A note on the go!

Well I’m on a big airplane in Los Angeles and its getting ready take off in about five minutes so I have just enough time to give you a quick rundown of what’s been going on.

The seasons been good. Went to Quincy, California and worked with Chuck Mills there at Feather River College, and those kids are sensational!

And I got to go to Lubbock, Texas too! It’s great. I see why they talk about it in the rearview mirror though. It was wonderful to be there, the horses good and it’s a big ol’ place and it’s made for Texans.

Then on to Mitchell, Nebraska. Dottie was a great hostess and good horses. Really super nice people everywhere this year. Alpine, Wyoming had lots of snow. It’s cold. And they had lots of nice horses. Tanya does a wonderful job there. Is a beautiful place, looks like Jackson Hole, but its not.

Salinas, California…the sweetest lady in the world…Darelyn, puts on the clinic there and we had a lot of ropers and I really enjoyed working with ‘em. We had all kinds, but a few ropers.

And then I went to see my buddy James Dixon who’s on this airplane with me and in about five minutes we’ll be off the ground. We are headed toward the bottom of the world…to Australia… where we’re gonna have a little fun. Now, we’re going down there and Andrew McArthur is the sponsor and he’s taking us to three different clinics in Australia and it’s gonna be HUGE FUN. I think. He’s made a big deal out of it. We don’t know whether to be excited or scared…ya know…we kinda feel like rock stars but we don’t know how to act like ‘em…and so, we’re gonna fake it! Just before this, James put on his clinic on in Moab, Utah and I’m gonna tell you what, it might have been the best clinic I’ve ever, ever, ever went to or felt like I went to …The reason was that red carpet was so deep I damn near couldn’t breathe. But then I found out it wasn’t a carpet, it was SNOW. I though it was the red carpet! It was so soft and fluffy….but it was white. I’m color blind ya know… But ya know it snowed on us one day!

When we were in Hawaii not long back at a clinic there and my gosh I’ll tell ya, I had a huge time there. Ya know it rained six inches on us in one day in an outdoor pen. You couldn’t see any dirt! I’m not sure they had any there. But the footing was good, whatever was underneath that water. My boots filled up with water. We enjoyed workin’ there… and those people from Hawaii they work right through it. Everywhere I’ve been this year they’ve made me feel like a king. I love my job. I love the people. I love helpin ’em. I’ve had a lot of good horses.

Speakin of good horses, I’m ridin’ the best horse I’ve ever rode in my life….Turbo. Turbo’s my Nic-It-In-The-Bud. He’s the three year old and he’s a futurity horse right now and Turbo is very advanced. And God, now this colt does everything! He programs like a robot and I’ve just had a fine time. He’s feeds my ego everyday, anytime I need to feel like I’m doing something right I go up and ride Turbo. And after that I rope, so I go up on Turbo and down on my ropin’…but some days I rope pretty good. I went out and roped just cuz’ I thought I better do it before I come here, jump on this airplane and leave for two weeks to Australia, now I’m wishin’ I hadn’t it was not a good day. But my horses are kinda soft.

I’m gonna come back from Australia here and go to the Rancheros Vistadores Ride and then take off and go up there with Greg Norris at Big Flat Rock, Virginia. And that’s where the hillbillies’ live and that where the what’s her name and the McCoy’s had their big fight for years and the Blue Ridge Smoky Mountains and they live in hollers … and they’re really neat people…little different in some ways…but dog-gone sure nice. And Greg is top of the line; a good horseman, got good horses and he’s very enthusiastic…gonna go help him and a group of friends of his.

This colt I’m ridin’ is very, very unusual. Turbo does everything perfect and Turbo’s wonderful and Turbo’s beautiful…Turbo loves me. It’s a pleasure to ride him and I’ve got a lot of confidence in him…win, lose or draw…I know he’s gonna end up being a fancy horse down the road.He’ll be a horse that people know about. He’s kind of a speed lookin horse. He’s kinda leggy. Pretty limber kinda horse…real pretty. I leave him at the babysitters while I’m gone and that’s Kate Neubert. Kate works for Morgan Cromer. Morgan Cromer’s an up and comin super star of California at this point. She won the the Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Futurity this past year and Kate just won a major event on a five and six year old mare that she’s trained herself. And Kate’s shown some Snaffle Bitters.

Kate is the daughter of Brian Neubert a well known clinician throughout the world and very, very much respected by myself. So anyway, Kate’s my babysitter and she’s kept my horse on cattle. Went over and checked her out this morning and she’s probably ridin that ol’ trail horse as good as he could be ridin.’ She’s a super star in my eyes and I’m really impressed with her. So, I’m anxious to see what kind of results we get. She knows exactly what I want and by God she’s programmed and he’s programmed. Can’t do any better then that, so that’s about all I know for today folks! Thanks! Talk to you when I get back!