A Twice in a Lifetime Opportunity: Les is Selling His Colts!

Les is offering his two 2-year-old colts for sale, along with the opportunity to have him continue their training through 2011 – the Snaffle Bit Futurity.

Both colts are showing great potential already, with sound legs, sound minds, and lots of natural ability. They are both by Tomcat Chex, a proven son of High Brow Cat out of Miss Reed Chex, a Bueno Chex daughter that also produced Miss Smarty Chex, the highest money earning producer in NRCHA history.

View Pedigrees:
Bellas Scrappy Cat – $10,000
Tom’s Sassy Cat – $10,000

In addition they are both out of proven well-bred performance mares, both of which were money-earners at the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity in Reno.

In addition, Les plans to take his RFD-TV audience through the training process on these colts, so you, your family and friends can all share the fun watching the training process turn your colt from a cute little 2-year-old to the high-powered performance horse he will be when he’s ready for the Futurity. Sound like the horse and experience of your dreams?

Both colts were featured on this week’s Wide World of Horses episode which will air again early Sunday morning. Check the RFD-TV for program times!

For more information, call Les (805) 455-0162 or Cody Mora (805) 489-2730.

Ask Les: Using Spurs on a Young Horse

Question from Neil: I have a 2-year-old that is real spur sensitive, and I am working on body control right now – neck shoulders etc., but he only associates the spur with going faster and will tend to brace against especially my left leg. He is a nice colt , nice loper, yet it has been a lot of work to try and get him to drive into the bit with out getting chargey. He has a melt in the ground stop, real cowy. Its like I need to deaden him up to the spurs a bit. Any advise?

First of all let’s address the advantage of spurs and the primary cause of success or failure.
When to use spurs: First off, I can’t remember using a spur a lot on a two year old. Put yourself in the horse’s place – if you are an older horse and you know right from wrong, you know the way you’re expected to respond. If you deny the rider that respect, then you could expect the possibility of be spurred. However, if you’re a young horse, such as a two-year-old, which is comparable to a four-year-old child, you don’t know the rules. So a big or painful reprimand – or even reprimands that are sort of painful and stacked one on top of the next – if you don’t have knowledge, the only thing you have to respond with is instinct. Since horses are flight animals, their instinct is to go ahead.

Any time you start pushing him a ways out of his comfort zone, understand that he’s a flight animal, so he’ll go ahead. The harder you kick and spur, the more ahead he’s going to go, but it’s going to be a blind ahead motion, not a collected forward motion.

First, the horse has to be taught how to respond to the leg properly. Some take longer than others. It will take as long as it takes – one week, five weeks, however long, but that is part of the joy of making a good horse a good horse.

Of course we do need spurs. The effective way we deal with a disrespectful horse, as far as contemporary riding goes, is to have a spur as an enforcer. But you need to start somewhere besides using the spur, so you can save it for when you need it.

I suggest bumping a horse like this a lot with your calves, instead of spurs – with your toe up and your heel down – and if you have to occasionally use some spur then I would, but then again you want to spend some time – you want to take it apart. Back him up to the wall/fence and bump him with your calves, what I call “boot tops”, while moving your reins until he becomes soft and light.

Once he understands that when you start bumping with your boot tops and moving the snaffle bit back and forth, he needs to drop off that snaffle and lower and soften his neck, then you can start to put it into motion. If you try to do it all at once, it’ll be too much. How much motion to start? One or two steps are pretty darn good – you’ve got the job done.

You always have to remember, we’re not trying to create a maneuver that we can compliment him for; we are trying to create a thought pattern. In other words, we want to reward him for the way he thinks, not just hold out for all the big things. Of course we will reward the big things he does too, but your goal is to make him think correctly. In order for your horse to think right, you have to think right. You should to go back to fundamentals.

I suggest trying not to use spurring for now. When you do, definitely don’t stick the horse with the spur. Put the spur under the horses’ tummy with your toe up and out, your ankle bent as far as you can so you’re using the calf of your leg on the horse first, your boot tops.

How to use spurs (rolling vs. sticking):
If you don’t get the response you want, then use your spurs. With your heels down, spurs down, barely touch the rib cage, or barrel, of the horse. Then begin to push your toe down, rolling the rowels upward. The rowels make a series of wrinkles in the skin because you have pressure against his barrel with your foot, leg, and spur. The rowel will roll across those wrinkles, and you should get a response. All of those signals are delivered in a sequence, called “pre-signals”. In other words, the first signal means the second one is coming, so on and so forth.

