It didn't take Eric Schmoyer long to make it to the top in his chosen sport of riding cutting horses.

He had ridden as a boy on his mother Fay's horse farm in New Tripoli, where she had as many as 20 horses at a time. The farm was sold in 2003. Schmoyer quit riding at 15 and went on to college after graduating from Northwestern Lehigh High School in 1990, and then to Boston. Six years ago he found he had a little time to get back into riding.He works at Black Box, a web application company for businesses, which means he can work from anyplace and is not tied to a location.He decided to take riding lessons and recalled Johnny Costa, who trained at Willowbrook when Schmoyer was a youth. Costa was into cutting horses in Boyertown, so that led Schmoyer down the same path.He began to get competitive and started showing while continuing his lessons. By 2014 he was in the top 15 in the world and ended the season in fourth place.He took a break from showing in 2015 but drew up a plan for 2016. A rider gets points according to how much money he wins, and points are earned by how hard a cow tries to get back into the herd - the difficulty of a ride.He sat down with his trainer, Ben Roberson, and chose what they thought would help with points. There was a penalty for losing a cow, which means not keeping it out of the herd as long as he wanted to."There is a little bit of intrigue considering the other riders," in planning an itinerary, he said.Each rider gets 2½ minutes to cut three cows, with each cow taking only 20 to 30 seconds. The rider points the horse to the cow he thinks will give him points for difficulty, and then his hands do not touch the reins as the horse moves the cow out of the herd and holds it there.Each show has about 30 cows that have not been used before so they do not know what to expect. They are yearlings and quick on their feet.Schmoyer flew to Texas the day after Christmas, leaving wife Anabella Wewer home to shovel snow. She said she is from South America and does not like the cold. Every five to six weeks she will fly out and spend some time with Schmoyer.He said he started the season with the same horse he used in 2014 but got a new one in 2015 so they could alternate and stay fresh. Their names are Nita and Tika. Both are quarter horses, as are 96 percent of cutting horses. Riders have to own their horses until they get to the professional class. Schmoyer rides in amateur classes and will until he earns $50,000 in a season.He started in Mississippi and rode across Texas, Arizona and Nevada before bouncing back and riding in Mississippi and Louisiana to the coast."Sometimes I rode on a weekday or Saturday and Sunday, an average of four days a week," he said.Winnings are tallied and ranking is based on how much was won. His division is the $15,000 amateur class.One day the Arizona temperature was 115 degrees, but most of the competitions are indoors with air conditioning. In Memphis, Mississippi, there is a facility set up specifically for cutting. In Jackson, Mississippi, the fairgrounds have a coliseum for showing.He entered the Eastern Nationals in Jackson, Mississippi, to be held in May, and won the Western Nationals in Scottsdale, Arizona.Schmoyer was in the top 15 and went to the Fort Worth World Nationals. He said there are two rounds for each rider and the money is better than in the weekend shows. Money is given for each round and then averaged. He said he won both rounds.There are five judges, and the highest and lowest scores are dropped as a means of preventing favoritism being shown, with the remaining three scores averaged."Our scores are between 60 and 80 on average with no penalties. Seventy is the average for a ride depending on the degree of difficulty. You choose a cow you think will give a difficult ride," Schmoyer said.As World National champion, he also won a belt buckle, which he was glad of since he will not have to try for one again next year.He met a lot of people in different parts of the country. In 2016 he drove 40,000 miles, traveling to events that he describes as a marathon of driving.Each year he will try to choose events at different locations.He said Anabella enjoys visiting when he is California and Mississippi.He said there is not much cutting in Pennsylvania but he does belong to a local club.