Olaf Growald
Metallic Cat
He tracks his target with beautiful agility. The way he seamlessly glides — no, cuts — through the air may remind you of a cornerback like Deion Sanders. Above all else, the horse named Metallic Cat just seems smart.
In one video online, he struts across the arena with the swagger of a seasoned athlete at the top of his game. In fact, that’s exactly what he is. The year was 2009, and Metallic Cat, then 4 years old, was competing in the Abilene Spectacular. Like most competitions he entered, he walked away a champion.
His speed was impressive, and he cut a daunting figure (pun intended). But what was most impressive, at least to those who knew what to look for, was his “cow sense.”
If you’re not familiar with the world of cutting horse competitions, here’s how it works: The rider and horse — typically part of the American Quarter Horse breed — are tasked with separating a single cow (i.e., “cutting” the cow) from its herd. The game is a callback to the very beginning of the cattle ranching industry when cowboys needed horses like Metallic Cat to help them herd. Otherwise, well, their jobs were even harder.
Flash forward a couple centuries, and the cutting horse industry is a thriving business with shows and competitions in Fort Worth and throughout the world. Now, think about what Michael Jordan is to basketball or what Tom Brady is to football. The glory. The status. The reverie that accompanies the mere mention of their name. That, in essence, is what Metallic Cat is to the cutting horse industry. I asked Bobby Patton, the horse’s owner, to tell me about the first time he heard of Metallic Cat, and he simply couldn’t do it.
“That’s like asking, ‘When’s the first time you heard about the Dallas Cowboys?’” he says over the phone in January. “In a way, you’re kind of born knowing who they are.”
So, back to 2009. Even before Metallic Cat begins lithely herding the cow, there is a tangible energy in the Abilene arena, a veritable hum of anticipation. The people in the crowd just know they are in the presence of something special, as they should: At that point, Metallic Cat had already been crowned champion of three different top-tier competitions and been named “Horse of the Year” by the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA), located in Fort Worth. Even still, the crowd at the 2009 Abilene Spectacular was not what you would expect for a crowd witnessing an MVP at the top of his game. Part of that is the nature of the venue. After all, most horse competition venues can’t seat the tens of thousands of fans you’ll find at MLB or NFL games. But the world of cutting horses has significantly grown in the 13 years since that competition. The horse industry now generates more than $120 billion in revenue each year, and competition drives a sizable portion of the profits. Further, purse sizes at major competitions continue to grow, and guys like Patton, an oil and gas investor and lifelong Fort Worth resident, have entered the fray — often in eye-popping fashion. Case in point: In 2017, Patton bought Metallic Cat for a reported $14 million. Patton didn’t confirm that figure, but when interviewed for this story, he offered plenty of praise for his champion.
“For as long as anyone can remember, he’s been the dominant figure in the sport,” he told Fort Worth Magazine. “There’s just something special about him.”
It was remarkably similar to the words he had for reporters after that fateful 2017 purchase.
“I’m excited! That’s what I’m feeling, more than anything else,” said Patton, also a part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, at the time. “I was really excited when Clayton Kershaw signed his contracts and he was going to be a Dodger for a very long time, and I think this is a similar feeling. I really do think Metallic Cat might be the Clayton Kershaw of the cutting horse business.”
Patton’s instinct was spot-on — and then some. He may have retired shortly after that 2009 video (cutting horses peak around age 4), but since then, Metallic Cat has fathered many championship-caliber horses, quite literally creating a destiny unmatched in the sport.
“The money he has won has hardly ever been done before,” says Debbie Roberts, a horse cutting veteran with close ties to Metallic Cat. “He keeps breaking record after record after record.”
But there’s yet another reason why Metallic Cat has rapidly become one of the most famous horses of all time. In late 2021, the legendary cutting horse made the crossover to Hollywood with a guest spot on a beloved show that also shares a special connection to Fort Worth. The cameo, years in the making, was just another chapter in the tale of Metallic Cat — a tale that is still being told.
“It’s been an incredible journey,” says Roberts. “All of the stars have aligned.”