Aside from it being kinder to the horse, why should you roll and not poke with the spurs? If you use a lot of ankle – in other words, ankle, ankle, ankle, roll, roll, roll – that keeps a horse from learning to hold his breathe. You don’t want to poke a horse with spurs because he’ll begin to brace for that painful jolt. He’ll hold his breath and tense up, the same as you would respond. His neck will become stiff, solid, and rigid. When his neck becomes stiff, you’ll lose your ability to slow the front legs down, and he’ll go where he wants to. He’ll run off. This should all makes sense. It makes really, really good sense in theory. Theory to me is the same as basic fundamentals, and fundamentals are what it’s all about.

Can a horse be more sensitive to spurs on one side more than another? As far as one side being more durable than the other, horses are not. At least I haven’t experienced one. I have had some that in certain stages would turn better one way than the other; usually the problem in the neck and shoulder area. But as far as just responding more to one spur than the other, it’s probably more of a rider error. In other words, you’re either using or are more aggressive with one leg or spur more than the other, or your spurs could be adjusted, one high and one low.

It is true that when you teach a horse to do something one way, you sure can’t take for granted he’ll just “know it” the other way. So of course you have to work both sides, but look at what you’re doing too. Also like with anything else make sure there isn’t a physical irritation or injury that makes the horse touchier on one side than the other. Hope this helps!

The Making of Quality Tack: An Interview with Tack Expert, Robert Raber, of Raber’s Saddlery

There isn’t a single stoplight in the whole of Coal County, Oklahoma to interfere with the delivery trucks making their way to and from Raber’s Saddlery. So how does a tack production shop is such a remote country town, with a shoestring marketing budget, and no website not only survive, but thrive? It turns out one can still succeed the good-old-fashioned way – by word of mouth.

Robert Raber, with just a small team of local workers, has built a reputation for quality craftsmanship that has traveled far beyond Coal County’s quiet borders. He made his first saddle at the age of 19. Now a husband and father of five, his business is growing and he remains as committed to quality as ever. We are proud to be able to offer you many of his outstanding products on our website – once you’ve used one of his bridles or ridden with a set of his reins, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without them.

How did you get started?
I got started by growing up in my dad’s boot shop doing leather work at 10-12 years old. I started sewing boot soles on by the time I was 12 and gradually started my own business from the age of 18. After I made my first saddle, it just kept growing. Now we primarily do tack and a few custom saddles. The custom saddles are a very limited part of our business, and primarily either cutter or working ranch saddles.

When shopping for tack, how can a buyer tell if it’s good quality?
The stitching and edges are the first give away of a quality piece of tack versus one that’s not. People should look to see if the stitching is refined and the edges are smooth. If somebody has taken enough time and pride to do that part right, then they probably used a pretty good piece of leather too.

I can look at the leather and definitely tell when I pick it up if it’s quality leather. That comes from spending years working with leather every day. One of the things that you want to look for when you pick up a pair of reins or something, is if they appear raggedy and soft. If they’re soft and raggedy when they’re new, they’re going to get really bad once you start using them.

When you pick up a quality pair of reins, they’ll feel balanced and somewhat oily. One of the things that I notice is – and this is not always true – but many times, if somebody is building tack or reins, and it’s almost dripping with oil, they’re not using the best quality of leather. They’re putting a lot of oil into it to make it feel good.

What goes into creating your products? To create a quality product you have to start out with quality leather. The most important thing is that we start out using only the finest steer hides. All of our harness leather comes from U.S. steer hides that are tanned in the U.S. by Hermann Oak

Leather Company out of St. Louis, Missouri.

We have a special tannage done just for us at the tannery that has added oils. Our harness leather is a little bit firmer than a lot of leathers, but that adds to the longevity of it. We also have our own proprietary oil mixture that has a blend of neatsfoot oil in it, and each piece goes through an oiling process when it gets to the shop that we feel adds life to the product. That’s the most important part, we build a product that not only looks good, but is very functional, and will stay

that way for a long time.

When we lay a side of leather on our bench, we figure about 40% of that hide is waste, because we are only cutting the very best out of that side of leather – the rest is not going into any of our finished products. You can build a piece of tack that looks good with that other leather, but once you start to use it, it will start to get soft and raggedy – that’s something you won’t find with our products. Also, our hardware is only stainless steel – we don’t use anything that would rust.

We have a 12-step process to build a pair of reins. One of the things that we do is number the reins as we cut them off a side of leather. Then once they’re all finished they’re put back in pairs, side-by-side, just like they came off the hide.

So, you get a balanced pair of reins – there is no difference in weight from one rein in one hand versus the other one in the other hand.

Our premium reins are a heavier grade of rein that have a heavier tail on them – they come from the thickest part of the shoulder. The heavier weight in the tail helps you flip the reins around easier and also makes it a little easier to adjust the length when you are riding.

