Randy Paul If Arizona trainer Randy Paul had made a list of all the things he wanted to accomplish in his career, the last few years have been spent putting check marks next to those goals. He’s been and NRHA Futurity Champion, two-time AQHA World Champion, NRHA Derby Champion and an NRHA Million Dollar Rider. Couple Paul’s success with a life-threatening battle with cancer, and his recent accomplishments are truly remarkable.
Over the course of his career, Paul has earned the respect of his peers and is known as a talented horseman above all else. But considering Paul’s deep roots in Arizona’s horse country, his reputation should come as no surprise.
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Lessons from the Best
Early on, Paul learned the lessons of great horsemanship from the best in the business. His dad is Jim Paul Sr., an accomplished cow horse trainer and National Reined Cow Horse Association Hall of Fame member who has influenced some of the industry’s best. Another influence was trainer John Hoyt, who was also in Arizona at the time Randy was growing up.
“A lot of people have come to my dad, and ended up being real good horsemen,” explained Paul, who added that his step mom Dema is also a successful cow horse show woman, recently winning the NRCHA Non Pro Snaffle Bit Futurity title for the third time. “I think just learning good horsemanship, good basics, how a horse thinks, the best way to teach them to do things, how their body works with their mind, the best way to teach one. Even if you are teaching them simple things, a lot of it is just repetition and good horsemanship skills.”
After leaving the show pen for a few years to rodeo and ride bulls, Paul returned and went to work for other legendary horseman, many of them in the cutting world. Before going out on his own, Paul worked for Gary Bellenfant, Don Dodge, Mike Mowrey.
“Most of them guys are cutters, but they’re all great horsemen, so that was the main thing,” Paul said. “Probably my main influences were my dad and Don Dodge though. Don is just a great horseman, and he always had a lot of patience with one. He’d say, ‘show your horse the right way to do it 5000 times, and then show him another 5000 before you get mad at him.’ A lot of it is just patience.”
Though he learned the basics of training and horsemanship from cow horse and cutting trainers, reining was the niche that he found fit him the best. “I do some cow horse, but my main focus is on the reining,” Paul said. “I didn’t do any cow horse for a long time, but now I just kind of dabble in it for fun. It just, at the time when I started doing the reiners, the cow horse wasn’t really all that big. Reining was just something I kind of fell into, then I just fell in love with it.”
History-Changing Horses
By the time Paul was 25, he decided to hang out his own shingle, earning his first NRHA paycheck in 1986. With more than 20 years of professional competition behind him, Paul has had his fair share of high-caliber horses over the years. With every one, the horseman learned a little more – even from the ones who didn’t make the grade.
“You learn a little bit from all of them, even the ones you don’t do real good on,” said Paul. “In fact, you probably learn a little more on the ones you don’t do good on. Those good horses, they take care of you and you just kind of do a good job teaching them to do their job, and then it’s just a matter of getting them shown. You have to get a horse solid and patient and doing his job.”
Good horses started to come, and the first one who broke the mold was a mare by the name of Fritzi Parker. “She was a mare by Bull Parker, and probably the first horse I ever did any good on.” Paul said.
Then there was Paul’s first NRHA Futurity finalist, Docs Baby Smoke, which also won the Limited Open Futurity title. Earlier that same year, Paul saw a lot of success on two other horses, Doc N Jose and Mr Goodwrench. In 1993, another talented horse came along – Slide Show. The pair not only made the Open finals, finishing seventh, but once again, Paul came home with the Limited Open title, making him one of few to win the Limited Open Futurity twice. In 1997, Paul reached another milestone, capturing his first NRHA Derby title. Paul rode Outa My Way Jose to win the $20,000 paycheck. Then, in 1998, a horse called Boomernicker came along. Boomernicker had a steady winning streak with Paul, placing in the top 10 at the 1998 All-American Quarter Horse Congress and the NRHA Futurity. The following year, Paul and Boomernicker won titles in Scottsdale, Arizona, Guthrie, Oklahoma, and Burbank, California.
When Paul went to work for Jim and Pat Warren’s Rancho Oso Rio in 2001, Pat made sure Paul had good horses to ride, like Sorcerers Apprentice. Another winner for Paul was Smokeelan, owned by Jill Smekel-George. Both horses took Paul to the winners circle on multiple occasions, and he rode them both in 2005 with much success. While Randy’s career was on a upward trajectory, it was 2006 when his career took another major turn.
