Tuli Dowers Rides Into NRCHA History

Aboard Tha Rizzler, Tuli Dowers — Eldest Daughter of Nick Dowers — Earns the High Score and Gold Buckle in Non-Pro Boxing at the 2025 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity

The crowd noise reverberating throughout the John Justin Arena was deafening on Oct. 17. The arena at the Will Rogers Memorial Center is a Fort Worth, Texas, landmark, which has hosted some of the most iconic moments in Western equestrian sports, and this one featuring amateur competitors certainly measured up. In rode Tuli Dowers, the eldest child of NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity champion and Million Dollar Rider Nick Dowers and wife Jackie. She was perfectly seated and rhythmically posting in unison with Tha Rizzler, a strapping and showy 3-year-old red roan stallion with a glaring, flaxen mane and wavy, crimped tail that breezed just above the arena floor. The horse is a stunner, and piloted by this high school beauty, they made quite the pair. The air was electric, and every spectator soon became an avid fan as Tuli and “Rizz,” as he’s affectionately known, started their run in the Non-Pro Boxing at the 2025 Snaffle Bit Futurity, the signature jewel in the National Reined Cow Horse Association’s (NRCHA) crown, where top 3-year-old horses compete in herd work, rein work and fence work for significant prizes and prestige.

Tuli Dowers celebrates with her dad Nick Dowers. Tuli and Tha Rizzler won the Non-Pro Boxing at the National Reined Cow Horse Association’s 2025 Snaffle Bit Futurity.
PHOTO BY PRIMO MORALES

Tuli Dowers celebrates with her dad Nick Dowers. Tuli and Tha Rizzler won the Non-Pro Boxing at the National Reined Cow Horse Association’s 2025 Snaffle Bit Futurity.
PHOTO BY PRIMO MORALES

The sport of reined cow horse is wildly challenging for innumerable reasons, but it’s chiefly because of the level of difficulty. This is a Western triathlon where the same rider and horse compete in three disciplines: reining; herd work or cutting; and the high speed and perilous fence work. In the boxing (an alternative to the fence work), riders will box or hold a cow at one end of the arena instead of taking it down the fence. To compete is one matter but excelling among the world’s best reined cow horse trainers and riders gathered at the famed annual Snaffle Bit Futurity is an entirely different feat. Luckily, Tuli is no stranger to the reined cow horse scene, let alone any environment where horses are the central focus. This bornand- bred ranch girl is from the tiny, rural outpost of Dyer, Nevada, situated near the California border. The 18-year-old senior has ranching and horses coursing through her veins and knows hard work, tenacity and drive. She and her younger siblings — 15-year-old brother Crue and sister Jovi, 13, — seamlessly float between riding horses, roping, gathering cattle on the family’s vast Esmeralda County spread or piloting a rake as they work row after row of the season’s alfalfa crop. These kids are gritty, grounded and good to their core.

The family business encompasses a wide range of farming and ranching pursuits, all built by their parents and grandparents in a corner of the country that might scare off fair-weather cowboys. The landscape is mighty, amid the Silver Peak Range to the east and towering White Mountains to the west that separate the Golden and Silver states, it’s rugged and majestic, unforgiving and abundant. Here, Tuli learned early that you make your own luck with hard work and mindset. Born without the lower portion of both arms, she has taken what some might consider a disability and made it her superpower. She’s focused on the task before her — whatever that may be. “This is just who I am,” she says plainly. “I’ve never seen myself as any different than anybody else.”

With 20 hours to prepare, Tuli Dowers went to work. She schooled Rizz the night before their first event, working the flag a handful of times until she was confident that the pair could handle a live cow. During a break in the competition, she caught a flight home to attend her last high school homecoming dance. Above, Tuli and her brother Crue are ready for the festivities.

With 20 hours to prepare, Tuli Dowers went to work. She schooled Rizz the night before their first event, working the flag a handful of times until she was confident that the pair could handle a live cow. During a break in the competition, she caught a flight home to attend her last high school homecoming dance. Above, Tuli and her brother Crue are ready for the festivities.

Ironically, the initial plan going into the 2025 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity didn’t involve Tuli, despite a “superstar” performance at the ninth annual Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity where she won a combined $23,854.25 between three horses, four championships, a reserve championship and a third place from Sept. 5-14 in Nevada’s Biggest Little City. Not even a month later, she, along with her mom and siblings, made the long trek to Texas to help Nick in his pursuit of another Open Championship. The high school senior originally wasn’t set to show again until the Fall Classic Snaffle Bit Futurity, Derby and Horse Show in Paso Robles, California, in November. The best laid plans, as they say, don’t always work out. Nick had a bang-up show and was in contention for a spot in the finals — until he wasn’t. Just before the buzzer, he and Rizz lost a cow in the Open Herd Work. Gone, with the wily beast, was any chance Nick and Rizz had for a shot at the open title. While unexpected, in any sport involving horses and cattle, surprises occur on the regular.