The two most important things that I feel people look at with our tack is the stitching and the edges. Both play a big part in what sets us apart from a lot of production-line tack. We work really hard on having smaller more refined stitching than what you normally see. It takes longer to make a finer stitch, but it sure does look a lot nicer.

We also hand rub all the edges on every piece of tack we make. First we apply an edge-coat mixture, and then we rub all the edges by hand using a wooden stick that we cut a groove into just for that purpose. It really creates a finished look and feel. We also put a latigo-leather lining in our bridles so that they’re doubled and stitched.

Between just the refined stitching and good smooth edges, I’ve got people who have said from about 40 feet away, “I know who built that headstall.” That’s a pretty big compliment to me!

You’ve mentioned harness leather and latigo, what are the differences between the different leathers?
The basic types of leathers are latigo, harness, and skirting. Each type goes through a different tanning process at the tannery because each is designed for a different purpose.

Latigo leather is designed for things like tie straps. It gets softer with use, and it’s easier to cinch up on a saddle. So, it’s strong, but can remain soft.

Harness leather has more oil impregnated into it, so it’s more resistant. It’s good for areas where you get a lot of sweat, so it works great for headstalls and reins.

Skirting leather is tanned without any oils into it, so you can do your tooling and design work, wet it, and form it to your saddle. Once everything is built, you add your oils into it.

How do you come up with ideas?
We have people that will call with ideas, and we’ll sit down and draw the patterns ourselves – we don’t copy. If somebody comes up with a different idea, we’ll draw the pattern and work with that person until we get what they want. A lot of the ideas come from working cowboys. I’ve picked them up from people who do cowboying for a living and clinicians, just ideas that I see and just try to refine them. That’s where our line has developed from over the years.

We are a small business so we can keep to our quality standards. There are about 6 to 7 people in our company, so I can keep a pretty close tab on the quality. One of the things I tell the girls on the sewing machines is, ‘”If you make a crooked stitch, throw it out now, don’t wait until later.” We want to be proud of everything that goes out of this shop.

Finally got to be a Bum!

Hi folks, here we go again, I’ve just come back from Arizona – was there two weeks. I’m not that involved with Christmas and the holidays, as I don’t have family here where I live, and sometimes these holidays turn into a drag. So I had one thing on my bucket list that I wanted to do and that’s to be a ‘roping bum’. Some people call them ‘jack-pot junkies.’ I always wanted to be one of those. Another one on my list is that I want to be a ‘ski bum’ someday too. So I’m going to take off and go skiing one of these times for a few weeks, too.
Anyways, I went to Arizona, ended up in Cave Creek; lived in a beautiful home, and my horses got the best care they possibly could get at a friend of mine’s place. This friend has a roping arena with steers. In Cave Creek, Arizona, I think that’s a common place thing, there’s roping arenas on every corner, probably every other house. You can go to lots of ‘jack-pot ropings’ there. You have your choice of anywhere between 4-10 ropings within one hour from where I was living. Everywhere I went I saw old friends, met new friends, and I had wonderful experiences. I think I had the best time of anything I have ever done in my whole life. All the stress and business switches are turned off, not just me, but everybody that’s there.

The roping is a culture – it’s not just a sport. You get up in the morning, if you want to practice then you do, then you go jack-potting by eleven o’clock somewhere. You can spend as much or as little as you want. They have brackets so that everybody has a place in the roping; it’s not over their head. Everybody is pretty competitive and the girls can rope just as good as the guys. It was fun. Like I said, you practice in the morning, you jack-pot in the afternoon, then you go to dinner and you talk about it. Everywhere you go, there are horse trailers, people with spurs on in the restaurants and they’re all ropers. The average roping would have 225 – 250 teams in it per category; some of the ropings had as many as 500 teams. I saw easily 200 people that I knew from somewhere before, a lot of them I hadn’t seen in many, many years and I didn’t know what happened to them. A lot of them migrated in to Arizona as ropers, a lot of ‘snow birds’. It’s a good place to be, the climate is awesome, the atmosphere is good, nobody is working, they’re all roping. Nobody spends too much it’s not an expensive thing, but it is the most fun you can have!

So after two weeks steady day and night, I came back home and dug into preparing Turbo. Turbo came with me on my Arizona trip. We had good dirt and arenas to school in while we were there, so I had an opportunity to do a lot of good quality riding with him, had a lot of slow time. Putting him in the hackamore, the right way that was really fun; I had a lot time and a lot of places to ride in the desert. He had a lot of feel, I was pretty happy with what was going on. While Turbo was in Arizona, he got shaved so he doesn’t have any more hair; he looked like a fur ball. We gelded him last year, February or March, so when he was a stallion, he stayed slick as a seal all winter long. I guess it’s a hormonal difference, because as a gelding he’s a teddy bear, he’s got fur on him that you can’t believe. So we clipped it all off, he looked like he lost a 100 pounds, but that’s not the case, he sure looks a lot better and makes it easier to communicate with him. He can’t feel my spurs or the hackamore through all that hair, so now we’re both happier.

