Snaffle Bit 08

Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity for 2008 was very exciting. I would say the crowds were average. The attendance was average at best and what that was probably attributed to, we don’t know, probably to some of the economics. The reports from the sales were horses of high, high value – horses that had a lot of credentials as far as their dams had won a lot of money or produced horses, and that were by some of the most visible and dominant stallions – definitely brought a lot of money. However, anything less than that, didn’t have much value. In the yearling sales, for $1,000 or $1,500 you could buy a pretty nice yearling. Actually, for $2,500 you could buy a pretty nice yearling, with really good bloodlines and nice color and good looking – but not really proven bloodlines, as far as the dam goes. Between $5,000 and $10,000 you could sure buy a really pretty, fancy yearling; then of course the top end ones went for whatever people would bid for them, which is more money than sometimes they are worth, as far as real value goes.

So the horse sale in general, the actual sale of anything less then the cream of the crop was on an ultra wholesale level. In other words, “get’em out of my yard I can’t afford to feed them” and I think that’s kind of the way a lot of people feel these days – even though they are nice horses – sad but true!

The Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity again was an interesting one. The quality of horses that showed at Reno was better than I’ve ever seen in the finals. The finals were extreme! Super horsemanship, super performance, super training – the guys rode really good! It was a good show.

During the finals we filmed a for our RFD television show (part of Wide World of Horses) called Equine Insights with Les Vogt, and we had some real fun interviews! One of my favorite and best friends is Jake Gorrell, and I interviewed Jake and he was in the finals. He was my pick to win the futurity, however I think he ended up third or forth. But I watched Jake preparing for the futurity and so I thought it was pretty interesting how he kind of changed some things in the way he prepared. So we interviewed Jake and got his insight as far as how he looked at futurity this year, what his plans were as far as showing goes, and what his strategy was for trying to win. I admire Jake an awful lot and I like to think Jake will win the futurity soon, he hasn’t quite gotten the job done yet, but he can make the finals every year in the top end. He’s just knocking at the door.

We also interviewed Cody Mora. Cody is a young man that is just cracking into the reined cowhorse world, and Cody’s my ropin’ buddy. Cody’s one of the best headers as far as team ropers go, in the nation. He doesn’t go to as many rodeos as the super, super stars go to but Cody can sure get the job done. However, Cody wants to move into the cowhorse world, so I rope everyday with Cody and he tries to make me a roper, and I try to make him a reined cowhorse guy. I told Cody not long back, I said “Cody, ya know, you’re only going to ride reined cowhorses as good as I rope…no better.” So he has been teaching me how to rope more seriously lately and I am not sure it’s really having the effect I want, but he’s sure trying. Cody is very interested in this reined cowhorse business, in fact he’s obsessed with it!

Where Cody works is on Rancho Arroyo Grande… and these people that own the ranch are going to purchase the horses that Cody needs to go on and become a reined cowhorse showman. I’m helping as a consultant. It’s really, really a fun project. We’ve done a business plan and so on. We went over that on the television program as to the right approach to put together a reined cowhorse program as a business and hold your money together and hopefully even make a dollar.

The third interview was fun, we had Skip Brown. Skip Brown is the AAA judge…he’s the judge of judges. He judges more shows per year than any other reined cow horse judge and has for a long time. So Skip knows a lot about it and he is recognized as being very knowledgeable. So we asked Skip a lot of loaded questions and of course one of them, that has been my pet peeve is people buy silver bits and have silver corner plates on their saddles and silver spurs, and so on. And the never seem to clean them as much as I’d like to see them cleaned in the show pen. And my biggest discussion with Skip was, “Is it an insult to a judge for someone to show up with dirty equipment or is it a compliment to a judge?” You’ll have to tune in to find out the answer to that! This is a real interesting one. How much influence on judging or your score does the way you present your “package” have?

I am in the process today, preparing to go to Reno, Nevada again for the ACTRA (American Cowboy Team Roping Association) National Finals Roping, and this is a numbers roping so it’s like handicapped as far as your ability goes, and I’m coming in pretty low on the ladder because I’m not a high number roper. I’m a very low number. I also have a booth there, so I’m loading up everything from tables and chairs to horses and saddles and I’m off for a week there to go have some fun!

I use my Five Easy Pieces a lot on my rope horses. So much of what we do with a rope is not just a pattern. Each steer that we rope, as a heeler or even a header, has variables. He may run straight for a while or even make a curve to one way or the other or he may change speeds. A rope horse has to be able to maneuver and put you, as the roper, in a particular position, so it gives you roping advantage under high speed. Well without the controls you can obtain through the Five Easy Pieces, you are at a disadvantage. I use the Five Easy Pieces daily to create these controls and maintain these controls, and when things go a little bit wrong – which they do go wrong occasionally as far as the high speed controls go – I fall right back into the Five Easy Pieces. I can’t tell you how easy it is. I don’t know how people can get along without the Five Easy Pieces. Shoulders are so critical. Shoulders control, neck control, even ribs cage and hips are important with a rope horse. So if you’re a roper and haven’t gotten exposed to the Five Easy Pieces you need to take a look at it.

Well I didn’t know I was going to be anxious to show, but after going to the Snaffle Bit Futurity this year I brought a two-year-old home. A friend of mine, Travis Young from up in Montana, had a really, really, really nice Nic it in the Bud colt. They’ve been looking awful good in the shows this year and I’m kind of interested in them. I’d ridden this colt three or four times this summer, at different clinics Travis has come to and really liked him a lot, so Travis sent the horse home with me and we’re partnering up on him. And I’m going to ride him, and if he continues to be a lot of fun, which he is at this point, then I’m going to show him! Have some fun and if he shows, great! That’s the only way I’ll go, if it’s easy, fun and looks like I can win! Those are three pretty tough prerequisites, but if this colt stands up for it then I will show him. If he doesn’t, I simply won’t. At this point he’s just a two-year-old of course and does some really cute things and I’m really having fun with him, and that’s the big deal, am I really having fun? And really I am… and I’ll keep riding until I decide I’m not having fun! So stay tuned!