NCHA Hall of Fame (Open & Non-Pro) · 2012 NCHA Open World Champion · Trainer of Dont Look Twice
More than four decades at the top of professional cutting — one of the defining trainer-rider combinations in the sport's modern history.
NCHA Hall of Fame — Open & Non-Pro2012 NCHA Open World Champion — Dont Look Twice2006 NCHA Open Rider of the YearNCHA lifetime earnings $9M+ (as of Jan 2019)Trainer of Dont Look Twice & Tap O Lena
Phil Rapp — NCHA cutting competition
1994
First to Win Both Super Stakes Divisions — Tap O Lena & Miss Skeeto Lena
2006
NCHA Open Rider of the Year — Super Stakes Open on Dual Smart Rey
2012
NCHA Open World Champion — Dont Look Twice
2022
NCHA Hall of Fame Inductee (Open & Non-Pro)
$9M+
NCHA Lifetime Earnings (Jan 2019)
Background
Weatherford, Texas — The Heart of Cutting Horse Country
Phil Rapp is an American cutting horse trainer and competitor widely recognized as one of the most accomplished riders in the history of the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA). Based in Weatherford, Texas — an area long associated with ranching and western performance horse training — Rapp grew up in a cutting family; his father, Jerry Rapp, bought him his first major cutting horse, Tapeppyoka Peppy, in the mid-1980s, which launched a multi-generational family dynasty in the sport.
Rapp began competing in 1983 and rose through the non-pro ranks before becoming one of the sport's leading professional riders. His early major wins included the 1991 NCHA Super Stakes Open aboard Playboys Ruby. In 1994 he became the first rider to win both divisions of the NCHA Super Stakes in the same year — the Open on his home-bred Tap O Lena and the Non-Pro on Miss Skeeto Lena.
Dont Look Twice & a Career-Defining Partnership
The Mare That Became a Legend — Dont Look Twice
Phil Rapp in NCHA cutting competition
The defining partnership of Rapp's career was with Dont Look Twice, a mare he and his wife Mary Ann Rapp bred. With lifetime earnings of $824,546, "Lipstick" was one of the most successful cutting mares of her era. Rapp won 26 major events aboard her, and she was named the 2011 NCHA Open Horse of the Year and the 2012 NCHA Open World Champion. Dont Look Twice descends from a multi-generational family of Rapp horses tracing back through Tapt Twice and Tap O Lena to Tapeppyoka Peppy, one of Phil's first cutting horses.
In 2006, Rapp was named NCHA Open Rider of the Year and won the NCHA Super Stakes Open on Dual Smart Rey. His NCHA lifetime earnings totaled more than $9.2 million as of January 2019, and he was inducted into the NCHA Hall of Fame — in both the Open and Non-Pro divisions — in 2022. He also served as NCHA vice-president (2016) and president (from June 2018).
1991 NCHA Super Stakes Open Champion — Playboys Ruby
1994 NCHA Super Stakes — first rider to win both Open (Tap O Lena) and Non-Pro (Miss Skeeto Lena) in the same year
2006 NCHA Open Rider of the Year; Super Stakes Open Champion on Dual Smart Rey
2011 NCHA Open Horse of the Year — Dont Look Twice
2012 NCHA Open World Champion — Dont Look Twice
NCHA Hall of Fame inductee (Open & Non-Pro), 2022
NCHA lifetime earnings over $9.2 million (as of January 2019)