We came back, and we are dedicated now to get ready for the National Stock Horse Association Futurity at the end of February in Tulare, California. I’m putting a little more effort into preparation this time, as far as showmanship, etc. My horse is trained, so I don’t have to really spend a lot of time training him, and he feels real sound right now which is a blessing. We’ve spent plenty of money on little things to make him feel better. I took him to a schooling show, to a club cutting, he was awesome.

I forgot how important these schooling shows are, if you’re going to go compete, you can’t just step out into the circle of competition and be competitive, you can’t do that… the guys that are showing a lot during the season, have a huge advantage, they understand their horse, and how their horse is going to respond. They have their thoughts together in a show pen because they’re used to it. Even though I’ve shown thousands of times in my life, I don’t do it all the time right now. Call it rusty or unfamiliar, to get sharp and stay in sharp show condition, you have to practice in show conditions. So I went to my second club cutting in preparation the other day. It’s not what you win at these cuttings at all, it’s what you learn. So you have to learn something each time, and I certainly have. One of the big things that I’ve learned the most about, and I’ll give you folks a clue, is to tell your turn back men and your herd holders, if you’re experienced at all, to keep their lips zipped. Don’t let your turn back men and herd holders tell you what to cut. As soon as they say “cut the red one”, all of your common sense goes out the window as far as what you’re about to cut. You lose all the feeling for the herd, and you lose all the feeling for the good cattle and the bad cattle. They say “cut the red one” and all of a sudden that red one’s eyes light up and he starts breathing fire and they can’t say “don’t cut the red one”, they can’t change their mind too late, so things go sky high, it’s not a good idea. If you’ve cut at all before, you’ll understand what I’m saying. Don’t let them tell you what to cut. It’s your money; you’re supposed to be able to spend it your way. Learn to cut – don’t listen to the other people.
So the next I’m going to Exeter, California. The Valley Cowhorse Association has a regular show and they have a schooling show with two classes for me and Turbo. They have a reining schooling class that I’ll go to, not to school him or show him hard, but to see how he feels and just familiarize my horse with the show process. I need to make him think about running down there and stopping, regardless of whose dog is barking on the rail. Sometimes little distractions can cause a problem with a horse, but if they’ve shown a few times they usually get past that. I want my horse as solid as I can get him for this show, I want to ride better than I have been, I want to be the best I can be today. This is how you get there, going to schooling shows and then go to more schooling shows. They also have fence work schooling, so I’ll probably take him down the fence there.

The following weekend, guess what, there’s another cutting event, they have ranch horse classes which are two handed classes that you get to rein in. That will be in Bakersfield at Sundance Feed Lot, and they have fresh cattle through all the classes. Heck of a deal, they’re really neat cattle, they’re light Mexican cattle, they’re fluffy, responsive and have a lot of feel to them you possibly couldn’t do any better than that.

So I’m off to Bakersfield to school there and I’m a month ahead of schedule, because the big show will not be for a month after I school him at Bakersfield, which is really good. If your horse steps on himself, or has a sore spot, then he has a month to recover.

So that’s what I’m doing. I’m having fun, been roping every day at home, not doing very good right now. I started out really good in Arizona, the first week I was doing really good and placed a few times and made the high team round every time. Then I missed about three steers in a row and I had a little problem. I started getting too much advice from too many people, and that makes you start thinking, and as soon as you start thinking, it starts to fall apart. It spiraled down to the last day where I missed four in a row, and I wasn’t getting any better. Still missing them, but I’m getting better. They say people commit suicide for one of three reasons, and I do believe it. People commit suicide over money, relationships, and then I think its golf possibly, or unless they’re a heeler in the roping world, then it would be heeling instead.

So you folks have a good day and be careful if you’re a heeler or a golfer…. Bye!

Championships, NFR and Homes for Horses

Hello folks, I just returned from the National Finals Rodeo. It’s that time of year where all the year-end champions have been crowned. You know it’s like I could have stayed home for part of it I guess, what’s new….Trevor Brazile is overall champion I guess that’s not new, for the PRCA! Shawn Flarida for the reining futurity, well what’s not new!