Olaf Growald
Owner Bobby Patton with Metallic Cat
Debbie Roberts still remembers the first time she saw a cutting horse. The beauty. The raw power. The pure athleticism. She was immediately enraptured by all of it, which is saying something: Roberts grew up around horses; an in-depth knowledge of the animal is practically embedded in her DNA.
“I chose early on to go this direction because of the passion I had for these animals,” she says of the cutting horse industry. “That was 33 years ago.”
Roberts, who currently resides in Oregon, can spend hours waxing poetic about this business and its athletes. She is one part marketer, one part manager: an expert in the business and the breeds. Her home is in Tualatin, Oregon, but her work as head of her own company, Spurs Equine Marketing & Promotions, has taken her all over the country. That’s how she met Metallic Cat.
“It’s a little hard to describe, but I felt an immediate connection to him,” Roberts told Fort Worth Magazine, recalling the night she met the champion horse in 2008. “You don’t always feel that connection right away, but for whatever reason, I felt it with him.”
It was the night of the 2008 NCHA Futurity, one of the three jewels in the “triple crown” of cutting horse competitions. As Metallic Cat galloped toward the cowherd, the announcer at the Fort Worth Stockyards informed the crowd that the horse before them was sired by none other than High Brow Cat, a legend in his own right (as of this writing, High Brow Cat is the highest-earning sire in the history of the sport). The crowd was wowed by the mere presence of High Brow Cat’s progeny, but the real treat was watching Metallic Cat perform.
For three brief but memorable minutes, the horse and his rider, Beau Galyean, put on the kind of cutting clinic that is now synonymous with the name “Metallic Cat.” With every deft move, the audience noise seemed to grow another decibel. The horse’s “cow sense” was perhaps most impressive of all. At the three-minute mark, the crowd whooping and hollering with all their might, Metallic Cat sauntered to the side with the confidence of a boxer who just dominated his opponent.
According to Roberts, that kind of showmanship belies a sweet, tender personality that she associates with the champion horse.
“Whenever I think of him, I think of that night,” she notes. “But I also think of his quirky personality. Here is this big, fierce, dynamic, and athletic personality that goes into the pen and dominates, but whenever you’re around him in the pasture, he’s just a big puppy.”
After witnessing his title-winning performance at the ‘08 Futurity, Roberts says she became Metallic Cat’s “biggest cheerleader.” She struck up a relationship with both the horse and its owners, the husband-and-wife team of Alvin and Becky Fults, and Metallic Cat became part of the “portfolio” of horses that Roberts helps market and manage. Looking back, it was the start of a year of utter domination: From 2008 through 2009, Metallic Cat won $637,711 in 11 competitions. By 2010, a year after his retirement, he was a member of the NCHA Hall of Fame. Yet in some ways, his career was just beginning.
High-caliber cutting horses like him have enormous potential as sires, so, like his father before him, Metallic Cat started passing on his talent to the next generation. His progeny includes horses like the aptly named Bugattii who, in a fun indicator of the small, family-esque world of cutting horse competitions, is ridden by Wes Galyean, the brother of Metallic Cat’s famed rider, Beau. That world has also advanced in terms of tech and technique.
“Pretty much everything you would think about doing for a human athlete, we do now for these horses,” Roberts says. That includes acupuncture, private chiropractor treatments, cold water spa days, and much more. “We learn about these new techniques, and we’re like, ‘Hey, that sounds good,’ so we try it out. Usually, it works real nicely.”
Meanwhile, renowned sires like Metallic Cat are living lives of luxury. As Roberts puts it, “He’s finally allowed to be a horse” (and being a horse sounds pretty amazing).
“He has lived a life of luxury,” Roberts says. “During breeding season, he’s bringing in a lot of mares, and most of the time, he hangs out in luscious green pastures, exercising daily, and eating the best feed there is.”
Roberts adds that she has “kind of adopted” Metallic Cat as her own horse. But she does not own him, and at the time of this writing, she was only seeing him once every two to three months (her schedule keeps her pretty busy with travel). Still, whenever they meet, Metallic Cat remembers exactly who she is.
“He has my heart,” she says. “He’s my special boy.”