Following the unexpected setback, all eyes on the Dowers’s team turned to Tuli. She and Rizz had an opportunity to compete in the Non-Pro Boxing Futurity. While her dad is deeply familiar with this young stallion, Tuli’s only experience was at home, doing little more than trotting Rizz on occasion — never riding a reining pattern together, let alone cutting a cow. With 20 hours to prepare, Tuli calmed her nerves, absorbed the pressure and went to work. She schooled Rizz the night before the event, working the flag a handful of times until she was confident that the pair could handle a live cow. “I’ve been around Rizz for most of his life,” she says. “But I didn’t even know what his lope felt like. It took a minute, but by the time we showed in the reining, we had each other figured out. He’s so smart; he felt me and attached to me quickly. My dad always says that his best stallions act like geldings, and that’s Rizz for sure,” she adds about the family favorite.

“I’m confident when I ride; It’s something that I can do no problem.”Tuli Dowers, Winner of the Non-Pro Boxing at the 2025 Snaffle Bit Futurity

“I’m confident when I ride; It’s something that I can do no problem.”

Tuli Dowers, Winner of the Non-Pro Boxing at the 2025 Snaffle Bit Futurity

To add further drama to the unfolding story, she left Texas during a break in the competition and caught a flight from Dallas to attend her last high school homecoming dance in Tonopah, Nevada. She traded boots and spurs for a dress and heels, making priceless senior-year memories with friends at the Saturday night dance. The next morning, she was back in the air, winging her way back to Dallas and the Non-Pro Boxing Futurity. As Monday’s run approached, she was focused and ready. Consistent with how Tuli lives her daily life, she needs very few adaptations when riding. “I don’t ride in split reins,” she explains, instead opting for looped reins, as they’re easier for her to hold. “I just make it work,” she says plainly. “To me, it’s no different. I’m confident when I ride; it’s something that I can do no problem.” It’s that confidence that has always been her secret weapon, especially atop a horse. “Maybe that's why I ride the way I do,” she says, “because I feel like I can.”

As Tuli and Rizz rode through the back gate into the arena on the final day of the competition, she had the crowd’s attention, the support of her family and the entire reined cow horse community behind her. Everyone in the Justin Arena seemed to be cheering her on. “I felt it,” she confirms, smiling at the memory. She pictured her run in her mind as she rode in, which is part of her strategy for both preparation and calming. With so many eyes on her, however, she felt little pressure, nor comparison to her famous father. “My dad is a magician on a horse, and my mom is everything to us too. She’s the rock; she really is,” says Tuli of her parents. They were there watching with visible anticipation as she and Rizz started their run. Excitement built as the pair cut their cow with precision and a perfectly synced, fluid-like movement. The crowd noise escalated in unison as the run progressed, ending with a deafening celebratory roar; it was clear that Tuli and Rizz had marked an unbeatable 225 score in the Non-Pro Boxing Futurity.

As Tuli and Rizz rode triumphantly out of the arena, tears were abundant within the crowd. This was a moving run, and a rare visual of a horse and rider that came together at virtually a moment’s notice to become a single, cohesive unit, tackling the challenge in a memorable display of skill and athleticism.

Team Dowers rolled out of Fort Worth bound for home in the highest possible spirits as the 2025 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity wound down. As a trainer, Nick’s credo has always been “Performance with Purpose.” That statement also perfectly fit this moment in time. When Tuli’s boots slid into her stirrups the final day of competition, she earned a title, a coveted buckle and the admiration of the cow horse community. She showed what she was made of and did so with grace and signature humility. If you ask her, she’ll coyly answer that, even on the heels of this win, she has yet to pinpoint a concrete direction for her future. “For now, I’m just going to keep riding,” she smiles. “I feel like I've been given a gift; we’ll see where it leads me and see what doors open from here.” Her sights have shifted to her own 3-year-old mare and the plan they have together in the show pen. Beyond that, she’s going to relish in the win for the time being all while going about her daily work on the ranch and finishing up her last months in high school.

They say iron sharpens iron. Tuli Dowers has learned and refined her approach as a horsewoman under the tutelage of her champion dad and with the loving, steadfast direction of her mom. At the same time, ranch work keeps you humble around here. Even champions have to wake up pre-dawn to rake hay, feed horses and work cattle. Perhaps it’s that dichotomy that sets the Dowers family apart. Rizz works cattle too, and long trots through the vast Nevada mountain scape chasing mama cows and calves. These people and their mounts seem to perfectly balance their time under the bright lights with their time in high-desert cow country. For Tuli, this place and that balance has helped shape her, giving her both a soft heart and a mental toughness that defines her. She always was a champion, but now she’s got the buckle to prove it.