Horse sense

The first time Jim Vangilder showed any interest for horses, he was largely faking it.

Vangilder was trying to get his teenage daughter to develop a fondness for something other than cars and boys, so he took her to a friend's ranch in Jackson to see if she would take to horses.

"I was trying to show some interest so she would maintain some interest," said Vangilder, who lives in Jackson. "After two weeks, she got bored and didn't want to mess with it. But I was hooked."

Six years later, Vangilder is still hooked and making quite a name for himself across the country in the arena of cutting, the western-style equestrian competition in which cattle are split off from the herd.

In fact, Vangilder -- who started Havco Wood Products in Scott City nearly 30 years ago with Charles Harris -- has more than taken to it. After selling a majority of Havco in 2001 (he still owns 15 percent), he has immersed himself in the cowboy lifestyle at age 60, participating in more than a dozen cutting competitions a year and spending a great deal of time at a 500-acre ranch he bought near Fort Worth, Texas.

'Sort of fell in my lap'

"Every person of my generation grew up wanting to be a cowboy," Vangilder said last week in a phone interview from a three-week show in Texas. "It really sort of fell in my lap. I had time and I found I really, really enjoyed it. I had a knack for it somewhat, and so it's all worked out well."

That's a bit of modesty, actually. Vangilder has more than a knack. After just a short period of time, Vangilder's good. Really good. One magazine called him "one of the top owners and non-pros in the business." Another described him as a "non-pro force to be reckoned with."

In the March issue of the national magazine Performance Horse, Vangilder was featured in an article about cutting's standouts. The article announced that Vangilder won the Equi-Stat Award, established to annually honor the leading riders in the cutting industry, in the non-pro division.

He's a two-time Augusta Futurity non-pro champion. Wins also came at the National Cutting Horse Association Derby, Brazos Bash and Music City Futurity. Vangilder topped off his year with a championship at the NCHA Futurity. Vangilder showed several horses in 2005 to earn $279,421. His lifetime earnings are now $683,084 -- all which he earned in less than six years.

That's unprecedented, according to Vangilder's friend, Dr. Ken Asher, who also does some cutting and introduced Vangilder to the sport six years ago.

"It's incredible," Asher said. "Nobody has ever gained that kind of acclaim in so short a time. It's unheard of in the history of cutting."

Vangilder has come a long way from his first horse experience six years ago. Asher taught Vangilder during his early days and sold him his first cutting horse.

"He didn't even know how to ride," Asher said. "He didn't know anything about it."

But Vangilder was interested in it, so he put his mind to learning. He went at it full throttle, Asher said.

"When Jimmy gets focused on something, he does it to the letter," Asher said. "He's a good athlete anyway, which helped. But he quickly picked up riding and showing. He wanted to know the fastest way he could learn as much as he could. That's the way Jimmy is."

Asher's son, Kennett, who also works with horses, told Vangilder that the best and fastest way would require that he go to Texas. So the three of them flew to Texas and looked at a ranch in Weatherford. Vangilder and his wife, Marsha, purchased the CS Ranch and eventually renamed the operation Rock Creek Ranch and hired the acclaimed Roger Wagner as a full-time, in-house trainer.

Rock Creek Ranch was named the top ranch in earnings in all ages and divisions recently, with $720,510 in earnings in 2005. At the ranch, a Vangilder horse -- he owns about 60 -- like Quintan Blue earned $189,483 last year and Quixotes Catman earned more than $127,000.

"I've been very fortunate and very lucky," Vangilder said. "It's quite an honor. I am very thrilled at being able to achieve these accomplishments."

Vangilder's wife, Marsha, thinks it's great that her husband has found something that he's passionate about after his professional career winded down. She said her husband looks forward to the shows and is pushed by his competitive nature.

His age isn't a factor, she said.

"I think it's really interesting to see him competing against 20-year-olds," she said. "He beats a lot of them on a routine basis. Anything he's ever done, he's always done well."

Some people retire at 60, and Marsha Vangilder says her husband doesn't do what he does for the money. After the costs of running the ranch, buying the horses and other expenses are factored in, the money doesn't amount to much.

"I think he does it for a challenge," she said. "He loves a challenge."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137