Know the Pro: Sarah Murphey

KNOW THE PRO

Texas-based trainer Sarah Murphey has gained experience working for established mentors in the equine industry.

By Larri Jo Starkey

At age 13, Sarah Murphey watched Bill Freeman work cutting horses. And that was it. Her life course was set. She had dreamed of becoming a trainer since age 11, and the experience of watching Freeman communicate with a horse for a positive outcome was the clincher on that dream.

“I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh. This is it,’” she said.

Murphey spent a year in college, but she left and never wavered again in her fixed goal of becoming a horse trainer, seeking out trainers she admired and working as an assistant trainer across the United States.

Murphey’s life as a traveling assistant ended when she recently hung out her own shingle. In 2021, she won her first major title in the National Reined Cow Horse Association Stallion Stakes with HQ Wilma Gotta Kitty (Meteles Cat x Wilma Gotta Gun x Spooks Gotta Gun), a 2016 mare owned by Reid and Melanie Hockenson.

That big win was just another step on a path that Murphey began as a teenager, when her supportive parents bought a green horse and sent him to trainer Luke Jones.

“I started riding with Luke,” Murphey said. “And I went to Bill Freeman’s place for two summers as a teenager

PRIMO MORALES

Murphey has ridden to a couple of premier event Level 1 Limited Open titles in the last two years.

and worked for him. Bill was extremely encouraging. I just pulled this dream out of thin air. I showed up at a cutting clinic—a green rider and a 3-year-old reined cow horse. I was so starstruck by Bill and so nervous and out of place, but I just wanted to ride horses, you know?

“I remember saying, ‘Just let me know what I’m doing wrong.’ And he was like, ‘Better yet, I’m gonna let you know everything you’re doing right,’ ” she added.

It was a whammo of a confidencebooster.

“He was just encouraging from that moment on,” she said. “In the time I got to spend with him, he made me believe in myself. That’s a hard thing, I think, the belief that you can do it. It comes easy for some people, but it’s something I’ve had to work on.”

Freeman’s lessons gave Murphey the gumption to walk up to National Reined Cow Horse Association Million Dollar Rider Boyd Rice in a parking

lot to ask for a job, and the trainer said yes. Fresh out of high school in Wisconsin, she moved to remote Spearman, Texas, for an internship.

“There’s that moment when you get dropped off and you’re alone,” Murphey recalled. “Boyd gave me this number for this elderly lady who rented me a room in her home. I moved in with a complete stranger. I remember sitting on the bed thinking, ‘This is my dream.’ It was amazing. It was a culture shock, but I was ready.”

After her internship ended, Murphey went to college, then Jones introduced her to rope horse trainer J.D. Yates, who hired her as an assistant in Pueblo, Colorado.

“Pretty much between every job I’ve had, I’ve gone back to Luke’s place for a couple of months before the next thing arose,” Murphey said. “He’s really been family. He has been a huge part of my life.”

Jones remembers the teenaged Murphey coming to ride with him and how she improved every time she visited after working with a new trainer.

“She has matured as a rider a lot and she has always had a lot of natural talent with horse,” Jones said. “I think what she has done is improved on those talents and got them done in the show pen as well.”

After Murphey’s time with Yates, she sought out noted colt starter Gerald Alexander.

“I started Sir Long Legs while I worked for him,” Murphey said. “He started Chiquita Cat. He started Thomas E Hughes. He started High Brow CD. They say that he has more than $8 million in earnings as far as horses that have been through his program.”

Murphey worked one-on-one with Alexander, learning how to remain calm when a colt becomes stressed in the round pen.

“The beginning stages of training is so important,” Murphey said. “The first pull is how they respond to a pull for the rest of their lives. That’s how they think of a release for the rest of their lives.”

She worked for Todd Bergen for two years, before returning to Alexander’s for one more year until his retirement. Then Murphey knew it was time to go out on her own.

“I don’t really know that you’re ever ready,” Murphey said. “I was just to a point where I had worked for a lot of great people, and I never had the chance to show. I just wanted to show a horse.”

Murphey had owned a 3-yearold, Bet Hes Royal, which she took to the pre-Futurity and then showed in the NRCHA Snaffle

Bit Futurity®. Now, she has won more than $30,000 in NRCHA earnings. “Obviously, it’s amazing,” she said. “No matter how prepared

I was or how long I had been in the industry, I wasn’t ready for that. You just go and fail and keep going. That’s all you can do. The only thing that keeps your head up is watching your heroes go and fail. It’s just part of it.” She sold the gelding to Abrian

Harris Bass, and Murphey was able to watch Bass succeed with the gelding. “I sold him the middle of his 4-year-old year. She showed him his 4- and 5-year old year, and she also showed him in the two-rein,” Murphey said. “It was exactly the home I wanted for that horse. I actually—the first time I saw her show him, I ended up crying.”

When Jones’ clients, the Hockensons, needed someone to ride a powerful mare, he recommended Murphey.

“Sarah has taken a lot of stuff from different people and put her own spin on it,” he said. “I thought that mare would be a good fit for her and it has been a great fit.”

HQ Wilma Gotta Kitty was an amazing mare, Murphey said.

“She was just a huge fence horse, so all I had to do was sit there most of the time once she figured it out,” Murphey said. “I was very lucky to have her, and I appreciate the Hockensons trusting me with her. They’ve done great things for me.”

Sarah Murphey bases her training operation out of Peaster, Texas.

KATE BRADLEY-BYARS

Reined Cow Horse News: What is the most rewarding part of training horses?

It’s the friendships, whether it’s with the horses or the people I’m around. My horses are truly my friends. It’s so rewarding to see them get it, improve, and it’s amazing how you can take a horse you can’t even catch in the stall and in a month, you’re riding around, and in another month, you’re working a cow on them or the flag. It’s about working together.

It’s amazing to go do good at a show—that’s rewarding—but my horses are my every day.

What do you enjoy about teaching and coaching others?

I’ve started to give lessons recently. I love horses, so I love watching people enjoy horses and I want everyone to love it as much as I do.

What does it mean to you to be able to compete in reined cow horse events?

I think there’s a lot of great horsemen in all the disciplines, but the cow horse is a step above as far as horsemanship is concerned. I think that NRCHA can and should pride themselves on the best horsemen in the world. I think that most of our guys, especially the high-end trainers, if they wanted to go and just train cutters or just train team roping horses or train reiners, they could do it.

Most of them spend a lot of time understanding the mind of a horse. I think that as a whole, NRCHA has the best horsemen in the world. You can’t fake three events.

What makes you smile every day?

The fact that God has helped me get this far. I’ve just been really blessed with a great family and no matter how—my horses. Just walking into the barn in the morning is a great feeling.

I’m thankful to God for the life I get to live.

Who else has helped you?

I just get emotional about all the people who have helped me. Chris and Sarah Dawson—I’ve never worked for Chris, but he has been like a brother to me since forever. In my opinion, there’s nobody better down the fence than Chris. He’s so good. His program of getting those horses confident at a high rate of speed is really great.

There are so many people who have helped me. The whole NRCHA has been—I’ve ridden with Nick Dowers and Anne Reynolds and Dan Roeser. Every time you go to Idaho, you pick up the phone and make calls and can ride with someone every day. It’s such a huge family. If I drive through Colorado, Matt Koch lets me overnight at his house. Jay McLaughlin has sent me horses.

Everybody is so supportive. It’s amazing.

Q A

with NRCHA Pro Sarah Murphey