The Big "C 's" -Championships and Cancer
Taris Designer Genes came along as a 3-year-old in 2006, and Paul recognized that the mare had talent. She was quick on her feet and had a lot of try, but she was also flighty and undependable. When the fall futurities started to roll around, no one was sure she should make the cut.
“I knew she was talented, but I just didn’t’ think she had the right look and all that stuff,” Paul said of the mare he calls “DG.” “I showed her in Vegas in the beginning of September, and she was okay, but even there, my wife, Tim McQuay and a bunch of others said they didn’t think she was enough horse.”
But Paul wasn’t ready to give up. The doubts cast by others made him want to make the horse step up her game, and by the time the pair reached the Scottsdale Classic in October, Paul had brought a new horse to the pen.
When they arrived in Oklahoma City, Paul didn’t know quite what to expect. He knew his mare was good, but if past experience had taught him anything, it was that anything could happen on the right Saturday night finals in Oklahoma City.
“I think some of the other horses I’ve had, like Smokeelan and Boomernicker, they were a little bit, it’s hard to say better, but I just thought I’d have a little better chance on those,” Paul explained. “With her, I thought I had a good chance, but I didn’t really think about trying to win, I was just thinking about trying to have a good run.”
The pair got through the go-rounds, placing eleventh in one and fourth in the next. But it was the night of the finals when Taris Designer Genes finally brought her “A” game to the show pen.
“By the time I got to the Futurity, she just grew up more and got a little more mature, started doing her job a little more,” Paul said. “She was good in the first go, good in the second go and great in the finals. She just got better and better. A couple of those other horses I thought would have a good chance kind of stubbed their toe and I got around them.”
Paul walked away with his first NRHA Open Futurity Championship and a check for $125,000 – a full 20 years since he earned his first NRHA paycheck. “I think her quick feet are her best attribute,” Paul said. “She does things snappy and hard. When you watch her, you can see how hard she tries, and I think that’s why they mark her so good.”
Winning the Futurity after spending a lifetime in the show pen was a dream come true for the Paul family. Certainly, Randy was on top of the world, accomplishing a longtime goal, but he didn’t let the win change his attitude at all.
“I don’t feel like winning the Futurity has changed anything,” he shared. “I think I’m a little more content, but it doesn’t make me any less hungry. I think just the desire to go train these horses and put out good ones, that hasn’t diminished at all.”
It wasn’t long after his NRHA Futurity win that Paul was forced to face an even bigger challenge than a young horse and five judges. What started as a sore throat that never went away developed into something more. By the end of February, Paul knew he couldn’t ignore it any longer. A visit to the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale confirmed the worst – it was cancer. Right after the NRBC in early May, Paul went to MD Anderson in Houston for surgery to remove what had grown to a golf ball-sized lump on the base of his tongue. Radiation treatments followed, and the trainer was forced to sit out the 2007 NRHA Derby.
With a life-threatening diagnoses like cancer, the reining community, family and friends rallied around Paul. The recovery wasn’t easy, but by September of 2007, Paul was back in the saddle, making a return to the winners circle. In November, Paul accomplished another long-elusive goal – winning an AQHA World Championship. Though Paul had won the reserve title countless times before, it was Sorcerers Apprentice who carried him to his first World title in the Senior Reining, and the following night, he finished as reserve in the Junior Reining on Smokeelan. In less than a year’s time, Paul had won his first NRHA Futurity, beat cancer and also won his very first AQHA World Championship title – a feat that was nothing short of amazing.
“The World Show was kind of like thorn in my side for years,” Paul explained. “I went and I’d been reserve there I don’t know how many times, but last year I finally was able to win it, then this year I came back and won it again. Then when you do win it, it seems easy. I tried so hard for so long to win, and then when I did, it was no big deal.”
It was the 2008 win in the AQHA Junior Reining that put Paul over the million-dollar mark in NRHA earnings. Paul rode Starbucks Finest, owned by Rancho Oso Rio, to a 220 to take the title and the more than $10,000 prize. He had needed just over $7,000 to make it to a million, and the winning paycheck did just that. And, after coming face to face with his own mortality, the wins and accolades are a little sweeter.
