Paul and Sophie McCulloch crowned state champions in team penning

And at tiny Red Range, where NSW's best team penning and arena sorting competitors had assembled for the state championships, that gift pulsated inside McCulloch's daughter, Sophie, and steeled her when it mattered most.

Ditto her old man.

"Nothing," McCulloch replied when asked what his greatest fear was. "Because I've got self-belief. I believe in myself."

"And I've drummed it into Josh and Sophie," he added.

Josh McCulloch - the 52-year-old Tamworth butcher's youngest son - is one of Australia's best young Muay Thai fighters.

Now, his youngest child has emerged as one of the state's most promising young horse sports competitors. She will soon turn 21.

At Red Range, a village located just to the east of Glen Innes, Paul and Sophie combined with Loomberah farmer Rex Warden to win the team penning (open division). The trio finished third in arena sorting.

"The competition was tough, and the cattle were very tough," McCulloch said. "So we had to play it safe, and it all paid off."

McCulloch said his daughter was "so good" at Red Range, with the trio's preparation significantly aided by practising on cattle at Warden's farm before the event.

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"Aw, mate. She's got the little mongrel in her, don't worry about that," McCulloch said of Sophie. "She's got as much mongrel as what Joshy's got."

She's also got "eagle eyes", he said, adding: "She can pick the cows from anywhere."

"All my life I've been watching the best people and riding their horses," McCulloch continued. "And what I learn from their horses, I go back and teach my horse."

"And she's just following the footsteps," he said of his daughter. "And she's got a long way to go [in the sport]. She's such a good little rider."

Emboldened by their showing at the state championship, McCulloch is now eyeing the nationals.

"I think we're good enough to go and compete there," he said, adding that his team had not competed previously at the state championships.

"And we took that out," he said. "So I think we should go and have a crack at the nationals."

Having a front-row seat to his children's achievements is McCulloch's greatest source of happiness.

He kept competing "to keep up with them", he said, adding: "To have little Sophie riding in my team, it was so awesome."

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