At first glance of a champion reined cow horse trainer, you would likely see a large belt buckle fastened around their waist, a felt or straw cowboy hat crowned atop their head and a six-figure priced horse beneath them.
What you don’t always see is the tired billfold in their back pocket, the shavings stuck in the cuff of their jeans and, perhaps most prominently, the integral team of people standing behind them.
CJ Shopbell is a Whitesboro-based reined cow horse trainer who is familiar with all of these aspects, especially when taking into account the startup of his own program – a program’s success he thinks wouldn’t be where it is now without his wife, Michelle, and their three children by his side.
Making it in the horse trainer world—no matter the discipline—is expensive, hard work and rarely ever a solitary profession.
This is a lesson CJ and Michelle learned quickly, but before the two could become the fearless operation leaders they are, their feet had to be placed on the track of owning a performance horse barn.
Originally hailing from Washington, CJ was not born into horse ownership.
“I didn’t ride or do anything like that, but the neighbor had draft horses,” CJ said. “I’d ride my bike to his house and go drive draft horses every day. I did that until I was 14 or so.”
From that moment on, CJ had the “horse bug” and eventually made connections with a local horseman who trained cow horses and reiners. After working under that trainer’s wing for a year following high school graduation, the seed was planted for CJ to move to California to work under another trainer named Russell Dilday, a legendary cow horse trainer and three-time World’s Greatest Horseman title recipient.
The state of California, and more specifically Dilday’s house, also happened to be where Michelle grew up.
“My dad was a horseshoer, and he shod horses for Russell,” Michelle said. “I spent my summers there as a kid from 13 to when I graduated high school. I just lived at their house pretty much.”
Through Dilday, CJ and Michelle were able to cross paths.
After three years of working with Dilday, CJ began working for a trainer in Oklahoma named Don Murphy, a National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Hall of Famer. Michelle and CJ got married soon after the move, and CJ rode for Murphy up until his first daughter came along.
“Money-wise, it just kind of forced us on our own earlier,” CJ said. “We just didn’t make enough money working for another trainer – you made peanuts while you were learning. You just have to make that leap sometimes.”
Before making the leap into barn ownership, Michelle and CJ rented out a facility for roughly six months in Gainesville, Texas, to launch their independent training business. However, with 17 horses in training, it didn’t take long to outgrow the space.
In 2007, they bought the Whitesboro land they have now built a legacy upon, but this legacy wasn’t easy to build.
“Those first years were rough,” CJ said. “I would ride anything. We would take the bombs, the rotten ones, the ones that want to try and kill you. We’d take them just because you’re hungry for it. And then we got a reputation of being able to take those things that nobody else wanted.”
Starting any business comes with hard work, but the business of horses is on a whole other playing field.
“We literally just flew by the seat of our pants,” Michelle said. “I would saddle, wash horses and clean stalls because we couldn’t afford to hire a stall cleaner. And now, because of the struggles we had when we were in our early 20s, we’re reaping the rewards as we’re older.”
Although those initial years of struggling are in the rearview, a performance horse barn is never your typical 9-to-5 career – it’s a livelihood.
“The horses are at the dinner table and they’re in the car rides,” Michelle said. “We eat, sleep and breathe it. There’s not really a lot of time that we don’t think about.”
This devotion allows CJ Shopbell Performance Horses to be successful not just in the training arena, but also in the show pen.
Although CJ has won several NRCHA world championships in his career, he secured an especially momentous one Feb. 28, 2025, at the NRCHA Open Hackamore World Championship at the Celebration of Champions in Fort Worth.
“This was a special win because we had trained the mother of the mare that I won it on, and her mother was the mare I won my first world championship on,” CJ said. “Although this mare has won 80 some thousand (dollars), she’s never really won a great big title yet. She deserved a big win like this, and I think the coolest part of winning the world was that it was for her.”
Despite how full CJ’s trophy room is, staying at the top consistently is no easy task.
“Having the support system at home is the part that keeps you going through it,” CJ said. “You’ll go through periods where it’ll be six months without winning. Or you may win the world and think, ‘I really did it,’ then go to the next show and get your tail handed to you, leaving you scratching your head and going, ‘What am I doing?’”
In such a competitive industry, losses are inevitable, and the support during those losses may just be the most crucial of all.
“We win big together, and we lose big together,” Michelle said. “You just gotta be there for each other and pick each other up.”
As parents of three, being a family-oriented barn isn’t just pertinent to the competitive wins, but the everyday wins of operating a successful business.
“We have a 20-stall barn, and each kid takes 10 stalls on each side every day,” Michelle said. “That work ethic is the best thing I could give my kids.”
Sharing this passion with their children is a gift CJ and Michelle will always cherish.
“I think the kids being so involved in it makes it more fun,” Michelle said. “All three of our kids show, two of them at a really high competitive level. It’s a blast watching your kids do what you do… Watching them show horses that their dad has made.”
Being a family fully submerged in the horse business doesn’t come without difficulties, but it certainly does come with rewards.
“We live at the barn. You start at daylight, and some days you don’t get it done until 9 o’clock,” CJ said. “But without the family, it would be nothing. And so if this means that we have to work a little harder or whatnot, it’s well worth it.”
To CJ Shopbell Performance Horses, the checks cashed and championships won aren’t the things that define their success; it’s instead the time spent with loved ones working toward those accomplishments.
Therefore, the next time you stumble across a world champion cowboy, think not just of the successful legacy he’s built in regards to the titles and high dollar amounts he’s acquired, but rather, think of the days he’s spent mucking out stalls and the time given to the family he sits down with for dinner that night – those are the very hours that forged the champion before you.