Tatum Rice

Money Won

Titles/Finals

• 2019 The Ike DERBY OPEN CHAMPION on CREY ZEE
  
• 2018 NCHA OPEN FUTURITY CHAMPION RIDING CREY ZEE
  
• 2018 NCHA OPEN WORLD CHAMPION RIDING HASHTAGS
  
• 2018 RESERVE CHAMPION NCHA OPEN HORSE OF THE YEAR - HASHTAGS

Top Three Horses Trained

• Hashtags
  
• Creyzee
  
• Eazee E

Tatum Rice grew up in the cutting industry under the guidance of his dad, Boyd Rice, cousin, Tag Rice, and great uncle, Ronnie Rice, He currently lives and trains cutting horses in Weatherford, Texas. Tatum Rice has been showing cutting horses since he was 10 years old. In 2009 he gave up his non pro card and began training professionally at Carl & Shawnea Smith’s facility. In 2011 he & his wife, Kylie, moved to their own training facility in Weatherford, Texas. Tatum prides himself in allowing each horse to be an individual while enjoying their job!

How did you get into cutting?

“I’ve been in cutting forever. My entire life my dad [Boyd Rice] trained cutting horses and his dad [Sonny Rice] did also. My dad’s mom’s dad was the first one that got into cutting.”

Who did you work for?

“I was with my dad until I was 17 and then I worked with [cousin] Tag Rice and Ronnie Rice for a long time after that. I was with Tag from 2004-2009. I left Tag’s in 2009 and went to work at Carl Smith’s place in 2010 and 2011. When I married Kylie, we built our place and started here in May of 2012”

What is your most memorable moment in the sport?

“Winning the Futurity last year would have to be probably the most memorable moment.”

What is the biggest myth about cutting?

“I don’t know if this is a myth more than a mentality, but I think a lot of young people, and I would include myself in this, you kind of think when you’re starting out and you’re younger, I’m going to work real hard and figure everything out, I’m going to learn how to train a horse and I’m going to learn how to show a horse and then it will get easier. And that is the right [frame of mind to have] you want to work that hard and be that gung-ho and that motivated. The problem is, even when you get to that stage and you are capable of training one and you are capable of showing one it doesn’t really get easier, in fact it probably gets harder…The goals change, you go from being happy to have a trained horse you can make finals on to now you actually want to win, then you go from wanting to win to wanting to win a title like Horse Of The Year or World Champion….Getting to the top is not nearly as hard as staying at the top.”

What is your training philosophy?

“At the end of the day, the horse has to work the cow, but they also have to be broke. You have to be able to handle them, you have to be able to put them where you want them with your feet. There is a fine line between working the cow and having the horse broke. It’s not all or nothing on either one. If they are over trained and over broke horse, that’s not good. If they are just cutting and not listening, that’s not good either. It has to be in the middle. In the beginning, as a 2 year old, early 3 year old it’s more about being broke. But the further you get to making a show horse, it’s more about the cow.”

What advice would you have for an up and coming trainer?

“If it’s somebody just starting out, they need to get in a program and work there as long as they can and become important in that program and do everything you can for the person you’re learning from and then they will in turn try to help you as much as they can. You want to learn from everyone, but as far as being a new guy and hopping from one job to the next, in my opinion, that’s not really the path you want to take. You want to get somewhere and stick with it and learn a program and at least get the basics before you start getting down into the minutiae.”