SARAH DAWSON

It is impossible to count the hours Cheryl Winters has spent watching her daughter, Sarah Dawson, compete in the show pen. Another incalculable figure is the number of hours Sarah worked outside the show pen to do so well inside it.

On March 10, from her seat inside Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, Cheryl watched again as her daughter took to the arena to compete. This time, she watched Sarah do more than show. She witnessed her make history as the first cow horse champion of Teton Ridge’s inaugural The American Performance Horseman.

“During something like that, I’m sitting in the stands, knowing how much she is wanting to win,” Cheryl says. “When it happens, you’re just in awe and it’s surreal, thinking this just happened for her. Then you remember that it’s because before she could walk, she was riding a horse. When other people were sitting in a classroom, she was with her daddy riding horses. To know that all those hours she invested over the years has paid off is amazing.” For all of Sarah’s 33 years, Cheryl had a frontrow seat, as she worked toward perfecting her horsemanship.

“As a mom, as I reflect on her success, I can see different scenarios play through my mind as to what has gotten her to this point right here,” Cheryl says. “Other people will say, ‘Wow, look what she just did!’ I think, if you knew the hours this child invested from the early years, you’d understand why she is doing what she is doing now.”

Many Sarah Dawson fans began as fans of her father, Richard Winters, watching Sarah grow into the horsewoman she is now. After her TAPH win, Cheryl was delighted to receive messages of congratulations.

“We heard from people we hadn’t heard from for years, and some of the messages are so special, like the ones from people who knew her as a kid,” Cheryl says. “A lot of people saw her grow up at events like Western States Horse Expo, helping Dad in his demonstrations. They know her success was not overnight, that it was built over years. To hear those comments was very special.”

Cheryl credits her husband and Sarah’s dad, renowned horseman Richard Winters, for much of Sarah’s talent.

“What goes through my mind often is how fortunate she was to have Richard Winters as her dad,” Cheryl says. “He is such an amazing horseman, and for her to have such a solid start and background, she would not be where she is today had she not started out with solid horsemanship skills.”

Richard’s livelihood as a horseman, coupled with Sarah’s horsecentric focus, was a recipe for success. Sarah was bound to be a horsewoman.

“Sarah was in seventh grade, and Richard broke his collarbone when he was working a young colt and got bucked off,” Cheryl recalls. “We lived out in the middle of nowhere, and every six to eight weeks Richard would drive to Salinas, California, where we moved from, to pick up and deliver horses he had in training. That’s how we kept the money coming in. It was the dead of winter, and so cold and snowy where we were in northern California.

“Sarah left the traditional school-room setting to stay home and help out. Richard would sit in the car with his PA, and walk Sarah through the process of starting the colts. That is where she learned she could do school from home, get her work done in two or three hours a day and be riding horses all day long instead of sitting in a classroom for eight hours a day. From that point on, she was always enrolled in a private-study program.”

Sarah was drawn initially to riding English, though Richard was focused on colt starting and cow-horse disciplines.

“In my opinion, if you ride English, you’re going to be a better Western rider,” Cheryl says. “That allowed her to look so beautiful, and be one with these Western horses. It has set her apart, those very fortunate early years and experiences in an English saddle.”

The significance of Sarah’s The American Performance Horseman win is magnified because of the horse Sarah rode to win the title—Shine Smarter, a 2012 mare by WR This Cats Smart out of Shiney Tari by Shining Spark. “Juliette,” bred by Carol Rose, was purchased, trained and shown in aged events by Sarah. When Sarah needed money for a new truck, her parents bought the mare.

“She sold us Juliette, so she could pay cash for a truck,” Cheryl remembers. “We knew financially, we did not have the money to take the horse where she could go. We knew there was so much potential with this horse, so we approached Linda Mars about buying her. I know Sarah wished she would have not sold her to us and kept her. Juliette is such a unique horse, and is one of the greatest mares out there. I know if Sarah could rewind the clock, she wouldn’t have sold her to us.”

It was always about the horses for Sarah Winters Dawson.

The Winters sold Juliette to Mars with the understanding that she would keep the horse in training with Sarah, which she has. An important part of Mars’ breeding program now, Juliette produced Sarah’s 2020 National Reined Cow continued on page 42