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ACHA CONGRATULATES: Billy Bob Moore
2019 Top Hand Award, 2018 Open Derby World Champion, 2018 Open Rider Hall of Fame

    Anyone who attended an American Cutting Horse Association (ACHA) cutting in the last few years probably noticed a big man in the corner holding herd. That man is Billy Bob Moore, and he is practically an icon at ACHA cuttings. In 2018 Billy Bob was inducted into the Open Rider Hall of Fame, and he was recently named as a 2019 ACHA Top Hand recipient. Just about everyone who cuts with the ACHA knows who Billy Bob is, but because he is a man of few words outside the arena, not many people really know much about the man behind the familiar face.
    Billy Bob is quietly successful. He rode Chiquita Reysmooth, owned by Lee Barron, to become the Open Derby Champion for 2018. This champion mare is by Ima Smooth Blue Cat by Smooth As A Cat and out of a mare by Dual Rey that was out of Chiquita Pistol’s mother. Billy Bob got Chiquita Reysmooth to train in July of her two-year-old year, and in a little over two years, he had made an ACHA Open Derby Champion out of her.
    Because the Open Derby class is for four-year-old horses only, it basically requires taking a young horse with little competition experience and turning it into a show horse very quickly. According to Billy Bob, showing a four-year-old means you need to have a winning mentality while still being forgiving of the horse when it makes a mistake. Just like people, all horses make mistakes, and they are not all cut out to be winners.
    Billy Bob believes, “They either do or don’t have what it takes to be a show horse.” He says many horses can be exceptional at home, but a true show horse has to do at least some of it on his own. He says a ranch horse learns to do whatever it takes to block a cow, but most ranch horses do not transition well into show horses.
    Moore says that if you have a good show horse, you should take advantage of the opportunity. “Realize what you have.” He suggests that you “be smart about who should show the horse. Every once in a while, a horse will really fit a trainer or an owner, but rarely both.”
    Billy Bob’s knowledge has been gained through many hours competing in the show pen as well as working on ranches. Well-known trainer and cutting judge John Carter gave Billy Bob his first horse when Billy Bob was nine or ten years old. That first horse was a black-and-white pinto named Id Rather Walk. Billy Bob started showing just a few years later in Conroe, Texas, “in about 1972.” One of his first notable cutting horses was a gelding named Tiger Clay by Grey Badger II and out of a Blue Rock bred mare. Moore remembers cutting and winning with Tiger Clay in the early ‘80s.  
    Today he lives just a few miles from where he was born and raised southwest of Buffalo. He father and grandfather ran a large ranch for a Houston business man until the man decided to sell it. Billy Bob bought the house, pens, and round pen to stay close to his boyhood home. He has been married to the same Sioux woman for 32 years, and they have a daughter and two grandsons. Even though he says his wife has little in common with him because she is not involved with horses, he can “count on one hand” the number of arguments they have had as a married couple.
    Billy Bob says everything he does wrong he taught himself, but he credits Ronnie Rice for teaching him 98% of what he does right, specifically how to sort and read cattle. Moore believes reading a cow is the biggest factor in making a good showman. He thinks many people rush into showing instead of learning the basics first. In the show pen, he likes cattle with a little Brahman blood to help them hook up with a horse; however, his suggestion for beginners is to use some old, gentle cattle to learn to sort and drive cattle before showing. He points out that it is harder to hold a cow and calf pair in a big pen or pasture than to hold one cow in an arena.
    Billy Bob has a long history with a variety of cattle and horses. He rode bulls during his younger years, including riding several times at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo. Highlights from his cutting memories include winning two classes at a Sam Houston Cutting Horse Breeders Association cutting. Although he shows at some NCHA events, he shows more often in the ACHA and thinks it has a “good atmosphere of people.” He considers most ACHA cutters as friendly, middle-class working people. Moore says, “Cutting is great if you get in with the right people.”
    Billy Bob thinks the worse mistake beginners make is to put too much pressure on themselves. He says, “It is not always your fault when things do not go well. The horse and cow have something to do with it.” He wants to remind people that they each have to learn how to show their own horse. “It doesn’t matter how much money that horse has won or how someone else did with it. I can put on Michael Jordon’s tennis shoes, but that does not mean I can play basketball like Michael Jordon.”
    Billy Bob is proud of the facts that he started riding for the public when he was fourteen years old and that he never worked for another trainer or earned a check riding for someone else. He believes honesty and straightforwardness have been his strengths. His hope for the future is that people will avoid trying to cut each other’s throat and just be honest.

By:  Raena Wharton