“I feel fine. I’m maybe better just because it gives you an appreciation for getting to do this kind of stuff,” Paul said. “It was a bad scenario for a little while, but it came out alright. I might see a doctor a little sooner next time.”
A Reining Family
With 20 years of successful showing behind him, Randy Paul has one thing that has been successful for even longer – his marriage to his wife or 24 years, Andi. Though he usually known as a man of few words, Randy doesn’t hesitate to share what an important role Andi has played in his career.
“Andi, she always keeps me from drifting off somewhere. She kind of just slaps me upside the head and keeps me going in the right direction,” Paul said with a smile. “And even just in training, she’s real smart about the horses and how things look. She knows the right way and the wrong way to train one decent, and if I’m making mistakes, she’s gonna tell me. And it’s good.”
Andi and Randy have a daughter, Lynzee, 23, who also shows, like her mom, in non pro competition. Both mother and daughter have seen success in the show pen, most recently when Lynzee won reserve in the NRHA Intermediate Non Pro Futurity in 2008. Andi and Randy celebrated their 25th anniversary in May 2009, while Lynzee is planning her own wedding to Mark Foreman in August.
Big Heart, Big Talents
Those who know Randy can attest to his big heart and even bigger talents. When his brother, Jimmy, had a severe medical emergency a few years ago and needed a kidney transplant to live, Randy jumped right in and donated one of his kidneys.
Randy is also an outstanding custom bit-maker, he fashions his own bits and other gear in his welding shop. Randy’s bits have been worn by three NRHA Open Futurity champions, Taris Designer Genes, Shining N Sassy, ridden by longtime friend Tim McQuay, and Smart Scat, ridden by Mandy McCutcheon. Randy’s bits are very popular – so much so that he can only rarely make them by custom order only.
Randy can also add singer-songwriter-musician to his list of God-given gifts. Many times has he entertained a reiner crowd at a horse show with his wonderful voice and guitar music. He’s often shared the stage with entertainer Lyle Lovett, as his did at the 2008 Reining Horse Sports Foundation 4R Perforance Horses Celebrity Slide and the 2007 NRBC. Randy will be releasing his own album in the fall of 2009 with songs he has written himself. Daughter Lynzee also lends her talents to the harmony from time to time, making Randy’s music a family affair.
Only Up From Here
Having reached another goal of becoming and NRHA Million Dollar Rider in 2008, Paul can breathe another sigh of relief. Much like the winning the futurity, reaching the elite status might make him a little more content, but no less hungry. The desire to train good horses and see them win in the show pen is a desire that will likely always stay with the accomplished trainer, no matter how much he wins.So what is next for Paul? You can count on him chasing another goal at the NRBC, a place where championships have always eluded him.
“That’s a show I can’t ever seem to nail down,” Paul said of the NRBC. “I’ve always done okay, though, but I don’t think I’ve ever been in the top three there. I’ve won the go-round with a 225 on Boomernicker, but fourth is the highest I’ve ever placed there.”
And of course, one can dream. Having ridden reiners, cow horses and cutters, Paul says in a fantasy world, he’d love to also one day win both the cow horse and cutting futurities, though he admits his cutting skills might be a little rusty by now. “Sure, it’d be nice to win them all, but all I really want to do is keep going and do what I can, training good horses,” Paul said. “If I can win some money, that’s just a plus.”
And after a million dollars hard-earned in the show pen, it’s a sure bet that Paul feels a pretty hefty “plus” mark next to his name in the history books.
About Rancho Oso Rio
Paul credits much of his success in the show pen to Jim and Pat Warren, the owners of Rancho Oso Rio. Paul went to work at the Arizona facility in 2001, and it’s been a successful partnership ever since.
“Pat is an awesome lady. She’s been in the horse business a long time, and she understands if one isn’t going to work out,” Paul explained. “She keeps me on good horses, and if we don’t have what we need, she’s willing to buy one.”
The Warren’s created Rancho Oso Rio in 1999. When Paul came on board, he cut back the breeding program to focus exclusively on training, and he now oversees the entire ranch operations. The ranch did raise Taris Designer Genes, a fact that makes the Futurity win all the more special.
“To be able to raise one and win the Futurity on it is something,” Paul said. “As much as I know Pat likes to show, I think she gets just as much of a kick out of watching me show her horses. I also know how much she cares. She doesn’t do this to win – she does it for the horses.”