We have our cutting horse champions, they’re new! And it was very exciting to watch on television. So the whole thing unraveled as far as very dramatic endings, and the short go’s, and all those different events were extremely exciting! I saw a lot of turn over’s that happened in the National Cutting Horse Association short go or final round. There were some wonderful horses, and there was one young man, who I can’t remember his name, he was fixing to win himself a whole pot of money, and in the last seconds of the last cow, he lost that cow, and lost about $70-80,000. That goes with cutting or show horses.

I watched Luke Branquinho get kind of a bad call in the bull dogging at the National Finals, they said his hand was not on the steer when the steer rolled over, for a world’s championship – for about $40,000 average win. In the slow motion replay his hand was on the steer however, the call that had been made and in the PRCA they do not have instant replay capacity at this point. Poor Luke lost out on that. There was just a ton of other turn overs. There were a lot of people who had championships won or very nearly won, and things slipped through their fingers. Then other people came along that didn’t look like they were contenders, and they sure did scoop them up and took the crown and money with them. Pretty interesting stuff how it all comes tumbling down or how it all happens on that final day. That final day it’s never over until it’s over. It’s amazing how things change in the final two seconds!

So with all that in mind, I went and checked out most of the trade shows, looked like there was a lot of people at the trade shows and more vendors than I’ve ever seen. The people were not carrying bags, they hadn’t bought much, most of the people I talked to were there visiting, and most of the vendors claimed the same thing and that sales were down. This year I’m not even going to take my bits and spurs to the Denver Trade Show, I’m going to stay home. Last year I went and it was not a good show, so there’s no reason to go again this year, because I don’t think times are any better right now.

With all that in mind, I went to the Rancho Visitadores private party of 400-500 people, put on by Dave Monahan who owns the Hilton and he is also a Ranchero and a friend of all of ours. Dave puts on the darnest party I’ve ever heard of, it’s in the Elvis Suite, the whole top floor is like one big suite, it’s probably 10-20,000 feet. It’s bizarre colorful, extravagant, shocking. There are things that if they don’t shock you, you’re not alive, but they are shocking in a good way! Exciting, I can’t tell you! For food, we had everything from frog legs, to buffalo to ostrich to oysters and lobster, you name it, and we had it – everything all night long, every kind of food you could imagine. There were all kinds of chef’s dressed up in strange ways, ice sculptures everywhere. Some people if they wanted a shot of vodka they were given the shot in a glass made of ice. There was plenty of scantily clothed women and some of them of course had like garter belts who were masseuses who had you lay down on a table and walk on your back during the party, I didn’t get my turn but a lot of people did. They had topless shoe shine girls; I thought that was pretty cool! Only in Vegas! They had just a lot of stuff going on. This party was men and women, guys and their wives, whatever. I’ve never been to it, and probably never go to anything like it again! It was amazing at least. Well worth the trip, I can’t quit talking about it.

It was so great to go to and around the finals and see my old friends like Robb Smetts, a famous bull fighter; Joe Beavers, all-around champion cowboy from a few years back, he’s got a new hip replacement and he’ll be back on the scene before too long. Got to see a lot of my old rodeo friends, didn’t see too many horseshow people, but I seen a lot of ropers.

Well I guess I better go practice my roping, one of my buddies from the local area went to a roping out at Southpoint outside of Las Vegas and won $70,000 and that was just for second place, I don’t think he roped too much better than I do, but he sure is a lot luckier, so anyways I’m going to go practice, he got me all fired up now.

With that in mind I might even head off to Scottsdale for Christmas and New Years. I heard they have a lot of roping going on there, sounds like fun.

Cody’s colt is doing wonderful and we’ve got Turbo ready and he’s ready for me to put the pressure on, getting ready for the February shows. I’ve got two baby horses, and they are really really nice, and anybody that wants to buy one should give me a call (805-455-0162) I would like to figure out a way for somebody else to own them and I can ride them. They are both out of proven mares and by Tomcat Chex, by High Brow Cat, and out of the highest money producing mare in the history of the National Rein Cowhorse Association, and she’s by Bueno Chex which means she’s got some stability to her. The two mares that are the babies’ mothers were both money earners and finalists at the Snaffle Bit Futurity and I want to make somebody a really good deal. So give me a call.

Good luck to everybody and Happy Holidays, thanks for listening and watching!

Ask Les: Training Tips and Tricks

Question from Mary in Washington: I saw a few wrecks at the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity in Reno this year, which made me wonder, what are the most important things an amateur should be thinking about when learning to go down the fence?

Les: Going down the fence is not all it seems when you first see it. There’s lot more to it; there are a lot of adjustments that need to be made, and a lot of judgments that need to be made or it can be very dangerous.

