Horse Illustrated Magazine

Setting high expectations and reaching goals is how singer, songwriter and recording artist Chris Cagle made a name for himself in the country music world. And that is exactly how he plans to take on the horse world, with hopes of eventually owning his own equine farm, The Big Horse Ranch, and being a top competitor in the show pen.

 “My dad said, you couldn’t just get a guitar and sing around the house,” Cagle recalls, “you had to be a star. You can’t just get a horse and ride it, you have to get a reining horse or a cutting horse and go to the FEI World and Futurity.”

Owning, breeding and competing cutting, reining and working cow horses and becoming involved in the horse business is Cagle’s next aspiration and he is already making strides in the right direction.

Cagle currently owns a group of performance Quarter Horses, but his touring schedule does not leave time for him to compete. However, one of his first purchases, a stud colt named Hesa Majestic Chick, won the National Reining Horse Association Intermediate Open at the 2006 Quarter Horse Congress.

“My goal, my hope and my dream is to one day have 500 acres, a horse farm, a breeding program and a proven stallion to enable me the opportunity to be a formidable contender in the horse business,” Cagle says.

Recently, Cagle teamed up with clinician Clinton Anderson for a special four-part training series, to air on Downunder Horsemanship, in which Anderson and Cagle worked together to train the music star’s 2-year-old colt, Cowboy. The first segment of the training series will appear on Downunder Horsemanship on RFD-TV in late September.

“The fact that Clinton wanted me to be on his show was an honor,” says Cagle, who has been a long-time fan of Anderson and the show. During the special series, Cagle and Anderson each take turns teaching Cowboy how to engage his hindquarters and disengage his front quarters on the ground, and how to perform maneuvers under saddle, such as rollbacks.

While taping the show, Cagle, who has seven top country music hits, and a recent new single, “What Kinda Gone,” says he got a little nervous training Cowboy in front of hundreds of viewers, which is a feeling he doesn’t experience often while singing on stage. The nerves, however, didn’t stop Cagle from taking some valuable lessons away from the experience.

Anderson taught Cagle that the horse will tell you when he is ready to move forward. Cowboy also showed Cagle that it’s OK to make mistakes, you’ll be forgiven, because the horse is your friend and is trying to please you, Cagle explains.

He says going through the training process was absolutely amazing. He even called up a friend of his who has some horses that needed training and helped him out.
Horses are becoming a large part of Cagle’s life, along with his music. In his past three albums and his upcoming fourth, Cagle tries to set a fun environment for his listeners, whether they are cruising on the highway or working at the barn.

 “I try to create the kind of music that if you are playing it at the barn and shoveling stalls, then when the music is over, the stalls are clean and you’re like, ‘how did that happen,’” Cagle says.
Although Cagle isn’t in the show pen now, watch out for him in future cutting and reining show arenas. “By the time I’m 50, I want to be a world champion,” Cagle says.

Even with this country music sensation’s future goals of competing opposite top riders at western competitions, the simple things about horse ownership are what bring him pleasure.

 “A lot of times,” he says, “I have the best time with horses just sitting with them and talking to them.”

Click here for an audio sample (MP3 Format, 174 kb) of Chris Cagle’s new single, “What Kinda Gone.”

Visit Cagle online>>

More information on Clinton Anderson>>