Arlington Clinic, First Team Roping Buckle, and a Brand New Colt

Well hello folks. It’s nice to be talking to you again; it’s actually nice to be home even though it’s only for about three whole days! I’ll fill you in as to what I‘ve been doing and who I’ve been doing it with. I’ve had some really fun times lately.

I went to Arlington, Washington, and did a three day clinic for Gretchen Salstrom at Black Raven Stables. We had a lot of cows, cow horses, cowboys and cowgirls. I had a wonderful time working with people that were very hungry for knowledge and everybody got a lot out of it. I was very impressed to have some of my old students back again, some that had been to my clinic as many as six times! I had one person stop by and he strangely enough had been to fifteen clinics! He was quite an individual. He brought two horses to one of the Washington clinics about ten years ago. Both horses, I told him, were basically a waste of time to make show horses out of.  He, being as hard-headed as he is, decided he would show me just to spite me and make these horses into show horses. After he showed up to about a dozen clinics, I began to see where he was coming from, because lo and behold, he amazed me. My own methods, my own theories, my own program actually amazed me also, that it really did work on these horses I considered substandard. He’d gotten these horses really soft and really happy. Their whole demeanor changed and believe me they did perform well. He came by to visit and say hi. I was happy to see him too.

I found a mechanical cow in Arlington that they call “Hot Heels”. When a rider drags it, it kind of moves along and makes motion as if it were a steer that had been roped. So I got to practice my team roping heeling while I was there with my buddy, Lyle Hendrickson (his wife Janet was in the clinic). Lyle and I roped that “Hot Heels” thing every lunch hour and every day after work. One of the people watching was a nice lady who had been around ropers a bit. She watched me having my difficulties, miss the machine a number of times, and finally get better. She came up to me and said, “You know Mr.Vogt, there is no dignity in learning to rope is there?” I thought I would steal that statement because it was a great one and there certainly is not any dignity in learning to rope.

After Arlington, I came home and prepared for the Ranchero Visitadores annual ride. That is one of the highlights of my life—I go every year and this is my 35th year to attend. It’s an all male type fraternity; it’s a horseback fraternity is about what it amounts to. I see about 1500 to 2000 men turn into little boys for a whole week. We have dignitaries (President Reagan used to go), Supreme Court Justices, and the Governor of Idaho, Butch Otter, is in my camp. However, when you’re on that ride, everybody’s on the same level. If you’re a good guy, a good person, they like you, and if your not, well I think they kind of run you out of there. We have a huge time. We shoot traps, throw horse shoes, and eat more good food than any one person should ever have the opportunity to have access to. We have a lot of different competitions from bocce ball to team roping to different rodeo events, and even a cannon shoot.  We have lots of really good musicians playing wonderful music. There is a lot of time to sit around the campfires and talk about the wonderful rides we’ve had in the past. It’s actually very inspiring to get around the people that are at the Rancheros.

But you know, there is one thing that happened this year was the highlight of my trip. I actually won the draw pot team roping, that’s where you draw your partner. I roped with a man by the name of Dudley Little. There were about 220 some teams in that draw pot roping and Dudley Little and I beat them all. We got brand new belt buckles and a lot of prestige. There were world champions roping there and lots of funny things happened there and it all worked out in my favor on that particular day. I was pretty proud of that. That’s a picture of my new buckle.

You know what they say, don’t you? They say that the first buckle’s easy in whatever you do and that second buckle costs you $50,000 to get. I find that’s pretty true in horse shows, but I hope it’s not true in team roping!

I’m having a lot of fun looking at my baby colt. I have a new stud horse colt by the wonderful Tomcat Chex horse that is owned by Jalinda Covey. Anybody interested in breeding Tomcat Chex needs to give me a call if they don’t know Jalinda. This colt has four socks and a big pretty blaze. I think he’s pretty unusual. I know everybody that has a baby colt says the same thing, but this colt seems to be a little bit different and better than a lot of them. Of course, I’m a little prejudice! We’re waiting for my second brood mare to foal. She’s actually owned by Kay Williams. Her name is Bella or Bella Rista. She’s in foal to Tomcat Chex too. She was due a couple days ago so we’ll be getting some pictures out of both of these babies for you

I’ve been home for three days now so I guess it’s time to leave. I’m preparing to go to Sweden. I’m going by myself this year. I go to Gothenburg and we go about 3 or 4 hours from there, somewhere in Sweden, to give Clinics. I am really looking forward to being able to explore underneath an old church that we had the pleasure to explore last year. It was built in 1031. There’s a pair of iron doors in the lobby of the church that look like basement cellar doors. I ask what they were, and I was told by our guide, the local historian and curator of the local museum at the time. He said that it was the basement or cellar stables for the Knights. The Knights and Vikings fought for 200-300 years in that area. The Knights hid their horses under churches in stables. According to my guide, this cellar has never been explored and there are a lot of old horse bits and spurs. Just to prove it he showed me one that he had taken out of there sometime earlier. I didn’t have time to go underneath there with him last year because I had to catch a plane. This year I’m taking my lace up boots and my Boy Scout suit and I plan on being the biggest, oldest explorer underneath this church, or at least the most excited one for sure. I want to dig in there and see what the old horse bits and spurs looked like. Hopefully I get some great pictures to bring back for you

Well folks that’s about it. I’m selling my race cars: I have a drag race car and a circle race dirt car,  so anybody that’s interested should give me a jingle  I’m going to be a team roper instead!

Adios for now!