The past two years have definitely been quite the whirlwind for Riley Farris. She graduated as valedictorian from Madisonville High School in 2025. At the end of the 2024 point year, she became the NYCHA (National Youth Cutting Horse Association) Senior Youth World Champion. And, on July 4th, 2025, Riley was named the Texas FFA State President. (And, between this interview and publishing of this article, Riley was announced as a 2026 inductee into the NYCHA Youth Member Hall of Fame!)
Honestly, it started just because I am extremely competitive. I wanted to be able to say that I was “the smartest” in my class, even though I know the ranking doesn’t necessarily determine that.
As I got older, people always asked me, “How do you do it all? How do you balance FFA, and the horses, and your school?” I guess I wanted to prove that I could. I believe you can balance all the activities if you’re willing to commit yourself 100% to each and every one.
The value of versatility and adaptability. Cutting is the most humbling sport ever. Some days it’s chicken; some days it’s feathers. You can walk in, have worked your horse perfectly all week, have the perfect draw, the perfect conditions, and still have a bad run. Cutting has taught me to take whatever cards I’m dealt and learn how to play them the best I can.
Sometimes you’re not going to be the best in the room. A lot of the times, you’re going to mess up. But, get back up and keep going the next day, because you’re in it for the love of the sport, not for the love of the win.
From the outside looking in, it looks like the rider is just sitting there and letting the horse do all the work. They don’t understand I could twitch my left foot wrong, and my horse might run off. They don’t see how conscientious you have to be about every single move you make and how much of it’s a strategy game as well. People not in the horse world also don’t understand the bond you make with your animal. We became connected through all the time we spent together. I don’t think people understand that special bond unless they’ve actually felt it.
From August of 2019 to February of 2020, we were going to shows nearly every week…up and down the road, and I did not pull a single check, did not get through a single run. It was just going bad.
My dad and I were at each other’s throats. Then we went to the Houston Livestock Show in 2020, and I literally said a prayer saying, “If I don’t just get through this run, like I will quit. I don’t want to do this anymore. It’s not worth it.” And that first day at the Houston show, I felt Him working. I marked one of the highest scores I’ve ever marked in a big show arena. I remember walking out and seeing my dad with tears just pouring down his face, and my entire family had run down on the arena floor and were hugging me. That’s the moment my show career turned around. From then on out, I caught the cutting bug harder than before, and I was ready to bust my tail to reach my goals.
Absolutely not. I didn’t ever believe that I was going to be a state officer at all. I was kind of the shy kid throughout FFA. End of my sophomore year, I thought about running for district office, but I wasn’t going to do it because I didn’t want to give a speech in front of 300 people.
That just seemed really daunting. My ag teacher, Ms. Foster, pretty much opened the computer application, shoved it on my desk, and we started writing a speech. She told me I was going to run for district office. Then throughout that year, I fell in love with the leadership side of everything, which encouraged me to run for area office.
I served as area president my senior year, and I didn’t think I was qualified, good enough, or poised enough to serve as a Texas FFA state officer. I always saw them on stage, with their glistening smiles, and nothing was wrong, nothing they said was wrong, and I didn’t think that was me.
But people throughout my area really started encouraging me to run for state office. It was almost like God was telling me to do it, because originally, I was supposed to run against five people. As we got closer to the race, one by one, the candidates started dropping out until I only ran against one person. It just seemed like I was being called to do it, whether I realized it or not.
I always got told that, as a state officer, it’s my job to impact the students as best I can. What I was not told is how much the students would impact me. That has something to say about the power of FFA. I could walk into a chapter, meet a new student for the very first time, and they would feel comfortable enough with me to tell me their life story by the end of the one-hour chapter visit. Getting to hear their stories, where they come from, and how they got here really meant a lot to me, and it allowed me a new perspective on so many different aspects of my life.
I’ve made it my mission to make sure students know I am not a robot, I am a person. I’ve cracked jokes with them. They’ve heard me slip up and stutter during workshops. They’ve seen me make stupid faces or fall. My mission was definitely to make sure they knew that I wasn’t perfect; none of us are, and they are still loved and valued the same either way. They are good enough to be a state officer or to do big things as long as they care enough.
First, I would say people look at FFA and see all the talkers. They see the ones on stage giving speeches. But FFA has a little clique for everybody. If you’re a little quieter, there is a group of students who are like you. You can make your own friends by finding those people who fit your personality.
The other thing I would say is a lot of people are shy because they’re scared of embarrassment or failure. It’s everybody’s first time living, and there is absolutely no reason to be embarrassed. Others have or are facing the same thing as you, so there’s no point in being embarrassed or scared to do the things you want and love to do.
There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into both cutting and especially FFA. Right now, my teammate and I are headed to Fort Worth to start convention prep. We’re about to spend the next nine days locked in rooms memorizing scripts.
When the state convention starts, all the members see is us smiling on stage with everything perfectly memorized. Members don’t see all the rehearsal and preparation that goes into events; we try so hard to make it a good experience for them.
As far as cutting goes, most people only see the wins or losses people have. They don’t see how early we’ve had to get up to work, or how late we’ve had to stay up after softball games to get horses ready. All they see is us in the show pen, whether that’s a good weekend or a bad weekend. So, regardless of which area I’m talking about, just the amount of hard work that goes behind the scenes.
My dad always said, “The harder you work, the better you do.” And I’ve really tried to implement that into every single area of my life.
Absolutely. My dad, Mike Farris, was the hardest-working man I knew. When he was young, he was a cutting horse trainer, but for the benefit of his family, decided to hang that up and start an insurance business; he started Farris Insurance in Madisonville from the ground up. People would come in asking for the guy in the saddle because he wasn’t comfortable in a desk chair. He wanted to work in a saddle, so he had a saddle on a rack behind his desk, and that’s how he would sell insurance.
Everything my dad ever had, he worked for, and he made sure my sister Reygan and I knew we had to work for the things we want, because nothing worthwhile in life is going just get handed to you.
How far humility goes. I have been extremely blessed in the things I’ve accomplished and worked for. However, that doesn’t make me better than anybody else. We wouldn’t be able to do any of this without our Lord and Savior, and the second He decides you don’t need these wins, you won’t have them. Successes can be taken away at any moment. Just knowing that, you have to get up in the morning and continue grinding for those things that you want.
I put my freshman year of college on hold with becoming the Texas FFA state president. I will start college at Texas Christian University in August with plans to major in communication with a pre-law track.
