Richard “Rick” Corso of Woodside, this year’s winner of the Outstanding Horseperson-Citizen Award from the Mounted Patrol of San Mateo County, has been riding horses since he was 6, starting on one of his grandfather’s plow horses.
Today, Mr. Corso, a resident of San Mateo County for 60 years and of Woodside for 26 years, owns five horses — two for leisure and the rest for competitions. “I’d like to think of myself as a cowboy,” he says.
A five-time winner of the Grand National Cutting Horse Show at the Cow Palace and the current defending champion, Mr. Corso is the 22nd winner of the Mounted Patrol’s annual award, given to horse riders who have made contributions to the community. Among his contributions is his work on search-and-rescue missions for the Woodside-based Mounted Patrol.
“Once, a couple of kids got lost in Wunderlich Park in Woodside, an area of steep canyons and tall redwood trees,” Mr. Corso recalls. “We went out to look for them. It was very emotional for the family. Fortunately, we were successful in finding the kids.”
Howard Boone, a past captain of the Mounted Patrol and 1994 award recipient, cites Mr. Corso’s rise from an apprentice mechanic to partnership in two Putnam GM dealerships, “while taking time off to do charitable work for our community … and become a nationally acclaimed cutting horse champion.”
Mr. Corso has served in leadership roles with many auto dealership groups, including as president of the Northern California Buick Dealers Association for 10 years.
In 2001, Joe Putnam, also of Woodside, and Mr. Corso became partners in a new venture in Burlingame, adding three more GM franchises to the Putnam Dealer Group — Chevrolet, Cadillac and Hummer — with Mr. Corso now serving as general manager over six GM franchises.
He was instrumental in getting national Buick sponsorship of the East/West Shriners football game, and served as chairman for the East/West Shriners game golf tournament, which raised more than $300,000 for the Shriners Hospital organization.
“It’s a humbling experience to see children in burn, orthopedic and other units,” he says of his work for Shriners hospitals.
Mr. Putnam and Mr. Corso have put on numerous cutting and reining competitions in Woodside, raising more than $50,000 for local charities.
National competitions for “cutting” — separating cattle from the herd — can pay up to $250,000 for the winner, he says. Mr. Corso, who is vice president of the Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Association, says he has pocketed about $100,000 in prize money.
“It means a lot to me personally,” Mr. Corso says of the award he will receive Jan. 13 at a Mounted Patrol event at the Menlo Circus Club in Atherton, when the patrol will also install its 66th captain (president), Mike Lewine, who succeeds Ed Begun.
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