In 1983 and 1984, I trained a cutting horse named Sonitas Joy. We won $320,000 in a year and a half. Her owner decided to retire her and breed her. Since she was such an exceptional mare, stallion owners were offering to breed her for free to promote their stallion. At that time, Doc Olena was the most popular stallion in the cutting horse industry. He was 20 years old and nearing the end of his breeding career. At $20,000, his stud fee was the highest in the nation. It took some fancy salesmans...
In 1983 and 1984, I trained a cutting horse named Sonitas Joy. We won $320,000 in a year and a half. Her owner decided to retire her and breed her. Since she was such an exceptional mare, stallion owners were offering to breed her for free to promote their stallion. At that time, Doc Olena was the most popular stallion in the cutting horse industry. He was 20 years old and nearing the end of his breeding career. At $20,000, his stud fee was the highest in the nation. It took some fancy salesmanship, but I was able to convince Joy’s owner to turn down the free breedings, cough up the 20 grand, and breed her to Doc Olena. He was offered $50,000 for the resulting foal before it was ever born.
In 1987 Sonitas Joy foaled a beautiful bay stud colt. The owner named him Sonitalena. When Sonitalena was 2, he was sent to me for training. I knew within a few weeks he was the most brilliant horse I would ever touch. I’ve jokingly told people that I didn’t have to train him to be a cutting horse, I just showed him a film of a world champion cutting horse working and said: “Do this, but do it even better.” When he was 3, I started taking him with me to competitions just to get him used to the crowd. I would work him in the practice pen. Word quickly spread that Willie Richardson had a gorgeous bay futurity colt that was incredible.
The owner called me and said that he’d decided to sell Sonitalena and that another trainer would be calling me to make arrangements to come try him out. I immediately went to my bank where the vice president was a cowboy type friend of mine. After about an hour on my knees begging, he agreed to loan me the money, and I bought Sonitalena.
It’s almost unheard of to show a 4-year-old in open competition, but that’s what we did. He was competing against the best cutting horses in the world.
To qualify for the world finals, you had to be in the top 15 of the world standings. We finished the year in 16th place. Missed the finals by one stinkin place! The following year, when the standings were first published, we were in second place, only $200 behind the leader. Then I suffered a badly broken leg. We missed 111 days and still finished the year fourth in the nation.
Sonitalena had now become so famous that we were averaging breeding 50 mares a year, so that kept us from competing much.
From the time I was a child, I’d dreamed of becoming a world champion. In 1996, we made the decision to not breed mares, send most of the training horses home, and make a serious run at the world championship. We competed from California to Florida and Texas into Canada, put 50,000 miles on the truck, and rode to the herd 204 times. When the standings were first published, we were in the lead and maintained the lead through the final go-around of the world finals. After winning the title, Sonitalena’s barn name became “Champ.”
During the summer months my 15-year-old son Sparky traveled with me. He would warm Champ up while I was helping other competitors. Everyone knew who Champ was and you could see the pride in Sparky’s eyes. When I would ride Champ to the herd, you could hear a pin drop in that coliseum. No one would go to the restroom or concession. Champ had so much charisma he would light up the arena! Champ and I knew each other inside out and were best friends. He was special and knew it. Champ was 10. We retired him.
When Champ was 24, I had quit training cutters, and had moved back to Colorado. I bought 10 mares to breed to Champ. I bought one mare sight unseen. When I went to pick her up, I discovered she was a hateful jerk. If I’d known about her attitude, I wouldn’t have given two dead flies for her. She’d wake up daily trying to figure out how to hurt me, or at least make me madder than a whole sack fulla SOBs. She was in foal to a brand x stallion. When she foaled, I went to check on the foal. The mare was so protective of the foal, she tried to eat me alive. That foal was just as criminal-minded as his mama.
The next year, I saw her lay down to birth a Sonitalena foal. She was laying flat on the ground with her rump toward me. On my hands and knees, I crawled up behind her. When the pretty bay filly came out, the first thing she saw was me. From that time on, she liked me more than her own mama. I started petting and talking to her. The mare heard me and raised her head, but was exhausted from giving birth and made no attempt to kill me.
For the next few days, I spent every spare minute with that filly. I started halter breaking her and she was just like her dad. Just show her a video. She was a perfect little angel. Hence the registered name, “Champ’s Bay Angel.”
When Angel was a week old, I could call her name and she would nicker to me. When scattering hay for the mares, I would feel something touch my rear. It would be Angel. She’d make every step I did. After retiring, I wanted to keep one of Champ’s daughters. The choice was obvious. Now Angel is the only horse I own and money couldn’t buy her.
Most people will never be lucky enough to be connected to a truly special horse. I’ve had the honor of being associated with three. When I hitch Angel to the buck-board and drive through Ridgway, I’m bursting with pride!
Willie Richardson grew up on ranches in Ouray and Montrose counties. After serving his country in Vietnam, he settled into a career of training horses. In 1996 he won the World Championship of Cutting and was inducted into the National Cutting Horse Association Hall of Fame. He is now retired and lives in Ridgway with his wife, Sandy Countryman Richardson, and dabbles in comedy.