Well here we are and it’s May already. We’re getting everything wrapped up so we can leave for a week and go on the fabulous Ranchero Visitadores trail ride, which is a highlight event for me and any of the other participants that go. It’s a wonderful time to see old friends and to make new friends. To say it’s interesting is a total understatement of what goes on there, and it’s too bad I can’t tell you all about it—it’s top secret! But we do have fun!
I just came back from Brazil as you noticed in the last blog; I thought I would tell you a little bit about it. This was my 5th trip to Brazil. Dr. Enrique Penha and my friend, Flavia and her husband, Oleg met me at the airport in Sao Paulo. I was accompanied on this trip by my friend James Dixon from Moab, Utah. He actually put the Moab clinic on a month or two ago. James is really good to travel with. You know, they say you never know somebody until you either live with them, do business with them, or travel with them. I got to know James pretty good, and he’s a keeper! James and I traveled via Lima, Peru. It was a long way around. We had some layovers we didn’t expect, so it was about a 30 hour trip each way, which kind of knocks the sap out of you.
When they met us in Sao Paulo, I wondered if they didn’t make those layovers on purpose just to socialize and take us to the most fabulous Brazilian BBQ restaurant and even to a Brazilian-French restaurant. The food was incredible! The whole town of Sao Paulo was historic and interesting. After a 12-hour layover there, we flew another two hours to a place called Presidente Prudente. Then we drove another couple of hours to Santa Mercedes, to my wonderful friend Menees’ ranch. Menee is an excellent horseman with beautiful facilities in the middle of nowhere! This is truly in the outback of Brazil.
At this clinic we had about 10 riders but probably 200 people including spectators. Included among the spectators were some gauchos from Paraguay. They had their little yerba mate cups that they sip all day with their silver straws, and they were wearing their bombachi pants, their tall boots, and their blousy shirts. Some of them look a little like Zorro and they are good horsemen. They’re very interested in the ways of the reined cow horse, and they’re modernizing a lot of their techniques.
We‘d work until about noon and then everybody wants to sleep until about 3:00, so you kick back in a big old hammock. It didn’t bother me much! There were a few more flies than we’re used to, but after a few days you quit swatting. They just come back so you get used to it and let them crawl on you. The weather was beautiful, a little warmer than I’m used to. It was their late fall there. Continue Reading »
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Performance Horse Magazine, beginning in July of 2008, is going to count-down the top ten horse and rider teams of all time. These teams will be determined by you folks, their readers, and the top professionals. I would really love it if you considered voting for me and the horse Chex A Nic. He is gone now, but we were quite a team in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I took Chex A Nic to the AQHA World Show one time, actually the only time I’ve ever shown there. The AQHA shows have never been where I focused my effort in the past, but I thought we would venture off and try it. So there we were, our first visit to the World Show, and we went home with both the Senior Reining and the Senior Working Cowhorse Championships. It was pretty neat to show them what a California-style reined cowhorse could do, and that a horse could be competitive in both events.
The Denver show was great and always an eye-opener! A lot of interesting new things and a few new styles that I wouldn’t put on a dead horse! I bought a new camera in order to get really good pictures of our new silver bits, and picture number one out of it was something that was asked for here a while back - the fancy diamond ring that the NRCHA gave to its Hall of Fame members at the Snaffle Bit. Pretty fancy!