Coming from a Quarter Horse racing background, Cheryl Lauder traded in her jockey silks for sliding stops about two decades ago. Tuesday morning, Lauder piloted two full-brother geldings Little Thunder Whiz and Who Whiz Smartin Off (Who Whiz It x Little Smart Jac) through the first slate of the Southwest Reining Horse Association’s Futurity Novice Horse Non Pro Class, marking a 69 and 70.
“I did Quarter Horse racing,” Lauder said. “My late husband [Doyle Underwood] and I were looking for a pony horse to use on the track because everything I used before was an ex-racehorse. So, I bought a gelding that had been trained for the futurity – but he’d run off with people. That’s how I got interested in reining, because of his training. He was the brokest horse I’d ever ridden, and a run-away wasn’t a bad thing for me because I’d been a jockey myself.”
Lauder jockeyed through her 20s and 30s before taking up the mantle of trainer with late husband Underwood.
“After he passed, I met [Sherman Lauder] through a friend. We got into in the reining together. He’d been a Quarter Horse judge years and years ago and he’d left all that because he lost his wife,” Lauder said. “It’s a God thing. I believe the Lord brought us together.”
Now 74 years old, Lauder plans to show with Sherman as long as she can. She and Sherman raise prospects together with their band of broodmares, consigning the foals as yearlings to the Legacy Sale and the NRHA Markel Futurity Sales.
“As long as I can get on a horse, I’m going to keep doing it. It’s fun, I enjoy it. We’ve got a lot of good friends that we’ve met through the reining. It’s a good group or people,” Lauder said.