The National Cutting Horse Association's (NCHA) website states: “Yet for many, (horse) cutting's greatest rewards are intangible. The bond between people and horses that makes the sport so special also links it to the sweat and dust of the Old West and sets it apart from all other events.”

The sport developed from the West's need to separate one cow from the rest of its herd for reasons of illness, castrating or sorting. Necessity developed into organized sport overseen by the NCHA with annual purses exceeding $39 million.

But, like the website relays, it's the bond that defines and makes horse cutting the fastest growing equine sport as of late. For Michael Carlyle, NCHA's 2006 Rookie of the Year, Panther Club member since the 1980s and past Panther Club President, it's that same dedication through the sweat and dust, tears and elation he experiences during his horse cutting competitions that he sees in so many EIU student-athletes.

Carlyle found himself involved with EIU at a young age. His family lived next door to former EIU football, track and cross country coach Pat O'Brien and the track coach while he attended EIU's now defunct Lab School during his elementary and middle school years was John Craft. Craft greatly influenced Carlyle, motivating him to continue competing in cross country through his high school years.

Furthering Carlyle's EIU connection, a now-retired Economics professor, Dr. Ray Plath, told Caryle: “This Earth is only so large and the population grows every year. Real estate is where it's at.”

That wisdom solidified his venture into the aggressive real estate business. His father had founded Carlyle Apartments and Carlyle expanded that business to include his own development company, Carlyle Rentals, in 1985. Now the owner of several properties catering to “niche” markets in Charleston, Carlyle looks back on the company's growth and is thankful for the challenges his business presented him. “It taught me that to be successful you have to experience some failure. You have to want something so badly that you can accept when other things don't go as planned.”

To Carlyle, EIU student-athletes demonstrate that quality. “The student-athletes that really excel accept that sacrifice comes with total dedication to something. When I became involved with the Panther Club early on, it was all about competing in fundraising. The Panther Club was a worthwhile cause because it stood for something that didn't come easy: winning.”

Winning is something Carlyle, now semi-retired, spends so much of his time pursuing. Only now he's trying to win while on a several hundred pound horse galloping from side to side, stopping on a dime all with the goal of demonstrating a strong grasp of the sport, “the art” as Carlyle calls it, that is horse cutting.

Always dedicated to being the best at what he does no matter what it is, Carlyle changed his permanent address from the wide open fields of Charleston to the horse cutting capital of the world: Weatherford, Texas. He now breeds and shows and supports a trainer to bring a weanling from birth to their competitive cutting prime within two to three short years. “Some people retire and fish… I retire and enter horse cutting competitions. It keeps me young.”

The twinkle in his eye as he describes Royal Blue Magic, his prized gray mare, is impossible to miss and the sacrifice he is willing to put forth to better himself in the sport he is so passionate about is evident.

There is many a country song regaling the listener with tales of overnight hauls from one rodeo to another and there has been many a time that Carlyle has felt as though he was living one of those songs. “I've hauled so hard to so many times and sometimes, it hasn't resulted in a success. But that's the challenge: to dream the loftier goals and to work to make it happen.”

The parallel between that ideology and that of the exceptional student-athlete is evident, says Carlyle. “To be a successful student-athlete, you need to be able to dream bigger than the competition and work to make it happen.” It is evident that Carlyle has lived that ideology from the fund drives of the Panther Club, to the ground breaking of many a real estate venture, to the arena of the 2009 National Horse Cutting Association's World Championship Futurity.