This month marks the return of the MCHA member profile. Many thanks to Lisa Hendrickson for answering my questions.

Lisa, 46, was born in Fort Knox, Kentucky. She is married to her husband, Wade and has a daughter, Kyia. She is a rancher and has been a MCHA member since 1992. Lisa has won over $9,100 in NCHA lifetime earnings.

How did you first become interested in cutting?

I had horses my whole life and grew up riding, showing and jumping, but it wasn’t until after graduating from University that I became interested in cow horses. I had decided to buy myself a nice young AQHA filly, she was a daughter of Docs Jack Frost out of a daughter of Docs Prescription. I bought her as a halter prospect, but she never grew an inch after I bought her as a yearling! I was beside myself…what the heck was I going to do with this hot headed kid’s horse!!!! Then I happened to go watch Annie Reynolds (Jones) win the Montana Reined Cow Horse Futurity and I was intrigued!

I took my little filly down to Annie to have her start her for me and tell me whether or not the filly would make a cow horse. Annie was as diplomatic as Annie can be and she told me that there was no way my filly was going to do anything by the time she was three. In my ignorance I said that’s okay because I’m really not on a schedule, I just want to give the filly an opportunity to excel at her strengths! Annie then said that if I really wanted to try training this filly I should probably try her in cutting because she was “definitely loaded with cow…a lot more cow than willingness or ability.” I just ignored the last part and picked my filly up after sixty days and headed blindly into my illustrious cutting career!!

I have to laugh when someone who wants to get into cutting asks me for advice because I wrote the book on the wrong way to do it! When I was trying to start cutting I remember asking lots of questions and going to every cutting I could get to just to watch it. I took weeks off work and traveled 500 miles just to watch the Northwest Cutting Futurity when it was in Vancouver, Washington. Everyone was so nice and they all said “Get yourself a good old campaign horse that you can go show, a good campaign horse will teach you about cutting.” I was fresh out of college, with very little money and I already had a horse, but I asked anyway…what does a horse like that cost? Well, they all said, “You probably need to spend about ten to fifteen thousand dollars.” I about died, are these people out of their gourds…I don’t have that kind of money. I have time and I know how to work hard and I already have a horse, so I will just have to train my own!

Now for those of you that don’t know me, I am a pretty determined individual and I am here to tell you I spent eight solid years training that “filly” before I really got her shown in the cutting pen. (I believe Annie Reynolds tried to spare me this lesson but as you remember I ignored that part!) One day I decided to total up what I had spent out of pocket (not counting eight years of my time) getting my “filly”, known to many of my fellow cutters as Docs Frosty Hotrod ready for the show pen. I quit adding and decided that I really didn’t want to know the grand total when I hit a subtotal over $50,000! I have to say I definitely learned a lot but I would never recommend that road to anyone! My advice would be, “Bite the bullet and buy a seasoned horse, insure it, show it until you outgrow it, then sell it…that initial investment in a seasoned horse will probably still be worth what you paid for it when you are ready to sell it and you won’t ever be able to put a price on what that horse will have taught you!”

Lisa, you had a terrible streak of bad luck a year or so ago. Your husband had some health problems and you had a serious automobile accident and then a terrible horse accident. We are all thrilled and delighted at how fast you have bounced back. I was amazed that you were showing last year - and doing very well at it I must add. Tell us about your accident and how you made such a remarkable recovery.

Well, I think I have had to put a different twist on the last year and a half and say I am pretty lucky to be here and I feel very blessed. I truly have to attribute my speedy recovery to my family and my family of friends in the cutting horse industry, truly. As I lay in bed healing last summer I couldn’t wait to start riding again. The day my doctor cleared me I went home and saddled up. Nothing felt so good as just riding my mare across that cow pasture that day! We all have dreams and goals and I think that when something challenging happens to a fellow horseperson we each feel it deeply because we can identify so easily with them. Thank you so much to everyone out there that sent their prayers and support to my family, I cannot put into words the value of your prayers and how touched we were by all your support. Thank you. Wade, Kyia and I thank God each day that we have the opportunity to be around to return everyone’s love and support in the future.


