For Eric Schmoyer rising to the top in his chosen sport - riding cutting horses - was not a long journey.

He rode as a boy on his mother Fay’s horse farm in New Tripoli, where she had as many as 20 horses at a time, before it was sold in 2003.

Schmoyer quit riding at 15 and attended college after graduation from Northwestern Lehigh High School in 1990. He then moved to Boston.

Six years ago, Schmoyer discovered he had a little extra time to return to riding, as he works at Black Box Corp., a web application company for businesses, which means he can work from anywhere and is not tied to one location.

Schmoyer decided to take a riding lesson and recalled Johnny Costa who had trained at Willow Brook Farms, Catasauqua, when Schmoyer was a youth.

Costa was into cutting horses at JC Cutting Horses, Boyertown, so that led Schmoyer, now of Macungie, down the same path.

Schmoyer became 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.

Schmoyer 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 2-1/2 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 his wife, Annabella, home to shovel snow.

From South America, she does not like the cold. Every five to six weeks she will fly out and spend some time with her husband.

Schmoyer 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 Ms Nita and Ms Tika, both Quarterhorses, 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 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, Miss., there is a facility set up specifically for cutting. In Jackson, Miss., the fairgrounds has a coliseum for showing.

Schmoyer entered the Eastern Nationals in Jackson, to be held in May, and won the Western Nationals in Scottsdale, Ariz.

In the top 15, Schmoyer 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 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,” Schmoyer said. “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 won the 2016 Mercuria $15,000 Amateur World cutting horse finals.

He rode Ms Nita to finish the year with more than $17,600 in earnings.

As Amateur World National Champion, he also won a belt buckle, of which he was proud, as he will not have to try for one again next year.

In 2016, Schmoyer drove 40,000 miles, which he describes as a marathon of driving, traveling to various events.

Each year, he tries to choose events at different locations.

He said Annabella enjoys visiting when he is California and Mississippi.

There is not much cutting in Pennsylvania but Schmoyer does belong to a local club.