Happy New Year!

Why hello folks. Here we go with a new blog for the year 2009. I’ll finish up with some of the things we did last year in 2008 that were interesting. The first one was; I gave a clinic in Bismarck, North Dakota in November. Now who in the world wants to go to Bismarck in November? But you that clinic filled up. People wore their snow suits – at least everybody did except me – I should’ve had my long johns on. They had good horses and good people and my good friend Monte Beard put it on. We had some ropers, we had some reiners, we had some cowhorse people and we had some kids. And we worked with all of them in the indoor area there, while the wind blew outside and it snowed a little. But you know, it didn’t bother us at all. Its interesting how people would come out of the woodwork in a late fall month to take a clinic. I was extremely flattered.

The next thing I’ll tell you that I’ve been doing, that a lot of you don’t know that I do this time of year, is expert witness jobs. That means where an attorney somewhere, actually anywhere, has a horse case – where a movie star falls off and breaks her finger nail, or sometimes her neck. And they always want to blame somebody, and of course the attorneys don’t know a thing about horses. They don’t speak horse, they don’t know horse terminologies and they certainly don’t know what good and poor horse safety practices are. They have no idea! So they have to call on an expert, and that’s where I come in. I very much enjoy, being an expert for the attorneys. I find a case that I believe in, I get to design theory as far as why or why not things should or shouldn’t have happened. I come up with conclusions that are what attorney wants to hear. And like I said if I believe in the case, I’ll take it. And in the end most case are settled out of court, but sometimes we do get to go to court and I enjoy that. It’s a fun time for me to get on the witness stand and talk. And you get a lot of attention from those people sittin’ and starin’ at you from the jury box. So I’ve had some fun doing some expert witness work, here for the past few months. The best part of the whole thing is God knows that we’ve spent our share of money on attorneys in our lives, and this time the attorney pay me. So that’s very sweet.

Next thing I will talk about was the national finals rodeo. The NFR. I’d personally come to grips with the fact that I was not going to go to Las Vegas to the NFR this year. Then my buddy Cody Mora calls up and said “Hey, we got a cheap airplane flight, come on let’s go! Its two days out of your life! Come on let’s go!” So I went, I had a nice time and saw lots of people – saw a few old friends. What I really saw was how many, many thousands and thousands of people were there, and they all looked like cowboys and cowgirls that I didn’t know. Usually I go places…like horse shows or roping, or something like that, and it seems like I know a high percentage of them. But at the National Finals Rodeo it was like I was lonesome in a crowd, believe it or not. Not that I care, it was kind of fun being the fly on the wall. The people watching were great, and the rodeo was sensational. My favorites at the rodeo didn’t win as much as I wanted them to, but I really, really enjoyed the whole process.

The year 2008 was a really good year. As we grow older and hopefully develop more wisdom, we also seem to have more understanding of the reasons that we should be grateful for what we have and for being here. I think part of that is because so many of my friends anyway, have gone from motorcycle accidents, horse accidents or they just died. They just went away. The older you get – I think everyone will say, it’s the same everywhere – the more people you know that have passed on. Well, we’re still here, healthy and kickin’. I think I actually feel healthier right now, physically and mentally, than I have since I was probably 35 or 40 years old. But that’s probably for all the right reasons. I played pretty hard for quite a few years and I don’t regret it, I just wish I could remember a little more of it. But anyway, the play days are over and I am thankful to be here; thankful to have gained the wisdom from my past.

I am also very thankful for being as fortunate as I am to have had a job that is also my passion. I very much enjoy the teaching, sharing my knowledge, my wisdom that I’ve learned, by mistakes more than education! Also I really enjoy my bit and spur business. I totally love silver and polishing silver, touching it, looking at it, designing it, and making bits and spurs that are better then other people’s because I’ve learned to understand how a bit works, and what it takes to make a bit better then the next bit. Not that a bit is a bit. It’s not throwing dart at a map and saying I hope it hits something important. It’s designing a bit for special purposes and that is really fun – to come up with functional products!

Our website, thanks to Linda Boggs, has turned into a first class shopping center! By first class shopping center I mean that they are all products I would use. I think “picky” is an understatement for me when it comes to tack. The reason is I guess, that I’ve had access to just about whatever I wanted as far as horse tools go, and what I didn’t have, if I could dream of it, I drew it on a piece of paper and made it! So I’ve really learned what works – what’s good and what’s bad. From leather strap goods, to hardware as in bits, spurs and so on. Everything that’s on our website is what I call “niche-y” that means it has something about it that you can’t just walk into a tack store and buy. In fact, I don’t think there is hardly anything on that website that you just walk into your farm supply or cowboy supply store and pick up off the wall. Everything there has a little twist or trick, a niche or special option that makes it work the way I want it to work. So this is what we’ve created and this is what we are going to stick by, so it’s real, real interesting and really fun to be able to bring folks things that I know will do the job for them! Or for you folks to be able to buy something without going through ten trial pieces that end up in the back wall of your tack room in a dark corner somewhere because they didn’t work out. So you can buy things from our website that I know will work because I’ve tried them and used them.

Speaking of new bits and spurs, its Denver Trade Show time…Denver Trade Show is the largest, western, English wholesale trade show in the world. I’ve designed about 70 new bits and spurs for it! It’s really, really fun to design new pieces, take them to Denver and display them. And hopefully somebody goes “Ooooh, aaahhh, that’s wonderful! Gotta have it!” and buys it. The economics this year I know are tough in a lot of places, but it hasn’t really affected our bits and spurs as much as it has affected some other people in the businesses according to what I hear.

