Billy Cochrane was born in San Jose, California. When he was seven years old, he attended a summer camp where he had his first exposure to horses. Billy soon started riding the schooling horses at the Salinas Rodeo grounds, where he met Marvin Roberts, Sr. who let him ride some of the horses he was training to show.Billy was only 12 years old when he got one of his sister’s horses – Peter Pan. Billy won 13 out of the 14 events in the reined cow horse association’s 17-and-under division, and ran off with the year-end championship. He still holds the record for being the youngest rider to accomplish this. 

Billy had many teachers, including Greg Ward, Tony Amaral, Barbara Worth, Don Dodge, and Johnny Brazil, Jr. He had the opportunity to ride the future Hall of Fame horses Fillinic and Jernigan Peake.

Billy’s hard work ethic and desire to learn paid off, as he won many year-end bridle and hackamore championships.