning almost everything there is to win the reining world, his client base started to shift and he wasn’t as well mounted as he had been in the early years. Now