She isn’t the first to develop a close bond with the famous horse. When Alvin and Becky Fults sold Metallic Cat to Patton five years ago, they called it “the biggest and hardest decision of our lives.”
“This is a very emotional day for us,” Becky said at the time. “This horse was our whole life for nine years, and he has impacted our family in more ways than I can begin to express.”
“He is a once-in-a-lifetime horse,” Alvin added.
The sale took place roughly a decade after Beau Galyean used his truck as collateral to obtain the bank loan he needed to buy Metallic Cat. In just 10 years, the horse had become about as famous as a horse can get outside of Hollywood. Plus, Tinseltown wasn’t too far off.
In 2019, Roberts, who kept working with Metallic Cat after the Fults’ sale, approached Patton with an opportunity. Taylor Sheridan, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter and the pride of Paschal High School, had partnered with the NCHA Charities Foundation for a special auction. The highest bidder would earn their horse a spot on Sheridan’s show “Yellowstone.”
“I told Bobby about this opportunity to be on this show,” Roberts recalls, “and at first, I don’t think he was really into it. I remember he said, ‘I don’t know. Do you really think it’s worth it?’”
Olaf Growald
It ultimately didn’t take too long for Roberts to convince Patton. It helped that he was a big “Yellowstone” fan, of course.
“I don’t know if I was always on the edge of my seat during the first season,” he says, “but by the second season, they had me.” Then he briefly trades his investor cap for the title of TV critic.
“The character development is solid, and it has drama, action, great writing, and great acting. What else can you ask for?”
He pauses.
“I would still say ‘Game of Thrones' is my favorite show of all time, though.”
However, TV stardom didn’t interest him as much as the chance to support NCHA charities. Once Patton realized the money he bid would be going to a stellar cause — a cause close to him and his family — he was all in. He won the auction with a bid of $165,000, and though it took a couple of years to film and air Metallic Cat’s TV debut, Patton says it was well worth the wait. Plus, he got to know fellow Paschal alum, Taylor Sheridan. Patton thinks the pair might’ve crossed paths at some function or another before the 2019 auction, but since then, the two Fort Worth sons have had plenty of time to talk shop and become friendly. Sheridan has been the main point-of-contact for both Patton and Roberts for all things Metallic Cat, and both folks are now on a first-name basis with the acclaimed filmmaker.
“Taylor is very talented, very passionate, and I think he really loves Fort Worth,” Patton says. “He’s actually kinda similar to his character in ‘Yellowstone.’”
If you’re not familiar, “Yellowstone” tells the story of the Dutton family, the owners of the largest ranch in Montana. Throughout the show’s four increasingly popular seasons thus far, the family has dealt with a succession of challenges to their land and power. Betrayal, intrigue, and the occasional shootout are all par for the course in a perfectly cast saga that stars Kevin Costner, Kelly Reilly, and Cole Hauser as Rip Wheeler, a ranch foreman and fan favorite. Sheridan, who got his start in the biz as an actor, portrays Travis Wheatly, a rugged and loyal horse trader. These characters — and the world they occupy — have so enthralled fans that a spinoff show, “1883,” debuted late last year.
Part of the show’s appeal is its embrace of Western culture, which isn’t a major facet of many — or any — mainstream TV fare. Yet as Patton pointed out, it’s also the characters that keep people engaged at a time when there are more television shows than ever before.
From left to right: Jefferson White as Jimmy Hurdstram and Taylor Sheridan as Travis Wheatley on “Yellowstone”
“I’ve always liked the notion of playing with who is a protagonist, and allowing our heroes to be flawed, and really question what they’re doing morally, ethically, and keep them really human,” Sheridan recently told Variety. “I don’t like my good guys to be all that good, and I don’t like my bad guys to be all that bad, even though they may do really bad things. And I think that makes them relatable.”
