Cutter Bill

{{short description|Quarter Horse show stallion and sire}} {{Infobox named horse | horsename = Cutter Bill | image = Cutter_bill.jpg | caption = Cutter Bill | breed = Quarter Horse | discipline = Cutting | sire = Buddy Dexter | grandsire = Dexter | dam = Billie Silvertone | damsire = Silvertone | sex = Stallion | foaled = 1955 | death_date = {{death year and age|1982|1955}} | country = United States | color = Palomino | breeder = R. L. Underwood | owner = Rex Cauble | otherawards= AQHA Performance Register of Merit AQHA Champion AQHA Superior Cutting Horse 1962 AQHA High Point Cutting Horse 1962 NCHA World Champion Cutting Horse 1963 NCHA Reserve World Champion Horse NCHA Silver Award NCHA Bronze Award | honors = American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame }}

'''Cutter Bill''' (1955–1982) was a Quarter Horse stallion and the 1962 National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Open World Champion cutting horse with record earnings for the year. He also won the 1962 American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Honor Roll cutting horse award which made him the first horse to have won both the NCHA and AQHA awards in the same year.<ref name=AQHA-CB>{{cite web |title= Cutter Bill |url=https://www.aqha.com/hall-of-fame-horse-inductees/-/asset_publisher/JbReVpSPcSnY/content/cutter-bill? |work= AQHA Hall of Fame |author=American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) |publisher=American Quarter Horse Association |access-date=August 30, 2017 }}</ref><ref name=Legends>Martindale ''Legends 7'' pp. 6–21</ref> Cutter Bill was owned by the flamboyant Texas millionaire Rex Cauble who in 1962 decided to campaign Cutter Bill with Sonny Perry in the saddle showing him. In order for Cutter Bill to compete in as many shows as possible that year, Cauble flew Cutter Bill and three other horses on his private jet to various shows.<ref name=Groves>{{cite journal | title=The Golden Age Of Cutter Bill | author=Groves, Lesli | journal=America's Horse | date=June 1993 | volume=7 | issue=6 | pages=48–49 | issn=1522-8983 | publisher=American Quarter Horse Association}}</ref>

==Background== It was R. L. Underwood's linebreeding program to preserve the Copperbottom bloodlines<ref name=Short>Short ''Unregistered Foundation Sires'' p. 11</ref> that produced Cutter Bill, a 1955 palomino Quarter Horse stallion, AQHA registration #53703.<ref name=StudBook>American Quarter Horse Association ''Official Stud Book and Registry Combined 6–10'' p. 902</ref><ref name=Pedigree>[http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/cutter+bill Cutter Bill Pedigree at All Breed Pedigree] retrieved on June 27, 2007</ref> His sire, Buddy Dexter, was the inbred progeny of a father to daughter cross along with some linebreeding throughout the pedigree.<ref name=Pedigree/>

In 1956, Cauble and his then-wife, Josephine, attended Underwood's dispersal sale with the intention of buying broodmares to breed to Cauble's foundation Quarter Horse sires, Wimpy P-1, Silver King P-183 and Hard Twist P-555.<ref name=Groves/> Josephine was attracted to a yearling palomino colt that was tied to a fence at the sale. She persuaded Cauble to bid on him, which he agreed to do up to a set price of US$1,000.00 but by the time the bidding was over, Cauble had paid US$2500 for the colt. He wasn't as impressed by the colt's conformation as he was by his demeanor. Little did he know that colt would grow up to be Cutter Bill, a legend in the Quarter Horse world.<ref name=Groves/> Cauble broke Cutter Bill himself, and for the first couple of years used him to tease mares in preparation for breeding them to his foundation stallions.<ref name=Groves/>

==Cutting competition== Cutter Bill was started on cattle in June 1958.<ref name=AQHA-CB/> "Cauble said the first good trainer Cutter Bill met was Willis Bennett of Gail, Texas",<ref name=Groves/> a trainer Cauble hired to work at his ranch in Crockett, Texas. Bennett showed Cutter Bill to earn 1959 AQHA High Point Junior Cutting Horse. He was later trained by Willis Bennett's older brother Milt, who owned and rode Snooky to win the 1955 NCHA World Championship.<ref name=Groves/> Other trainers who rode Cutter Bill include Connie Wills, Roy Huffaker, John Carter and Tommy Arhopulous.<ref name=Groves/>

In 1962, Sonny Perry, who won the 1961 NCHA World Championship riding Senor George, asked Cauble if he could haul Cutter Bill for the world title. The pair set the 1962 NCHA earnings record capturing the NCHA World Championship and also earned the AQHA Honor Roll award. He was the 1963 NCHA Reserve World Champion, earning a total of $35,964.05 in NCHA sponsored cuttings. In 1964, Rex Cauble showed Cutter Bill in the non-professional division, and won the 1964 NCHA Non-Pro World Championship title.<ref name=Legends/><ref name=Groves/> His AQHA awards in 1962 included High Point Cutting Horse, as well as AQHA Champion and Performance Register of Merit awards. He was also an AQHA Superior Cutting Horse.<ref name=QHR>Wagoner ''Quarter Horse Reference 1974 Edition'' pp. 152–153</ref> He was the second horse to win both the NCHA World Champion title and the AQHA High Point Cutting title, Poco Stampede was the first, but he was the first to do it in the same year.<ref name=Groves/>

