///////// MEMBER ROUNDUP
KATE BRADLEY BYARS
NOTABLE NON PRO Non Pro William Lewis started at the bottom and worked his way to the top, making good friends and good horses along the way. By Katie Frank
W
illiam Lewis has been on the top of the score sheet, and the bottom. Lately, the current Stock Horse Association of Texas president has had success at National Reined Cow Horse Association premier events, which is impressive considering he started competing just six years ago, first in SHTX and later in NRCHA. Lewis grew up on his family’s cattle ranch in Magnolia, Texas. He says he and his two sisters would ride their family’s horses to gather cattle, but being horseback was more of a hobby. “There was almost zero awareness about horsemanship,” he said. “Our horses would go left, right, forward and back, and with our experience level, we hardly knew how to even apply that to our cattle.”
ROPED IN
While in college at Texas A&M University, Lewis started team roping, which he continued when he went to work for his family’s custom metal fabrication business. He still runs the business with his dad. It was also the chapter in his life to focus on family, which included marrying his wife, Stephanie, and having two sons, Christopher and
56 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 | REINED COW HORSE NEWS
Will. Lewis still did some day-working to stay horseback. During that time, he often worked at his pal Jerry Moriarty’s 3M Ranch in Richards, Texas. Moriarty was an American Quarter Horse Association Ranching Heritage Breeder, and Lewis says he admired the quality of horses they rode. He eventually purchased Up Bach Rock, a 7-year-old gelding from the 3M and continued to work on roping and riding. “One day Jerry called me and said, ‘Hey, you want to go to a Stock Horse of Texas Show?’ ” said Lewis. “We ended up at a show in San Angelo [Texas], and I had no clue—I mean, not a clue— what to do.” Lewis, who lives in Anderson, Texas, says he not only showed in the Novice classes at SHTX shows, but also in the Open, because he wanted to rope in the cow horse classes. (In the SHTX Open division, riders can opt to circle or rope a cow.) “I could stay on a horse and rope, but I didn’t have any idea about position on a cow or how to really turn one on the fence,” he recalled. “Hell, I thought boxing was demonstrating your horse’s ability to get a cow through a gate.”
In 2020, William Lewis won his first NRCHA premier event aboard Playin With Cher.
Yet there was something about competing in judged events, as opposed to timed events, that gripped Lewis. He started training with NRCHA professional Ben Baldus, and for the past six years has dedicated himself to becoming a better horseman and showman. “Learning more about horsemanship is like discovering you can use a ratchet to turn a bolt,” he laughed. “You’ve been using a crescent wrench your whole life and then you discovered a ratchet. You think, ‘Holy cow, where has this been my whole life?’ ”
GOOD STRING OF HORSES
After his first horse, Lewis purchased Colonels Colonel, a 1993 gelding by Queens Colonel and out of Colonel’s Hot Reward, by Queen’s Colonel. He says the 18-year-old seasoned horse taught him the ropes of showing. “He was one of those horses that did
