Three Decades Later, Billy Emerson Enjoys the Ride with Motown Cat

Nearly 40 years after Billy Emerson got hooked on cutting horses, he’ll ride to the herd aboard a homebred horse in the 5/6-Year-Old Amateur at the Southern Cutting Futurity.

It’s the result of a journey in cutting that started on a whim, really. And, it wasn’t even Emerson’s idea.

But, it’s been an incredible ride so far for the 78-year-old Texan.

Even though Emerson’s earned more than $202,430 in the sport, Motown Cat has given him some highlights this year. They earned the Intermediate Amateur Reserve Championship a few months ago at the West Texas Futurity. Emerson has a turquoise-accented belt buckle to prove it.

He loves the sport of cutting, which he fell in love with the first time he rode a good cutting horse in practice in the mid 1980s.

“When you get on a cutting horse and you put your hand down and that horse takes over, it’s a feeling that you don’t get in any other equine sport that I know of,” said Emerson, an EquiStat Elite $1 Million Breeder. “I’ve run fast and I’ve slid like the reiners, you know, and I’ve circled cows … but there’s nothing like putting your hand down and that horse taking over and out-thinking, you. It’s pretty amazing.”

It’s been an incredible journey, especially considering how it started. In Emerson’s telling, he got into cutting backwards. Why? The first time he rode to the herd in a show was the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Futurity.

Unexpected Start in the Cutting Horse Business

Emerson’s father, Bill, was a businessman in Dallas, but he always liked cattle and horses. He had a ranch about 70 miles south of the city and bred some of his Quarter Horse mares to his ranch stallion, a son of Poco Bueno. In the late 1980s, Billy said his father suggested they partner on breeding the ranch’s granddaughters of Poco Bueno to a cutting horse stallion and then cheer on the offspring.

The way Emerson remembers the sales pitch is: “We’ll sit up in the stands and drink beer and watch our horses.”

They bred the mares to Docs Okie Quixote, who won the NCHA Triple Crown in 1983-84 with trainer Joe Heim. However, it dawned on Emerson after he got the mares home that he and his dad were going to have to wait a long time before those foals would be old enough to show. He was looking for a faster return than that, so he called up Heim and asked if he had a cutting horse for sale.

Heim didn’t have what he was looking for, Emerson said, but he pointed him toward Wichita Land and Cattle. He’d heard the ranch had a 3-year-old Colonel Freckles mare for sale. The Emersons bought her, only later to get a phone call that she wasn’t in the trainer’s top mounts. He suggested they find a catch rider to show her in the big event in Fort Worth, but Emerson said the trainer also had another idea.

“‘They’ve got a new class this year called the $10,000 Non-Pro at the Futurity, and you ought to show this horse yourself, Billy,’ Emerson recalled him saying. “And I said, ‘Well, Joe, I’ve never been on a cutting horse.'”

That wasn’t going to be a problem, Emerson remembers.

“‘He said, ‘Well, he’ll come with me for the week of Buster Welch’s pre-work up in San Angelo. I’ll work your horse, and I’ll bring you a seasoned horse, and I’ll teach you how to show a cutting horse,'” Emerson said.

According to Emerson, the horse he brought for his new pupil to ride was 1984 NCHA Futurity Open finalist Miss Elan.

“He put me on that horse twice a day for a week and I thought, ‘There’s nothing to this cutting!’ I did. That mare did everything right, you know,” said Emerson, who wouldn’t ride to the herd in a show situation until that year’s Futurity. “So I thought, ‘This is easy!'”

The Futurity didn’t go as smoothly as practice on Miss Elan — Emerson said his 3-year-old ran off in the left corner — but, he has been hooked ever since.

“Once you do it twice, you’re hooked for life,”‘ he said.

His son, Cory, says that approach is typical of his father. When he gets into something, he jumps right in.

“When he wanted to get competitive into cutting horses, he started researching and buying the best mares to show at the Futurity,” he said. “He just wanted to get right to it.”

$1 Million Breeder of Western Performance Horses

Emerson doesn’t just show horses. Many of the horses he’s showed are ones that he also bred.