How has the accident changed your outlook on life?

Before this all happened I had a homebred filly by my stallion, Spook Charmer, entered in the Non Pro at the 2006 NCHA Futurity. It had been a dream about to come true just to ride into the arena on a homebred that had the ability to be competitive at Fort Worth! But when the auto accident shattered my right arm I had to scratch my entry. At the same time my husband Wade was diagnosed with cancer, had major surgery and started many months of chemotherapy. Then just as Wade’s chemotherapy was completed I had my horse accident, I was struck in the face by a two year old filly and shattered sixty bones in my face. Besides becoming a big believer in modern medicine, I have to say that I take more joy in the little things in life. I always wanted to be like Pat Patterson…seventy-six years old and riding in the semi-finals of the NCHA Futurity at Will Rogers Coliseum. Now I am darn happy riding my old show mare into the practice pen at the Sapphire Event Center. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to be like Pat Patterson but if I make that it will just be the gravy!


In talking with you, I know you just returned from a special trip. Please tell us a little about the trip. (For example how it came about, where you went, what you did, what the country is like, do they have cuttings, etc.)

I have a cutting friend that started raising Mangalarga Marchadors a few year ago. They are a gaited performance horse, known as the National Horse of Brazil. My friend has imported some of these horses and she needed to go to Brazil on a buying trip in February. At the last minute she invited me to join her for the trip, “to ride all day, everyday, for two weeks!.” I didn’t even have a passport yet, but I got my passport and my visa arrived the day before we were to leave for Brazil! We flew into the southern coastal region of Brazil to Sao Paulo, a city of twelve million people. Then we traveled southwest to Sorocabo, the site of the oldest horse fair in Brazil held nearly 400 years ago. We stayed with a family in the city of Sorocabo. The woman who was our hostess in Sorocabo was an English teacher so she was often our translator. The Brazilian people were wonderful hosts. Every ranch or barn that we visited had tables laid out with linen table cloths, refreshments and snacks. Some of ranches were very wealthy, but even the poorest operations had linens over a card table sitting in the shade with ice water and refreshments waiting for us. Everywhere we went they would bring horses one by one to be viewed, then we would point to the ones we liked and the grooms would bring them back saddled. The Brazilian’s ride with what I would describe as “gusto”. At one ranch the owner was trying to help us get a horse to change gait and said very critically, “you American girls ride as if the horse is free in the pasture and no one is on it!” We laughed and said thank you so much! Brazil was an experience, we could be speeding down the freeway and pass poor starving cart horses pulling wooden wheeled carts full of goods in the middle lane. And when I say speeding down the freeway, I mean HANG ON and close your eyes, passing on the right shoulder at 80 miles an hour!! I promised Wade that if I got to go to Brazil I would do some research on their cattle market to see if our Irish Black beef cattle might fit into their market. In the interest of my ranch research I took hundreds of photos of the rolling hills, sugar cane fields, Zebu/Brahma cattle and the occasional moon through the palm trees above the pool outside the shuttered balcony of my bedroom…life was good in Brazil!


Tell us about the awesome little mare that you showed last year.