As an amateur just starting down the fence, you have to learn to rate. There’s a time limit to the time you approach the cow and the time it takes the cow to get to the wall. How do you not hit the wall when your trainer is telling you not to take your eyes off the wall? You need markers – whether it’s flags, cones, gates – anything that will tell you where you are without having to look up.

The second thing is to realize that control of the cow depends on the departure, when the cow leaves the corner. Are you in a position of control, are you up on the cow so that your horse’s eye is between the hip bone and the tail set of that cow as he leaves the corner, and are you going the same speed as the cow?

An expert will run a horse down the fence 4 to 6 feet from a cow. When you’re learning, I would suggest 10 to 15, even 20 feet out from the cow, that way you are safe. If the cow comes to you, simply pull up. I’ve never crossed a cow because I respect how dangerous that situation can be. My mind is always ready to guard against it.

If you see it might happen, if you can’t wave your horse a slight bit away from the cow to save the day, then pull up! It’s pull up to go down the fence another day. Please respect that it’s very dangerous. If you don’t pull up and bulldoze over that cow, your horse will roll over him, and you might end up at the bottom of the heap. You could get hurt or die. If that ever happens, it’s from lack of control or judgment. If you don’t feel like you don’t have enough control of your horse to pull up under those circumstances, than don’t do it. Just don’t do it. Get another horse.

Get the Dirt on Dirt: An Interview with Jim Kiser of ABI Equine.

www.abiequine.com
What makes you guys such dirt experts?

Jim: A little background on us, we design and build arena equipment. That has progressed into that we take care of the ground for all three of the AQHA World shows, the NCHA at Fort Worth, all the major events for the NRCHA, both events for the NSHA and the reining arena at the World Equestrian Games.

By the time it is done, I’ll see about 270 days of horse show this year. My dad, Bob Kiser, is a third generation farmer, and we still farm about 14 hundred acres in Illinois. That’s where his beginning knowledge of dirt came from. My part in this, I trained horses for about 20 years and won several major events. That’s where my biggest asset came in – I knew what I wanted to ride on. If I could give him a good enough description of what it was, he could make it.

My dad, at this point, won’t do a horse show other than the Reining Futurity and the World Equestrian Games. He does private consultation for facilities, private individuals, basically selecting and selling materials for their arenas.

What is the best base for an arena – for cutting, reining, and cow horses?

Jim: Those are basically three different animals. I go through so much different stuff that I have to use across the country – it all varies a lot. For example, the ground I use at the World’s Greatest Horseman and NRCHA World Championships down in San Angelo, Texas is a sand and clay mix, and it’s probably as high as 65% sand and 35% clay, which is a little bit heavier than what a lot of people would consider to be ideal. The downside about the ground in San Angelo – with it being a little higher clay content than probably what is normal – is that it packs a lot faster during the show when they warm up. Which means it needs more maintenance during their warm up periods.

What I like about having that high of a clay content is that it holds really well for them to circle on. The ground that I select and use in Reno, the material I use as a base there is quite a bit coarser than like what we have in San Angelo. Then I have to mix some sand with it – it makes a good base for the herd work in Reno. I pack that down and put about 4 ½” of what they call a “play fan” or “mason sand” on top of that. That seems to work really well and would be good cutting ground wherever you are. With the base being a little bit heavier and everything, a little bit coarser, it has tendency to hold them better when they get down to the bottom of it.

So at the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity in Reno, do you change the ground for each event, the reining, herd, and fence?

Ropin’ in Reno

Hi folks… welcome to my blog, and I have some interesting news for you!

I just returned from the American Cowboy’s Team Roping Association’s (ACTRA) National Finals in Reno, Nevada, in which I competed and I placed 2nd in one of the rounds, which was my claim to fame. I saw a lot of very interesting people there, there is a spot for everybody to rope. They have a number system that allows everyone to compete on level footing and that’s a plus! ACTRA pulls a lot of people that are not originally horse people, and certainly not big-time ropers, but they practice hard, and they seem to buy some sort of a resemblance to a rope horse, actually a few of them are nice horses.
There are as many as 1250 – 1300 teams that actually rope in one day in one particular roping class. That’s a lot of players, so this is a real important part of our western industry. I totally enjoyed myself, I had a lot of fun, I met a lot really, really interesting people from all types of businesses and walks of life. I saw people that I haven’t seen for many, many years, I wondered where they had been, and they showed up with a rope in their hand, and some of them roped darn good too. I think everybody there had a great time, it was really well-organized, and I never waited in line. When you run that many horses and people through an event and you don’t have any wrecks, I have to compliment Mike Sweeney and the guys, like Clyde Sanders and Jim Waggoner and all the guys from the ACTRA club that put this together.

