Cutter Bill was sired by Buddy Dexter who's personal claim to fame was beating Poco Bueno at halter. Cutter Bill's dam, Billie Silvertone, had produced a full brother to Cutter Bill that was on the brink of his AQHA Championship at sale time. Purportedly, Billie Silvertone was a hearty little cutting mare before entering the broodmare band. Cauble would have to give more than $1,000 for her golden son. With Josephine's encouragement, he kept bidding until he'd bought Cutter Bill for $2,500.
When Cutter Bill was a two-year-old, Cauble, though by no means a horse trainer, broke the colt himself. "It was really easy, as he just looked back at me on both sides and then walked off," said Cauble. Impressed with his demeanor, but not his conformation, Cauble used Cutter Bill as a teasing stallion for two seasons while he bred his mares to his feature stallions. At the time, that included Wimpy P-1 (yes, the Wimpy), Silver King P-183, and Hard Twist P-555, all of whom were long in the tooth when Cauble acquired them.
In June 1958, three-year-old Cutter Bill was started on cattle. "He was a natural; he just loved it," recalls Cauble. "A lot of horses, like Poco Lena and Jesse James, worked with their ears back, like they were mad at the cattle. Cutter Bill worked with his ears forward. He had incredible animation and crowd appeal."
Cauble said the first good trainer Cutter Bill met was Willis Bennett of Gail, Texas. Cauble hired Bennett to work for him in Crockett, Texas, after building what he believes to be the first private, competition size indoor arena in the Lone Star State. With Bennett's guidance in 1959, Cutter Bill earned more points than any other junior cutting horse in AQHA. Later he was trained by Bennett's older brother, Milt who had owned and ridden Snooky, 1955 NCHA World Champion. Tommy Arhopolous, Connie WIls, Roy Huffaker and John Carter also rode the horse at one time or another, but the rider most people associate with Cutter Bill is the late Sonny Perry.
When Cauble decided to really campaign Cutter Bill during 1962, Perry, who had won the 1961 NCHA world championship aboard Senor George, came to Cauble asking to ride the horse. Not only did Cutter Bill clinch the NCHA world title for 1962 with Perry aboard, he set an earnings record for the association. On top of that, Cutter Bill was the Honor Roll Cutting Horse Cutting Horse of 1962 for AQHA. He was the second horse to earn both honors (Poco Stampede was the first), and the first to achieve them both in one year.
Also, in 1962, Cauble earned headlines by flying Cutter Bill and three other horses from Crockett, Texas, to the Washington (D.C.) International Horse Show, and from there to the competition at the Cow Palace in San Franscisco, which Cutter Bill won. The red carpet was literally rolled out to meet Cutter Bill's plane each it landed. "I had to sign a release a release that said the attendant could kill the horses if they became unruly on the plane," said Cauble, "so I rode with them to be sure everything was okay."
April 12, 1963, was proclaimed Cutter Bill Day in Crockett, and he led one of the largest parades the town had ever organized. Another time, he was invited to cut the ribbon at the grand opening of Crockett's Huntingtonburg Furniture Company, and was even issued a share of stock in the corporation. With light hauling, he earned the NCHA's reserve world title for 1963. The next year, Cutter Bill carried Cauble to the NCHA's title of world champion nonprofessional rider of the year.
His very first foal, Cutter's First, born in 1960 became an AQHA champion in 1964. He was also the high-point junior cutting horse that year, and was the high point cutting horse for AQHA in 1971. In 1966, Cauble moved his horse operation to Denton, Texas, north of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. There he built a 360'x140' indoor arena with letters spelling out "Cutter Bill Championship Arena" spanning the length of the roof. A fiberglass Cutter Bill look-alike was put on a pedestal in front of the barn, and stared at traffic on Interstate 35.
In 1967, Cauble transformed a bank building he had purchased in Houston into Cutter Bill's Western World, which became the Neiman-Marcus of the cowboy crowd. Cutter Bill himself was on hand for the grand opening, to place his hoofprints in the wet cement outside the entrance. Cauble had another horse mannequin gold-leafed in Cutter Bill's image, and placed on a pedestal facing the busy Katy Freeway. Eleven years later, he would open a second Cutter Bill's Western World in Dallas, with yet another gilded horse statue in front , facing one of the most heavily traveled roads in Texas, propagating the Cutter Bill Legend.