Sugars Peppy Sue, she is an incredible mare. Sugars Peppy Sue is by Sugars San Peppy and out of an appendix mare by Coldstream Guard, a thoroughbred stallion from Texas. I saw her advertised as a Broodmare for sale on the internet. She had NCHA winnings of over $21,000, produced earners of over $40,000 and had a Smart Little Pistol filly on her side at the time. Of course they wanted a fair price for her and I really had no business contacting the people because I didn’t have money to buy anything. But at the end of their ad in very tiny print they said “may consider trade for well-bred, well-broke young geldings.” I have always been a huge fan of Miss Silver Pistol, the dam of Smart Little Pistol, so I was dreaming about the filly at her side. I negotiated my deal for almost four months and finally got it put together. The following Spring of ’06 I bred Sugar to my Grays Starlight stallion, Spook Charmer and turned her out in the broodmare pasture. Then my young mare I was showing got hurt right before a show and, since I was trying to get lots of show experience for the big Futurity debut, I told Wade that maybe I would try showing Sugar. I took her to that show without ever practicing her on cattle beforehand. She was nineteen and pregnant, I had ridden her out in the pastures earlier to get her in shape and would push a few Momma cows around in the big pasture. When I went to the cutting I asked Chris Basham to help me in the practice pen just before my go to see if my mare would look at a cow and try to stop. We made three stops and Chris smiled and said “I think you will be just fine”. We headed to the show pen. Susie Lucchesi was sitting at the gate to the show pen and she said, “My God Lisa, I cannot believe you are going to walk into that pen without ever really working that mare in a pen, I’m not going to be able to admit that I even know you…are you sure you want to do this?” When I set Sugar down on her cows that day I can honestly say it was the most exciting go I have ever had. I thought she was a pretty good mare, but I truly had no idea how electric she was. I think Susie might even have claimed me as her sister that day!!! I say poor ole’ Sugar has to compete with a handicap just like golfers…she usually has a two or three point handicap while I clamor to stay with her! Since all of our health issues I have decided that I just want to continue to enjoy this mare. As long as both she and I stay healthy you will definitely see us at some cuttings!


Which is your favorite cutting to compete in and why?

I love to show all day at a cutting and then come home and sleep in my own bed! Now that I have a living quarters trailer I have a lot more favorite cuttings!!!


Please share any interesting cutting stories, facts about yourself or something everyone should know about you or doesn't know about you.

How about a most embarrassing cutting moment…and no I am not going to talk about when I fell off my mare in the middle of the show pen at Henry’s Lake last August!!! No I actually have one even better than that. When I began “training” my first cutting horse, one of the first trainers to offer me some help was Russ Westphal. He had just hung out his shingle as a horse trainer in the Moses Lake, Washington area. My horse had plenty of cow and she was pretty gritty, she wasn’t trained a bit but she was still much better than me. We went to a little jackpot in Royal City, Washington and Russ took myself and a couple of my friends under his wing and tried to help us. Russ was obviously extremely competitive (as demonstrated by his current success in the cutting industry) but at that time he was just beginning his cutting career and anything that would look at a cow might have some sort of potential. Well, it was my turn to go in the draw and Russ was in my corner coaching me. I started to work my first cow and I instantly quit breathing, I have very little recall of what went on during my go except that I could kind of hear Russ saying quit, quit, quit each time my horse turned with the cow. When the whistle blew, Russ rode up and said with complete seriousness, “Lisa, you need to be aware of what is happening in the arena…when the judge has to look over his shoulder at your horse you should probably go ahead and quit your cow!” I can honestly say, I’ve come a long way baby!!


In the next five to ten years where do you see yourself in the cutting world?

I hope my daughter is hauling me to cuttings!


What activities do you enjoy besides cutting?

Being a Mom and working on the ranch

If you could travel anywhere in the world where would it be and why?

Ireland. Because that’s where breeding quality horses has always been appreciated and good horses have been revered there for hundreds of years.


What is your favorite TV show?

Medium, but I have to be able to hide under the covers while I am watching it…I’m a true wimp!


Do you consider yourself a high-tech person or simply a cell phone user?

I would say I am somewhere in the middle…I attempt to use the high-tech world and love it when it works, but I have no idea why or how it works.


If you could have front row seats to any event, what would it be?

The Kentucky Derby.


If you were to win the lottery, how would it change your life?

Wade tortures me with this question every week…what am I going to do with my one million when he wins the 100 million?! I would pay off all the bills, hire some ranch hands, hire some people to manage all the people and then I would travel!


Do you have a lucky piece of clothing, if so, what is it?

Not clothing, but my daughter Kyia always gives me a lucky kiss or sends me off with a lucky rock!


What kind of awards do you prefer to win?

Saddles, a saddle would be good.


Lisa, what is your favorite quote?

“Sit tall in the saddle, hold your head up high. Keep your eyes fixed, where the trail meets the sky. Live like you ain’t afraid to die and don’t be scared – just enjoy your ride.” Chris LeDoux

Thank you, Lisa, for answering the questions and sharing with us. We wish you continued success in and out of the cutting pen!