SMALL TOWN, BIG SUCCESS BY: KATE SANCHEZ
If you’ve ever driven through west Texas, you’re familiar with the kind of small towns that most only see in the movies: buildings lie vacant, yet folks still greet you with a smile. It’s in these areas, which are barely surviving, that big dreams can be envisioned and where hard work and dedication can pay off on a large-scale, if you put your mind to it. 90 miles northeast of Lubbock, where the winding roads seem endless, cotton fields are abundant, and cattle are by far the most predominant animal, is a small town called Matador. It’s a place deeply rooted in western history, and home to a young man who is destined to make a history of his own by training horses for a living and making a name for himself at some of the most prominent events around. Brad Baxter was born and raised in Matador and started his first horse at age 13 with some other young boys in town. Baxter, always interested in cutting horses, originally trained in Wyoming under the guidance of Steve James. On returning to his home state, the horseman went to work for Ruth Lowrance in Truscott, mainly starting two-year-olds and gaining experience in all stages of the cutting horse business. In 2009 Baxter reached a milestone in the show pen that even today he recalls as one of his biggest accomplishments: winning the NCHA World Championship in the $2K Limited Rider class on a gelding named WS Snickelfritz. PG. 14 :: SPRING 2019
In 2011 Baxter decided to start a cutting horse business in his hometown. He started from the ground up, building his business with his own hands, and initially rode whatever was sent his way. The young trainer credits clients, such as Rodney Green of Dickens for helping him cultivate his operation, “Rodney had a cutter or two, so we were always out showing,” Baxter recalls, “I got the chance to talk to a lot of people, learn more, and do a lot of networking that way. From there, the business grew.” From a place that started out holding all of the training horses in one or two pens, grew a true, functional horse training operation. Today, Baxter’s facility boasts 26 stalls, 25 of which are filled with horses in training. With the help of his wife, Michelle, who does all of the billing and secretarial work for the business, the trainer has built quite an operation, one he admits “would fall apart” without his other half. While his focus is on cutting horses, Baxter still starts colts, and trains anything from ranch and rope horses, to performance horses of all kinds. “I don’t concentrate as hard on other disciplines as I do the cutting,” he shares, “but it’s still there if I can get my mind right.” Take a walk down the aisles in his barn, and you’ll see offspring of some of the top horses in the cutting and performance horse industries; it’s truly a showing of the “who’s who” in today’s booming horse world.
