Dick Pieper and his wife, Brenda, operate Pieper Ranch in Marietta, Oklahoma, where they stand the cutting stallion Playgun. Pieper trained and showed reining horses for many years, and is a past president of the National Reining Horse Association and a member of the NRHA Hall of Fame. After the Piepers bought Playgun in 1993, he began to concentrate on cutting horses and has amassed earnings of more than $350,000 in the sport. Pieper now focuses on starting 2-year-old performance prospects and giving horsemanship clinics.

Cheryl Magoteaux Cody is an one of the Western horse industry's most well-known equine journalists, due to her award-winning skills and experience as an industry media spokesperson, journalist and horsewoman. A former college horsemanship instructor, Cody is a longtime barrel-racing competitor and team roper, as well as a longtime student of co-author Dick Pieper. Her work has appeared in such publications as Western Horseman, Horse & Rider, Quarter Horse Journal, USET News, Quarter Horse News, The Reiner, and Paint Horse Journal. Cody wrote Charmayne James on Barrel Racing, a Western Horseman book, with the 11-time world champion barrel racer and has provided color commentary for Waltenberry's Reining Video Monthly.Cody's company, Pro Management, has provided advertising, publishing, media and/or publicity services for a host of industry events, organizations and superstars. Among them are the National Reined Cow Horse Association and NRCHA World Championship Snaffle Bit Futurity, Derby, Stakes and Hackamore Classic and World¿s Greatest Horseman, as well as the National Reining Horse Association¿s NRHA Futurity, NRHA Derby, National Reining Breeders Classic, and U.S. Equestrian Team Championship Reining. Top reiners Tim McQuay and Dell Hendricks, and world-champion team roper Speed Williams are among her clients.