In late 2021, two years after Patton won him a spot on the show, Metallic Cat officially joined the captivating universe crafted by Sheridan. The horse’s appearance came the day after Christmas in the penultimate episode of the show’s fourth season. In the episode, titled “No Such Thing as Fair,” Metallic Cat emerges as a key part of the plot when a character named Jimmy is told to drive the “Stallion of the Year” back to the Yellowstone Ranch from Texas, where Jimmy has been earning his official cowboy education at the Four Sixes Ranch. It might seem like a small detail in the grand scheme of things, particularly since the episode also included heaps of intense family drama and some angsty, emotional romance. But for many “Yellowstone” fans, Metallic Cat’s cameo was the highlight of the night.
“I LOVED seeing the great ‘Metallic Cat’ on last night’s episode!” tweeted a fan named Suzanne Hooper. “He is one of my all-time favorites and have had the pleasure of seeing him work in person.”
“Metallic Cat!” exclaimed Jerry Douglas. “What a name. What a beautiful horse.”
Of course, Patton loved seeing his horse on a TV show that is watched by about 8 million people each week. But the greater joy is thinking about the future of the horse business. The show and its latest equine guest star have ignited new interest for the world of horses and the West, and he hopes that interest pays dividends for the world of cutting horses.
“To me, the message of something like this is, ‘Hey, Fort Worth, you really ought to pay attention to something that goes on here year-round. We live in the capital of the cutting horse world. This is Churchill Downs. All three Triple Crown events are in Fort Worth and kinda always have been.”
Patton, about as shrewd a businessman as you are likely to find in Fort Worth, admits that the horse business is as much about passion as it is money.
“I can see it being profitable,” he notes, “but there’s no guarantee of it being profitable.”
And technically, his foray into this business wasn’t some sort of grand plan; it just kind of happened. One day, he had zero cutting horses; the next, he had 13.
In September 2015, Patton purchased the property that would become his Rocking P Ranch from the Walton family (yes, those Waltons). He also bought the horse Boon San, who, too, was sired by High Brow Cat, and a score of other cutting horses. According to him, the property seemed like “a good real estate investment.” Plus, it had the added benefit of giving his daughter, a budding barrel racer, a chance to hone her craft. When he realized the potential of the cutting horses and the facilities he had on hand (“Rocking P is perfect for cutting,” he says), he gradually built what has become an impressive and competitive business.
There are essentially two sources of revenue: breeding from the outside and breeding from the inside. Ranchers who want to breed with a champion horse (and newly minted TV star) will bring a mare to Rocking P Ranch. At the same time, Patton owns his own mares whom he breeds with his horses to create yearlings he can then sell.
In addition to Metallic Cat — who now has multiple “Sire of the Year” awards to accompany his “Horse of the Year” trophy — Patton also owns Spots Hot. The latter horse might not be comparable to Metallic Cat just yet, but he has already sired a Futurity Champion.
“It’s a fun business to be a part of,” Patton says. Then again, the money isn’t the point — at least not the whole point. Recently, the businessman and his daughter entered the pen. Patton — oil titan, Dodgers owner, and foremost investor — rode a horse in the competition.
“What’s that old joke about golf? ‘You don’t have to be good to enjoy it?’ That’s how I felt,” he says. “My daughter was much, much better. But that didn’t surprise me.”
In other words, he has no plans to change careers anytime soon. Nor is he aware of any future “Yellowstone” plans that involve Metallic Cat. That said, he is open to another cameo — as is Debbie Roberts, who also appeared in the episode alongside her “special boy.” And who is to say it couldn’t happen? Sheridan is currently developing another spinoff show based on Texas’ legendary 6666 Ranch, and in the “Yellowstone” universe, Metallic Cat was based out of that very ranch.
“There’s nothing planned,” Patton says, “but I would be happy to do anything.”
Until then, the story of Metallic Cat will live on — mostly through the many horses he has sired. It’s possible that one day his progeny will outearn those of his father, High Brow Cat, who, through frozen sperm, is still producing top earners years after his death. Roberts knows beating High Brow Cat’s record will be tough, but she would never bet against Metallic Cat.
As of this writing, Metallic Cat’s progeny has won more than $49 million. He earned roughly $10 million in 2021, and his dad’s total earnings are roughly $87 million.
“I think he can catch him,” Roberts says. “And if he does, it’ll be a heck of a story.”