The Denver Trade Show is pretty interesting. That building it’s in might cover five or ten acres…probably closer to ten acres, and parts of it are four stories high! Every booth is set up as a ten foot square, however, some companies have more than one booth, or some have permanent show rooms, or permanent exhibit rooms upstairs. So it’s beyond description in as far as how huge, how many displays, how many new things we see there.

Like some of the new stuff we saw here last year for instance I would have bet dollars to doughnuts that nobody’d ever buy one thing, and that was the browband headstalls with six or eight or ten inches of Angora hair in the horses eyes and a breast collar to match with Angora hair hangin’ off of it. I saw that and I thought, nobody’s ever gonna buy those! Or ostrich leg boots, and saddles with ostrich seats to match the leg boots! I thought “This is fun to look at but nobodies gonna buy it!” Low and behold, I saw that stuff all over the country! They sold it, a lot of it! But that was the same as the “Bling Stones.” I thought nobody would ever buy them and gosh, look what’s happened, everybody’s got a stone set in something these days! But the Denver Trade Show is so big, that if you were to walk without stopping for two days I don’t think you could possibly see all the different booths. It like a maze! And it’s quite a good place for people watching, and to make connections. We have people from all over the world show up to buy and some to sell. It’s bizarre, exciting, and this year I think it gonna be cold! But we’ll see!

Anyway, we’re off to Denver very soon and then come back and we’re gonna do another television shoot. Cody and I are already out there and my colt that was a two year old last year, just turned three. But I’ll tell you a little bit more about him in just a second.

The first part of February I’m lookin’ forward to going to Feather River College in Quincy California for a two day clinic with Chuck Mills and his wonderful group of students. These kids have been just ace players. Chuck does such a wonderful job of teaching these kids and they use Cowhorse U. I never dreamed that Les Vogt would have college educational books out! You know when I was going to college I think I could have made a lot of bets about that, and people would have certainly bet that I never would’ve, but I do. And Cal Poly and San Louis Obispo and Feather River College in Quincy both have adapted Cowhorse U as their textbooks in their equine programs! Anyway, so Chuck does a great job and those kids are really, really good. And I’m gonna have the fun of going up and working with them and that’s in the first part for February and then I think I’ll slip off on the way home and go ski for a day or two. That should be fun!

Then I go right into the next clinic which will be Temecula, and my new friend Tracy Sullivan is putting a clinic on there and we’re all excited about it. Then we actually do the next one the next week in Lovett, Texas. I’m kinda spreading myself around aren’t I? And get this one! I get to go to Hawaii for the last weekend in February! I’ll be gone for five or six days. I have two clinics there on the Big Island. However, my excitement there in Hawaii is this – I’m a first time grandfather! My son, Brooks and wife Jeannie have a new son and his name is Tyler! So I get to go meet Tyler! Tyler is about 3 months old right now and I’m very excited. I’ve always wanted to be a grandpa, and now that that’s accomplished I’ve got to figure out how to get Brooks and Jeannie to move back to the “main land” so I can have some fun with this youngster!

Well then let’s see here, the next thing I’ll talk about is probably the most exciting thing or two. I’m leading really, really a fun life! This time of year is almost like a fantasy life to me because you see there’s not much going on in the form of clinics until, like the first of February. So that leaves me the months of November, December and January, where there’s not a lot of pressure. So I can work in my office until noon, then I go to the Rancho El Rio Grande and ride with my friend Cody Mora, who I help everyday with his cowhorse aspirations. and Cody helps me every day, as some of folks know, with my roping.

Well my roping is really getting better and better! One of my rope horses is Milly Mag, and Milly is a snaffle bitter I showed a few years back and she’s bridled pretty good now. She’s seven or so. I could go ahead and show her down the fence as a cowhorse. Well she’s turned into a heel horse deluxe…so I go rope on Milly. But the first thing we do is Cody and I, everyday and I get there about 1:30, and we saddle up our colts. Our colts: I still have the two year old stallion that came from Montana that I picked up last year at the Snaffle Bit Futurity. The colt is a product of Travis Young. Travis rode that horse most of the year as a two year old - up until October – and he did a wonderful job! However, I liked him so well, I did what I said I’d never do! I thought I was through with the Snaffle Bit and now I’m back in the game!

This colt could bring the enthusiasm out of a statue! I’m telling ya, this colt…I hate telling horse stories because I hate listening to them but this ones different…how about that!. Anyway this colt, I would say 80% of his days when I ride him, are literally perfect training days! I’ve learned so much riding this colt, because I can plan what I want to use for a focus point each and everyday with this horse. Now then, I plan on how I am gonna warm him up first. I ride him outside more than I have some other horses in the past because it’s beautiful and hilly foot hill pastures up there and I can take him out and he’s the kind of horse that’s easy to ride and he goes nice and slow. He’s a no-hassle horse. So I enjoy riding him out, but I always make my plans as to what my focus points are gonna be, with the horse each and every day. I don’t try and shotgun it at all, and change subjects with him a lot. I don’t just get on and ride. If this colt produces I’ll be so tickled. He is the most uncomplicated horse I’ve ever ridden, at this point.