The thing I noticed a lot of was unbroke horses; some of them go out there in a pattern, that is they’re patterned to go in a position so the rider can rope. But if a steer happens to move irregularly, they’re dead meat because they don’t have broke horses and certainly a good part of them don’t have any mouth on them. I felt like I wanted to help everybody all the time – of course I didn’t and couldn’t. Our Five Easy Pieces program that I teach in Cowhorse U and I also in the single DVD we sell, proved itself to be totally invaluable at this roping finals.

As I unloaded, I know that horses sometimes get a little hopped up on you in altitude, and coming from sea level to 5,000 feet, the horse that I took was amped up more than I’ve ever seen her before! I just started galloping and this mare didn’t even want to gallop right, and I’m thinking I’m probably going to have a little trouble here, don’t know what to do about it, but I need to resolve it somehow. So I thought well gosh Les, you teach people what to do when these sort of things happen, why don’t you do it yourself! So that’s what I did! I stopped and went off by myself where nobody was around and started working this mare on the Five Easy Pieces. I started working her in circles, doing flexions, bending her and walking her to the left until she softened and her neck got soft, bend her around, and then the to the right. I did everything both ways, then I worked her shoulders and then I worked the rib cage, the whole horse, made the hip come up to the eye. As I went along, folks, I found a lot of broken pieces. I found a lot of connections that didn’t exist that this mare needed to have fixed in order to perform. Well I got to thinking; I don’t usually maintain her like I should. I kind of been taking her for granted. There’s certain things that she did when I was roping on her at home everyday that I was trying to fix as they were happening, that is, within the maneuver. Duh… I teach, you don’t fix things in the maneuver, you fix the problem. You go back to the fundamentals and you fix the reason that you have a problem. So the light bulb came on, or as they say in Australia, the penny dropped!
Well, as I went through this mare’s body looking for irregularities or non-connections as far as her body control went I found a lot of leaks and problems! As I searched from the front of the horse to the back, I addressed each one and I worked my way through it, one side of the horse then the other. I worked on it for 45 minutes or an hour, and then I went off and galloped her. Boy, she galloped better than she had in a long, long time. Just the way she moved, she was soft, stayed in the bridle, neck down, Relaxed! So I did the whole process again, still not perfect, but much better, she was operable, I could put her body where I wanted to, when I wanted to, but with a little more effort than I really wanted to use doing it.

Then it comes time to go roping. Well, I backed that mare in a box, and usually in the box she doesn’t do anything bad, but she kind of turns to stone, she’s tense in the box. That mare was mellow as she could be. She was perfect, lots of time she turns her head away from the chute, I don’t like that much, but it’s hard to get her to look back toward the chute. But oh my gosh! That day she was just perfect, she couldn’t have been any better. A rodeo roper would have loved her. She ran the cattle, she was just perfect on the corners and I had people come up to me and say boy that mare sure stops hard, nobody has ever said that before, but of course Les Vogt wasn’t doing what he teaches, I wasn’t practicing what I preach! However, I was so thrilled that the program that we use on our performance horses, mostly on reined cow horses and reiners and all different kinds of horses, was just as valuable for a roper! I just hadn’t really experienced the value of it in a high level competition mode, but I have now. So, for what it’s worth, and it’s worth a lot. Hey folks, this stuff works really good! I’m impressed with my own program, and that’s fun! It sure keeps things from being boring around here! We had nothing but fun at the ACTRA Finals, it was a great contest!

I’m getting ready for my one and only clinic this fall, in Ada, Oklahoma, November 20-22, so I’m kind of on vacation, I’m playing! So this week in Paso Robles, California, there is a cutting horse contest, there I will go to and I will study cattle. I am going to visit some of my friends who are expert cutters, and as they bring in fresh cattle, while they are settling the herd, I’m going to get with these people and learn what I can to pick the good cattle and ear mark the bad cattle in your mind, to make a list of them and then try to remember the list so I can watch those cattle get cut by the cutters, see if I’m right or wrong. In today’s herd work or cutting horse world that determines the outcome in many cases as to what your destiny is going to be as a cutter. So I guess I better learn it. So I’ll spend some time in Paso Robles at the cutting. And this weekend we are having a roping horse sale too so if anybody sees me raise my hand there, please hold it down, because I don’t need to buy any more horses.
After that we go into the month of November, which is the following week, we have the PBR – Professional Bull Riders Finals, that’s in Las Vegas, not sure if I get to go, but sure going to try and do everything of course.

