Know the Pro: Kyle Noyce

By Jade Currid

Drawn to horses at a young age, Kyle Noyce proved he possessed the determination, work ethic and discipline necessary to follow his innate calling of being a horseman.

“I grew up in Northern Minnesota as kind of a town kid,” Noyce said. “The rest of my family didn’t have anything to do with horses. But from as far back as I can remember, [working with horses] was all I ever wanted to do. I got a job working at a trail riding place when I was probably 13 or 14, or something like that, and I did that all through high school and went from there to attend the Montana State University Farrier School.”

Upon graduating from the MSU Farrier School, Noyce moved back to his home state, where he attended the University of Minnesota, Crookston. While in Crookston, he met one of the area’s highly regarded, old-school, all-around horsemen, Joey Jorgenson, who became his mentor.

“I got a job starting colts for him and then riding horses as an assistant for him after that,” Noyce said. “I was there for two years. From there, I moved to southern Minnesota, where I kind of hung a shingle and started training horses on my own way too early. At that point, I hadn’t found the reined cow horse yet; I was starting colts and riding reiners.”

Noyce went on to compete in his first reined cow horse show in 2007 in Rapid City, South Dakota. He went straight up from there to the National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity® where he showed for the first time in 2009, qualifying for the Limited Open and Intermediate Finals.

Noyce and his wife, Candice, made a pivotal decision to move from Minnesota to Oklahoma in 2013. They are based at the Sleeping Dog Ranch in Blanchard, Oklahoma.

“By the first of 2014, Candice and I kind of decided that she should go back to school and change our game plan a little bit,” said Noyce. “We sent all the training horses’ home, and I began shoeing horses full time. I didn’t ride from pretty much 2014 through 2018 and half of 2019.”

The Noyces purchased land in Blanchard three years ago to start his reined cow horse business afresh, though he has a couple of reining and cutting horses. Noyce continues to shoe horses, but his shingle is firmly hung in the cow horse community. With lifetime earnings of $156,722.48, Noyce has added milestone achievements to his extensive reined cow horse résumé over the past couple of years.

Much of that can be attributed to SJR Smooth Lil Oak (Smooth As A Cat x Shiners Little Oak x Shining Spark), a stallion Noyce rode in 2021 to win the NRCHA Open Hackamore World Finals in Fort Worth, Texas, with a score of 448 (R:221/C:227), setting a record for the event.

“It was awesome,” Noyce said. “It was one of those deals where he just kept getting better from the preliminaries all the way through the finals. And it felt like it was his day no matter what—like he was going to win. It was really cold that year—terrible weather. And it didn’t seem to bother him at all.”

The horse and rider pair were also among the elite who qualified for and competed at the Cow Horse Challenge, presented by Teton Ridge, at The Run for a Million in August of 2022.

A horseman of many hats, Noyce maximizes his expertise and talents by serving as an NRCHA accredited 2A judge as well.

TERRI CAGE PHOTOGRAPHY

Kyle and his wife, Candice, life in Blanchard, Oklahoma.

Kyle Noyce: Oh, it’s a challenge for sure. To me, they’re the best horses there are as far as they’re versatile. They can do just about anything you want to do. They go in so many different directions, and it’s such a specialized world, nowadays. They’re specialized, but unspecialized at the same time, and they can do anything. I kind of like the idea of a horseman that can train a horse to do more than one thing. And that’s what we do with reined cow horse. A really good reined cow horse can go to a reining on Saturday and a cutting on Sunday and maybe go rope next Tuesday to Wednesday. It keeps it very interesting. There’s never really a dull moment.

KN: Specifically in the reined cow horse, I met Chris Dawson that first year out there at the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity in 2009 and then came down and spent just a little bit of time with him in the winter before the World’s Greatest Horseman and the NRCHA Celebration of Champions, and all that. And through the years, I think he’s probably helped me the most. The move to Oklahoma was a huge change for us. And when we got back to it—I mean we were surrounded by so many really good people. Where we’re at now, we’re real close to Todd Crawford—I have to thank him a ton. He’s helped me a bunch over the last few years. We’ve got a really good peer group here. I mean Lee and Ashley Deacon—we ride together a fair amount. As far as a mentor and steering me where I would need to go, I would say probably Chris.

KN: I try to set achievable goals for each horse individually. Yes, the big goal is to get to the finals at whatever show we’re getting ready for, whether that be the Futurity, the Derby or the Stakes— but, set small goals. Let’s say we’re struggling with a lead change. Let’s try for a week or 10 days to get to where the horse is relaxed about it. Whether they’re actually changing leads or not is one thing. But, if they’re struggling with a lead change they’re worried about it, let’s get them to where they’re relaxed about it. And [take] one step at a time.

I want to get these horses to where they want to do it. I want them to want to do it. You know when they’re happy about it and they like what they do, and I think that’s a very important quality of a show horse.

KN: I think it helps a bunch. First of all, I think it really helps you understand what a judge is looking for in the show pen and what you can do in the show pen as a rider, as far as when you can help your horse and when you can’t. I think it makes a big difference, and if you’re a judge, you understand the rules. You should understand the penalties and what the judges are looking for to a point where you can show a horse better; you can train a horse better for that discipline or for that [specific] event.

Each horse has a little different style. Some are a little bit more upright. Some are a little more physical. Some are a little more level and smoother, but those things tend to transfer from one event to another, whether it’s in the herd, reining or the fence work. I mean, in the fence work, if they’re smooth and they stop hard and they run down the pen and rate well and can get in the ground and be quickfooted through that turn, they’re going to mark—just like if they can run down the pen smooth and rate well in the reining, and they stop hard, and they turn quick—they’re going to mark.

Q A with NRCHA Pro Kyle Noyce

KN: Doug Williamson trained a horse, Doc At Night, that horse was incredibly fast and such a big fence horse. I’d love to ride him down the fence at least once. And then my friend Erin Taorimino’s Hazardouz Material [owned by Linda Mars].