==Progeny== Among his famous offspring were Cutters Indian who was the 1972 AQHA High Point Jr. Western Pleasure Stallion, the 1972 AQHA High Point 3-year-old Halter Stallion, and the 1972 AQHA High Point Jr. Trail Stallion, Bill's Highness, Cutter's First, Bill's Jazabell, Cutter's Lad, Pecos Billie, Blaze Face Bill, Cutter's Streak and Bill's Loceta.<ref name=Pitzer>Pitzer ''The Most Influential Quarter Horse Sires'' pp. 24–25</ref> Bill's Lady Day won the 1987 AQHA Senior Calf Roping World Champion title and Cutter's Rocket won two youth World Championships in working cowhorse in 1983 and 1985. Royal Cutter won the 1971 National Reined Cow Horse Association's Snaffle Bit Futurity and then later won the hackamore and bridle sweepstakes held by the same organization.<ref name=Groves/>

==Recognition== Cutter Bill gained further fame when Rex Cauble opened two upscale western apparel stores and named them Cutter Bill's Western World. Cutter Bill placed his hoofs in wet cement outside the Houston store at its opening in 1967.<ref name=AQHA-CB /> However, Cauble lost the stores after being convicted in the Cowboy Mafia drug smuggling trial.<ref>{{cite news |title=Government nears settlement with Cauble Enterprises |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=The Paris News |date=June 5, 1985 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/13942299/}}</ref> Cutter Bill died in the fall of 1982 and was buried on the Cauble Ranch in Denton, TX.<ref name=Groves/> He was inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame in 2003, the same year Rex Cauble died.<ref name=AQHA-CB />

==Pedigree== {{Ahnentafel |1 = Cutter Bill |2 = Buddy Dexter |3 = Billie Silvertone |4 = Dexter |5 = Little March |6 = Silvertone |7 = Star Light |8 = Golden Chief |9 = Miss Tommie |10 = Dexter |11 = March |12 = Dunny Boy |13 = bay quarter mare |14 = Golden Chief |15 = Y Ranch quarter mare |16 = The Yellow Stud |17 = quarter mare |18 = Tom (Scooter) |19 = unknown |20 = Golden Chief |21 = Miss Tommie |22 = Mustard Seed (TB) |23 = Lowe Brothers quarter mare |24 = Jud |25 =mare by Yellow Wolf |26 = unknown |27 = unknown |28 = The Yellow Stud |29 = quarter mare |30 = Tom by Rainy Day |31 = unknown}}

==Notes== {{reflist|40em}}

==References== {{refbegin}} * {{cite web |title= Cutter Bill |url=https://www.aqha.com/hall-of-fame-horse-inductees/-/asset_publisher/JbReVpSPcSnY/content/cutter-bill? |work= AQHA Hall of Fame |author=American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) |publisher=American Quarter Horse Association |access-date=August 30, 2017 }} * {{cite journal| author= Groves, Lesli Krause |title=The Golden Age of Cutter Bill |journal=Quarter Horse Journal |date=June 1993 |pages=18, 205–209}} * {{cite book| author=American Quarter Horse Association |title=Official Stud Book and Registry Combined 6-7-8-9-10 |location =Amarillo, TX|publisher= American Quarter Horse Association|year= 1962}} * {{cite book |editor1= Martindale, Cathy |editor2=Swan, Kathy |title= Legends 7: Outstanding Quarter Horse Stallions and Mares |publisher=Western Horseman |location= Colorado Springs, CO |year=2006 |isbn=0-911647-79-1 }} * {{cite book |author= Pitzer, Andrea Laycock |title= The Most Influential Quarter Horse Sires |year= 1987 |publisher= Premier Pedigrees |location= Tacoma, WA }} * {{cite book |author=Short, Victoria |title=Unregistered Foundation Sires of the American Quarter Horse |location = Houston, TX |publisher=Loshadt Publishing |year=1998}} * {{cite book |author=Wagoner, Dan |title=Quarter Horse Reference 1974 Edition |location=Grapevine, TX |publisher=Equine Research|year= 1974}} {{refend}}

==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070510033933/http://www.qhd.com/horse/stallion.asp?id=2959 Cutter Bill at Quarter Horse Directory] * [http://quarterhorselegends.googlepages.com/home2 Cutter Bill at Quarter Horse Legends] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070921191510/http://quarterhorselegends.googlepages.com/home2 |date=September 21, 2007 }}

Category:Cutting horses Category:American Quarter Horse sires Category:1955 animal births Category:1982 animal deaths Category:NCHA Hall of Fame (horses) Category:AQHA Hall of Fame (horses)