Travis Barton: Cut To The Front Of The Line
Story and Photography by Ritchie Rozzelle
You’ve surely heard the phrase, “Like father, like son.” Now, if your father’s the type to ride around town with his turn signal on then that little prophecy is easily fulfilled. However, if your father rides a cutting horse like Tracy Barton, that expression can prove something of a challenge. Good thing his son, 12-year-old Travis Barton, is far too talented to shy away from a challenge.
Young Travis can easily fit under his dad’s long shadow. Tracy has been a trainer, coach, breeder, and winning cutting horse competitor for over 20 years. He’s a 28-time Congress Champion, a World Champion and a respected expert in the cutting industry. Nevertheless, when dad and son are on horseback at TTB Ranch in Penhook, Virginia, they stand on near equal footing.
That’s because Travis is a natural at cutting cattle — the ranching skill-turned-competitive-event where horse and rider approach a herd of cattle, cut one away from the group, and then “cut” back and forth on the horse’s hind legs to block the calf ’s attempts at returning to its herd. Tracy compares the technique to good basketball defense. “It’s like guarding Michael Jordan when you don’t want him to make a lay-up,” he says. “You’re staying between the cow and the herd so that the cow can’t go back.”
For a “cattle bred” horse, this behavior is second nature. “What we want is for the horse to be a mirror image of that cow,” explains Tracy. “That mirroring is something foals do naturally when they play together in the field. We just perfect it.” It’s a little different for the rider, all of this dodging, spinning, juking and jiving is about as natural as staying on top of a tornado. That’s where Travis shines. Just barely tall enough to fit into the first notch of his saddle’s stirrups — a saddle he won by becoming the 2007 Summer Cutting Spectacular Junior Youth Champion — Travis cuts with the fluidity of a seasoned pro.
Tracy chalks his son’s abilities up to a mix of genes and providence. “I’ve seen a lot of talented kids come through here, but Travis has that God given talent that a lot of other kids spend a lot of time trying to achieve. It makes my life easier, because I can put him on pretty much any horse and he’ll cut.”
Cutting isn’t all fun and glory for Travis. Like any good dad, Tracy aims to make his son into a good man who appreciates the work it takes to achieve success. That’s a balance, Tracy says, he’s instilled from the beginning. “I can tell you the day Travis decided to cut. Two years ago we were on our way down to Winner’s Circle in Florida, and he says, ‘Dad, I think I want to help you. I want to show.’ And I told him he’d have to earn that. He’d have to clean stalls and lope horses all weekend, and then maybe he could show on the last day. He did that. He worked hard all weekend, and when it came time for him to show he went in there with no practice and did great.”
Besides the hard work, life on the cutting circuit comes with bigger sacrifices. “We travel about 175 days a year,” says Tracy. “We travel up to 60,000 miles. We travel from Ohio to Florida to Texas to South Dakota.” This makes regular school impossible for Travis. He takes this in stride. “I like going to shows because you meet new people. Since I’m home schooled, that’s when I get to see all my friends.” Travis and his younger sister, Emma Rae, are taught by their mom, Sue.
Some kids Travis’ age are poised on the verge of rebellion from their folks. Travis has a much more wise view on the world. He’s saving his winnings for college and he values all that his family and success have to offer. When you ask him his hero, he’s fast on the answer. “My Dad. I’m with him 24/7. The same with my Mom. She home schools me. As soon as I’m done with her I come out here to help Dad.” Travis says that his parents are responsible for everything he’s learned and accomplished.
We agree that Tracy Barton is a dad worthy of some hero worship, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Travis will follow exactly in his footsteps. He says he made up his mind years ago what he wants to be when he grows up, and it’s a long way off from the cutting horse ring. Travis glances back at his dad, who nods for him to go ahead and say, “I want to be a shark scientist.”
Tracy Barton’s TTB barn has fed Southern States horse feed to all its winners going on 13 years. The famous cutting mare, Lil Miss Starlight, owned by Eddie Shelton and managed by Tracy Barton even appears on the Southern States Legends® Performance Pelleted feed bag.