"Once we had a children's press party on the seventh floor of the Rice Hotel in Houston," said Cauble. "We walked Cutter Bill right through the lobby and onto the elevator, up to the seventh floor. The children just loved him ; they surrounded him. Little Joe from Bonanza had been invited too, but he got mad and left because Cutter Bill was getting all the attention."
Cutter Bill never did get along well with other celebrities. One year cowboy crooner Rex Allen asked to ride the famous stallion during his appearances at the Fort Worth rodeo. Wearing his usual hackamore, the horse wouldn't perform for Allen, so they tried putting a bit in his mouth. "Rex Allen wasn't used to riding a horse with a loose rein, and Cutter Bill just kept spinning and spinning with him. It just didn't work well at all, " Cauble said.
Roy Rogers was scheduled to appear at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, and Louis Pearce thought that since Cutter Bill resembled Trigger, he would be the perfect horse for Rogers to ride into the arena. "Louis picked Roy Rogers up at the airport," said Cauble, "And on the way out to the show grounds Roy said to Louis, "You know that palomino horse that y'all lined up for me to ride ? I don't want any part of him. Rex Allen told me he was an outlaw !"
Cutter Bill sired 637 registered foals from 24 crops. Four became AQHA Champions. Bill's Lady Day was the 1987 World Champion Senior Calf Roping Horse, and also won the amateur calf roping world title in 1989. Cutter's Rocket won two youth world championships in working cow horse, 1983 and 1985. Cutter's Streak was a superior halter horse. Probably Cutter Bill's best known offspring was Royal Cutter, a legend among West Coast cow horse afficionados. He won the 1971 National Reined Cow Horse Association's Snaffle Bit Futurity, then later became the first horse to add the titles from that competition's hackamore and bridle sweepstakes. (Legends, September 1992 QHJ).
"Do you know about me ?" asked Cauble, kind of like the guy in the American Express commercial. "I went to prison for something I didn't do. Many people are confident that my unjust conviction will be overturned." In the years since Cutter Bill died, Cauble, now 79, has lost his home and his business after voluntarily signing them over to his wife and son. He's been rejected by his family and many of his friends. Currently he's back in Denton, sharing a former neighbors house, where he awaits a jury's decision on a suit filed to retrieve part of Cauble Enterprises from his only child. The former millionaire, once chairman of the Texas Aeronautics Commission, an honorary Texas Ranger, and Denton Boss of the Year, says he's learned one thing: The only things that can't be taken away from you are your memories. Among his fondest are a golden stallion- his compadre, Cutter Bill.
*This article was reproduced with written consent of Quarter Horse Journal.
Some stats:
Cutter Bill was a 1955 Palomino Stallion by Buddy Dexter. Cutter Bill was the 1962 NCHA World Champion Cutting Horse, 1962 AQHA High Point Cutting Horse, 1963 NCHA Reserve World Champion Cutting Horse, 1962 and 1963 NCHA World Champion Cutting Horse Stallion, 1964 NCHA Non-Pro World Championship with Rex Cauble riding, 1959 AQHA High Point Junior Cutting Horse, NCHA Silver Award winner with earnings of $35,964. AQHA Superior Cutting Horse with 334 points and an AQHA Champion with 14 halter points.
Cutter Bill is the sire of:
Pecos Billie: 1972 NCHA Non-Pro Futurity Champion
Bill's Jazabell: 1976 NCHA World Champion Cutting Mare
Cutter's First: 1963 NCHA Futurity Reserve Champion and 1971 AQHA High Point Cutting Horse
Cutters Streak, 1964 AQHA High Point Two-year Old halter Stallion
Cutter's Indian: 1970 AQHA High Point Western Pleasure Stallion and 1970 AQHA High Point Three-Year-Old Halter Stallion
Royal Cutter: California Reined Cow Horse Legend.
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