Total Earnings: $4,187,197
Michael Cooper never worked for a cutting horse trainer and literally came from nothing. He is from Missouri originally and learned about cutting when he traveled to Arkansas to visit relatives who happened to work for a cutting horse trainer. They offered to let Cooper work a cutting horse and he couldn’t believe what he was feeling. He learned by watching everything he could about cutting and even wore out training dvds. Keep On Reading!
Total Earnings: $5,465,497
Kobie Wood grew up in Illinois and his dad had always wanted to get into cutting. In 1957, his father bought a place for horses and cattle. Wood started learning how to cut. He rode his first cutter at five years old.
Total Earnings: $6,000,000
Tim Smith has amassed over six million dollars in lifetime earnings. Smith attended college for a year on a basketball scholarship in Minnesota. After getting injured, he joined his brother Mike, who was a cutting horse trainer in California. Smith quickly developed a passion for cutting.
Other than his brother, the only other person Smith worked for was Bill Martin, a cutting horse trainer in Southern California.
Total Earnings: $4,429,007
Phil Hanson’s dad, Phil Sr., was a performance horse trainer so he grew up riding and being involved in the industry. As a kid he had summer jobs building houses and later pursued a degree in Architectural Drafting and Design from Phoenix Institute of Technology. The housing market wasn’t doing well when he graduated so after having no luck finding a job, he turned to training horses.
It was meant to be, with Hanson having gone on to win all of the Triple Crown events and more. In the beginning, when his cutting horse training business was getting off the ground, he would work horses and then draft house designs.
Total Earnings: $892,000 Aus
At 18 years old Rob Hodgman left home in Australia and traveled to California to ride reined cow horses. He returned home where he said the sport was more popular then and bought a cow horse. That horse did not like reining so a friend suggested he take it to the cutting futurity. He ended up winning the 1983 Australian NCHA Open Futurity on the horse.
Total Earnings: $592,458
Originally from Brotas, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Rodrigo Taboga has grown up in the horse industry. He showed his first cutting horse at seven years old, learning from his father. He was 17 years old when he decided he wanted to train professionally.
Jody Galyean has had a huge influence on Taboga. They met in 2011 when Jody would come out to their ranch in Brazil to teach.
Cullen Chartier Photo by Martin Lengals
Total Earnings: $1,004,761
With two generations of cutters behind him, you could say cutting is in Cullen Chartier’s blood. Before committing to be a trainer, Chartier’s main focus was other sports. At one point, he pursued a sports broadcasting career, but made the switch after watching his brother, RL Chartier make the Futurity finals.
Cullen showed in the youth and worked for his dad, Randy Chartier for two years. He then went to work for RL at Wrigley Ranches. After two years, RL told him it was time to go work for someone else, so Chartier headed off to Paul Hansma. He spent four years with Hansma, before starting his own business training out of Paul’s place.
Scott Amos
Total Earnings: $979,937
Scott Amos got his start in the reining and cow horse world. He said his parents had horses and he rode and showed growing up. Tim Denton introduced Amos to cutting and gave him his first job during school summers.
Winston Hansma and John Mitchell offered a lot of help and advice along the way when Colorado based Amos was able to come to Texas. He would bring three or four horses down and ride with the two Hall of Famers.
Amos was originally going to go to school to be a prosthetist (a specialist in prosthetics). He had been interested in making artificial limbs after he lost his lower leg in a tractor accident. Amos had a passion for helping kids dealing with the loss of a limb. While he had a full scholarship to study, the lure of training horses was too great.
Faron Hightower
How did you get started in cutting?
“Been involved in cutting since ‘79 or ‘80. My dad [got me involved]. My dad was Olan Hightower. He trained Colonel Freckles. I was fortunate enough to have a teacher that knew more about the cow and horse than anyone I ever encountered…the good Lord blessed me with some ability and feel for a horse. Dad’s way of teaching was about the horse and the cow and not you.”