Then there is another cutting in Bakersfield, California, it’s a just a regional club cutting, but I think I will take Turbo to it and see if what I learned at Paso Robles is going to work. They have a ranch horse cutting, I need to season my horse a little more, and get sharper as far as the herd work goes. That’s going to be another good practice session, and that will be on November 7. Then on November 14-15 we have our Vaquero Show, where everybody brings old time bits and chaps, spurs, riatas and all the old guys sit around a little fire and talk about how good it used to be in the old days. It’s nice because you get to see a lot of people, it’s very traditional, it’s in Santa Ynez and it’s very, very interesting.
Then of course November 20-22, I go to Ada, Oklahoma, and then comes the highlight. For Thanksgiving I think I will visit some friends in Fallon, Nevada, then the day after I’m going to see Cheech & Chong in Reno, Nevada! Oh boy! Never have!

Anyway, life is good!

Thanks for reading…..

Had a great time in Sweden!

Hi folks, just a little report about my trip last week to Sweden. I was in Sweden long enough to give six days worth of clinics.

The first clinic was not supposed to be quite as advanced as the second, however, both of them came very close to being advanced. I think the groups overall, had more knowledge and skills than most any of the clinics I give here in the United States. I attribute some of that to the fact that I’ve been there for a number of years in the past, so I’ve worked with them before; however, the real reason is that every person that came to my clinics in Sweden (and by the way both clinics filled a month ahead of time) owned a copy of Cowhorse U and had studied it diligently. Everybody there could do 5 Easy Pieces, understood collected sequence stops and definitely understood the turns and lead changes. They understood everything so it made it really easy for me to pick them all up and advance them in the directions that they wanted to go.

We had nice horses, the students were very, very attentive, and they had their bright lights on. They were there to see and hear what they could and get the most out of it, which they did do a very good job. Both clinics were cowhorse clinics, and would you believe we had decent cattle this time! The cattle are soft compared to our standards, however they were fresh. They all looked liked show steers to me, they were fat and kind of gentle, but they worked ok for us and we were happy with that.

The quality of the riders and horses like I said were excellent overall and definitely above many clinics I give here in the United States. It’s is not uncommon when we go out of the country that we sometimes see better students.

The second clinic I gave was advanced cowhorse clinic and we had some advanced riders we had some really good horses in the bridle that could show here tomorrow and do well. The star of the show to me was my friend Hakan Bergh. Hakan had a really, really nice horse and it’s not always the easiest thing for him to do – but he’s the most intense student and he works really, really hard at it – and his little horse got better and better. So Hakan (who by the way put the clinic on along with my other friend Per Larsson) had a great clinic – both of them did some really, really good things. Everybody in the clinic did good, but I was especially proud of Hakan because he had such a difficult time at the beginning and came out so good at the end.

Very interesting when I go to other countries, it’s always an adventure. My friend Glen (who is the local museum curator and historian for the little town in Sweden that we go to for the clinics) gave me information that just last September there was a gravesite that was uncovered, that contained horses and riders alike. Like a ditch or moat that was filled with mud, and it preserved horses and riders intact! They all got killed in a battle somewhere, like 500 of them, they got dumped in this ditch, and they just recently uncovered them. They don’t know too much about it except that it exists. Even the hardware is still intact. Silver and gold adorned horse and rider armor, and some of the leather, from the year 400 or 500 A.D., like 2000 years old! I get really excited about that stuff, so next year when I go back Glen will take me to go see that.

I learned they have native Swedes as we have Native Americans, which we call Indians, they have a type of Indian in Sweden. I never heard of before. There are not a lot left, but the ones that exist raise reindeer. They herd the reindeer around and put them in a giant round coral to do things like ear mark, vaccinate, and brand these reindeer – well here is the interesting part. They don’t know very much about their Indians, at least they don’t talk like they do, but these Indians rope these reindeer. They head and heal them; they team rope these reindeer with really nice riatas like as in Spanish riatas. This is interesting, they are very skilled with these riatas, they can rope big horns as in reindeer horns and catch them both with one loop, and that’s hard to do, and then heal the reindeer, they understand healing. I always pictured Leif Erickson and the early discovers of Sweden, and I wonder if the Spanish didn’t get there first, you never know. I don’t know where these guys would learn to braid riatas like a Spanish riata and use them. Anyway that’s all interesting stuff.

Other than that, it was cold there, but not unbearable, I got upgraded to first class coming home, loved it, and laid down in my chair just like a bed. Other than that, my thanks to Per and Hakan for putting on a wonderful clinic and taking good care of me which they surely did. I enjoyed it very much, the people at the hotel I stayed knew I liked strawberry smoothies and gave me a one every day for breakfast and dinner, couldn’t do any better than that.
Thanks for reading….

No Finals Doesn’t Mean No Pictures!

We still had some worthy moments!