Matt Palmer’s path to becoming an NRHA Million Dollar Rider wasn’t a straight line, it was a journey shaped by both opportunity and setbacks. Growing up around horses in Pennsylvania, Palmer’s family life revolved around reining and pleasure horses, but he also pursued baseball at a high level.
“Take the negative and there’ll be a positive at the end with it and run with it. That’s the best advice I can give to anybody that gets hurt or has setbacks.”
— Matt Palmer
From Baseball to Reining: Building Mental Toughness
Before he was making headlines in the reining pen, Palmer was kicking up dust on the baseball diamond.
“I got a scholarship to play baseball and, you know, there was a chance there that thought I was going to get drafted,” Palmer recalled.
That dream was cut short when he tore his rotator cuff as a college freshman. The silver lining? While he was sidelined in his dorm, Palmer found himself flipping through The Reiner magazine and getting pulled back into the world of reining. That pull eventually led him to an internship with Tom McCutcheon, and ultimately, a career in horses.
His baseball experience helped to shape the way he thinks about competition. The lessons in resilience and perspective prepared him for the ups and downs of the show pen.
But even with that foundation, Palmer admits setbacks still test him. After breaking his foot in a freak riding accident in 2023, he faced one of the hardest mental battles of his career. He went through surgeries and felt optimistic when the doctor said he’d be back in three months. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
“Well, in my mind,” Palmer explained, “three months means I’m going to be back to riding, playing baseball, being normal. No, in three months, they’re sticking me on a treadmill, putting me in the air so I can learn how to even walk again. That hit me really tough, because in my mind, I felt like, okay, the doctor says the bones are supposed to be healed… and I’m supposed to get back to normal. It wasn’t that way, and I was not mentally prepared for that.”
Being on the sidelines longer than expected took a toll on him, but it also forced him to step back, reassess, and build a new mental framework which he began reviewing his past runs and looking at everything through a new lens.
“I think by taking that step back, it’s made me a better horse trainer this year,” he said. “I think by opening up those two perspectives it’s also made me a better person, and a better family man, too.”
Take Your Routine on the Road
Palmer believes consistency is one of the biggest mental advantages a rider can give themselves.
“The greatest athletes in any sport… have a routine,” he said. “When it comes to myself and to my horses, I try to keep a very exact routine on every single thing that I do, just like I’m at home. So when I travel, I kind of try to bring my home and my routines with me.”
For him, taking his routine on the road and keeping everything consistent, from his morning breakfast to his gym workout keeps him grounded and in the best mental state to be successful. The routine doesn’t just benefit him, it steadies his horses, too.
He stresses that the road is unpredictable—weather changes, schedules shift, and horses feel the strain, but having things that you can rely on to be the same everyday makes all the difference for him and his horses.
Why Not Us?
If there’s one phrase Palmer has become known for, it’s his motto: Why Not Us. Inspired by Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, the saying is a reminder that success isn’t limited by geography, resources, or circumstance.
“I’m from the East Coast,” he said. “We all know it’s a little bit harder when you got to travel, and you got to find your ways… I hear a lot of younger people say, well, you can’t do it from the East Coast. You got to live out in Texas or Oklahoma. And, you know, I just kind of wanted to show them that, no, you can. Why not us?”
For Palmer, it’s not just a hashtag, it’s a mindset.
“If you’re a family person, you don’t want to leave your family, but you have a dream to be a million-dollar rider, you can do it,” he explained.
That belief has carried him through injury, setbacks, and the grind of the show schedule.
—H&R—
