COREY CUSHING: The$3MILLION Man

By doing his best for each horse he trained, Corey Cushing reached goals he never imagined.

By Larri Jo Starkey

Corey Cushing started his training career like most young trainers, loping horses.He had a few dreams and he set his sights on achieving them. It read like a checklist he ticked off fairly easily:

• Apprentice with a well-known horseman as an assistant— check. Cushing spent his first few years working with Todd Bergen, Ted Robinson, Noel Skinner and John Slack.

• Win a major cow horse event—check. Cushing won his first major event in 2007 at the National Reined Cow Horse Association Stallion Stakes on CC Spin Cycle.

• Win $1 million—check. Cushing hit that goal in 2012.

• Win $3 million… He never thought of it once.

“My goal was to be successful in the show pen someday,” Cushing said. “Having a chance to show at awesome events on the kind of horse that can do the kinds of things those horses can do.”

Just doing his best for each horse paid off, as Cushing became the first NRCHA $3 Million Rider during the 2022 Snaffle Bit Futurity®.

Doing It Himself

On a brisk winter day, Cushing is out riding, getting to know yet another young horse and beginning to understand that horse’s potential and mindset.

He lopes his horse steadily, then answers a phone call. His calls aren’t forwarded to an answering service, and he doesn’t have an assistant riding the horse—Cushing does it himself.

“Horses are all their own individuals,” he said. “There’s not one of them alike. There are similar traits and characteristics, but there isn’t one that thinks the same or goes about the same.”

Understanding each horse, he said, is crucial to getting the most out of that horse.

“You need to know how they work, how they respond to what you need to do with them, the way that they’re thinking, the type of equipment that you use on them and even how much you warm them up,” he said. “How much do you prep for an event or what’s the everyday home practice?”

Knowing the horse intimately means Cushing knows exactly how much he can ask when big money is on the line.

“I’m not afraid to saddle my horse or clean the stalls,” he said. “I don’t know anything else to do but just be myself. I can appreciate the help along the way, but at the same time, I know that’s what got me here. We’ll hopefully keep it going.”

Cushing hung out his own shingle when he was 23 years old, with the backing of his wife, Kristen. The Cushings have three children, and they all work together at Corey Cushing Performance Horses, based in Weatherford, Texas.

“She’s just as important in this as all my success,” Cushing said. “She’s been right there with me the whole time. And my outstanding customers are giving me the opportunities and these horses.”

Setting New Goals

Since his days as an assistant, Cushing has focused on learning constantly.

“Never, never stop learning,” he said. “Thank goodness I’ve got a lot of great friends, and there are so many good people in the horse industry who are willing to voice their opinions through a troublesome spot or show experience.”

Whether he needs advice on a reining problem, a cutting situation or anything else, he has friends who are willing to assist him.

“I know I can’t be as good as some of the cutters out there right now or some of the reiners,” he said. “But I can pick their brain, and they can give me advice.

The biggest thing is that as time goes on you’ve got to be able to adapt to the changes and understand that times are changing. If you’re not keeping up with them, you’re going to get left behind.”

Training horses has prepared Cushing to help Amateurs and Non Pros prepare their horses. The process is similar, he said, and he frequently leads clinics in addition to teaching his private clients.

“I do my best to break it down to where anyone can understand it,” he said. “I try to keep my program real. I try to keep it simple—hard as it is.”

He focuses on meeting riders where they are, just like he approaches horses. He wants to know where they are in their riding career and what kind of horses they have.

“I try to make sure they can follow through and know what they’re capable of doing,” he said. “I want to make sure they know what they’re doing, how to make a rundown and draw a horse into the ground. Just keep things real simple.”

Cushing never came close to quitting, even in the days when he was beginning his career.

“Anyone who is in the horse business, whether it be pleasure horses, reiners, cutters—just horses in general—it’s a lot of long, hard hours and you build your

CUSHING’S BIG WINS

1999 National Reining Horse Association Intermediate Open Futurity on Twice As Shiney (Shining Spark x Shine A Mite)

2007 National Reined Cow Horse Association Stakes Championship on CC Spin Cycle (Ray Gay Quixote x Lenas Peppy Cutter)

2009 NRCHA Derby Open Championship on Smart Boons (Peptoboonsmal x Smart Little Easter)

2011-

2012 American Quarter Horse Association World Champion Senior Working Cow Horse on Rising Starlight (LitBay Starlight x Peppys Hot Star)

2012 Magnificent 7 All Around Stock Horse Champion on Smart Boons (Peptoboonsmal x Smart Little Easter)

2012 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity® Open Champion on CD Diamond (CD Olena x Shiners Diamond Girl)

2014 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity® Open Champion on Good Time (One Time Pepto x Dual Nurse)

2015 World’s Greatest Horseman on PRF Spoonful Of Gold (Hes A Peptospoonful x Sons Miss Sprat)

2017 National Stock Horse Association Futurity Open Champion on SJR Smooth Rio (Smooth As A Cat x Shiners Diamond Girl)

2018 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity® Open Champion on SJR Diamond Mist (CD Diamond x Cat Mist)

2019 NRCHA World’s Greatest Horseman on Sonita Lena Ray (Dual Rey x Sonita Lena Chick)

2022 NRCHA World’s Greatest Horseman on Hott Rod (Hottish x Sugars Smart Kitty) way through it,” he said. “There were days when I thought it was getting too tough, but I never said, ‘I can’t do it.’ ”

He challenged himself to meet the difficulties head on, one day at a time.

“It was never so much that I couldn’t do it on a particular day, but it’s the struggle of being consistent and following through,” he said. “It comes to a point of paying attention to where you’re at and sometimes it means slowing down a little bit to move forward.”

When Cushing was starting out, he watched NRCHA Two Million Dollar Rider Bergen with Chic Please and NRCHA Hall of Fame member Robinson with Katie Starlight, a NRCHA Hall of Fame inducted horse. It was at the beginning of the big-money events, and Cushing was starstruck at the amazing horses.

“Looking up at all my heroes and mentors and trying to keep up with them someday was on my bucket list,” Cushing said. “It has been one heck of a ride, that’s for sure.”

But the ride isn’t over. He still has at least one goal to achieve.

“I’ve never won the Hackamore Classic,” he said. “That is the one premier event that I have not won. I got to spend a lot of time with one of my heroes, and that’s Benny Guitron. At that event, you can only achieve success by working in a hackamore. There’s a true art to it, for those who understand it. It’s not just a decorative piece [of gear] that hangs on a horse’s head.”

Guitron, another NRCHA Hall of Fame member and Snaffle Bit Futurity Champion, let Cushing ride a couple of well-trained hackamore horses, and it was a revelation.

“I would at least like to feel that I put that on a horse,” Cushing said. “It was just so amazing, that something’s so light and that just sits around a horse’s nose can mean so much. I hope to truly achieve that someday.”

Guitron also set the goal that Cushing lives by—his next goal.

“Benny Guitron said he wanted to be remembered that when people hear his spurs walk down the alleyway that guys can look up as he walks by and say, ‘That’s one hell of a cowboy right there.’ ”

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BY KRISTIN PITZER PHOTOS BY PRIMO MORALES