Eric Van Boekel was originally a team penner. There was just something about that feeling when a horse gets a hold of a cow. He then started riding with Randy Chartier in 2003 and ventured into the cutting horse scene.
The obvious next step for Van Boekel was to buy his own cutting horse. He tried to do both sports together but it started to get complicated because one sport was offensive and one was defensive. He picked cutting.