He’s bred the winners of more than $1.5 million. Both of his leading money-earning horses as a breeder were foaled out of Smart Fancy Lena, a daughter of Smart Little Lena that he also showed: NCHA Futurity Open finalist Chula Dual ($171,134, by Dual Pep) and NCHA Summer Spectacular Derby Open Reserve Champion Blue Duck Okie ($149,267, by Miss N Okie).

One of Emerson’s favorite horses is Blue Duck Okie, a stallion by Miss N Okie and out of his mare Smart Fancy Lena (by Smart Little Lena). The horse won more than $149,267, and sired many winners for the family. • J. Arnold photo.

Both horses went on to sire their fair share of winners. One of Emerson’s favorite horses, Blue Duck Okie sired the winners of more than $704,255—a number of which were bred by Emerson. Chula Dual’s offspring earned more than $2 million, but his greatest contribution to the game was 2004 NCHA Futurity Open Champion and EquiStat Elite $9 Million Sire Spots Hot.

Musical Names, Athletic Quarter Horses

Looking through the list of horses owned or bred by Emerson over the years, you can’t help but notice a trend. The names of several horses allude to famous singers. It’s a nod to Emerson’s time in the music business. He and his father both worked for Big State Distributing.

“We were a distributor for over 1,000 record labels for Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico, which meant that we didn’t have anything to do with recording the music, but the record label has to have a distributor in each region to sell to the retail stores and to get the records promoted at the radio station and get them on the jukeboxes,” he said.

One of the leading horses Emerson bred, for example, is Bayou Creedence Cat, a daughter of High Brow Cat and out of Creedence Clearwater.

Motown Records was such a big money maker for Big State that Emerson saved the reference for a special horse. He found it in Royal Red Rosita’s son by High Brow Cat, which is how Motown Cat got his name. The horse has a full brother named Fleetwood Cat.

A former music distributor, Billy Emerson saved the reference to “Motown” for many years before bestowing it upon Motown Cat. Some of the biggest money-makers he had in the distribution business came from Motown, so it was a special name. • Photo by Emily Coffeen

Earning the Intermediate Amateur Reserve Championship at a show like the West Texas Futurity was a thrill for Emerson. He doesn’t really want to see the Motown Cat, but figures it’s the right time to do it since he’ll be 7 next year and the right age to move on to weekend events for someone else.

“I’m always trying to ride hard enough to make the finals, but you can’t force a win,” Emerson said, of the West Texas showing. “It’s kind of like so many things have to kind of line up for you for that to happen. And when it does, it makes it extra special, because you’ve got a team there helping you. They have to do their job better than you do yours — cow picking for an example, and the loper has to have your horse just ready. So, when all those things come together for an amateur and that you can win or be Reserve, it’s and you better enjoy it, because it doesn’t happen all the time.”

Looking Forward: Continuing the Cutting Tradition

If Motown Cat sells as planned, Emerson might spend some time in the stands. A horse he used to ride in a lot of weekend cutting events, AQHA Select Cutting World Champion Stylish Lizzorro, is 19 years old and retired. The family does have a 3-year-old son of Once In A Blu Boon that’s half-brother to Motown Cat in training for the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Futurity, but he’s already spoken for by his son, Cory Emerson.

“We do this family rule … I’m not going to show him at the Futurity. Craig Thompson’s got him,” he said. “Craig may show him, but Cory is definitely going to show him. And then, you know, after the Futurity is over, I might get to show him a time or two, like it out in Abilene or something.”

He wants to have a limited-age horse for Cory. He’d rather see Cory win than win himself, anyway.

“I’ll be able to show it some, so I’m not hanging up my spurs completely,” he said. “But, I don’t plan on showing every weekend like I used to.”

By Cory’s estimate, they’ve enjoyed the cutting business together for the last 24 years. He described the experience as “fantastic,” saying it has increased the bond between them. Cory’s daughters, who love horses as well, admire that their grandfather is a cowboy.

He looks forward to continuing to breed horses with his dad. Over the years, Cory’s come to appreciate the excitement and hope attached to a good 3-year-old cutting horse. Now, he’s excited to share that with his father.

“It’s wonderful piece of hope that we have each year, [or] every couple years when we have a good prospect,” he said, adding. “I’ve always watched my dad, he always has that hope of, ‘Well, we got that next 3-year-old coming up. What is it going to be like? How’s it going to perform?’ And now I’m really starting to to see how much fun life is with with that next prospect hope.”