Hi folks, I hope you enjoy reading my blogs as much as I enjoy doing them. I use them to express myself in a lot of ways just pass my thoughts along to you; I hope you understand that some of the things I say are just my opinions. They’re based pretty much on what I’ve learned or read or what I’ve done.
First thing I want to talk about, a week before last I went to see my friend Dean Tuftin’s ranch in Bend Oregon for a private clinic. This clinic was set up by one of the world’s greatest team ropers, Marty Becker, again another really wonderful friend. At Dean’s I was to help him design and learn about how to apply a really good working horse program as far as creating rope horses that could go either way – that is, they could be great reining and cow horses or great rope horses.
He has quite a breeding program. He has two main sires, one of them is a really good horse that’s by Shining Spark out of Miss Smarty Chex which I believe makes him a full brother to Smart Shiner that Carol Rose – he was real popular. Well I rode the Shining Spark and he’s really great, a nice size, a pretty horse, and he can do a lot of magic things. You wouldn’t particularly pick him for a rope horse unless you had the vision that Dean does. He has Topsail Whiz mares and others of like quality. If you were designing a working Cowhorse or reining horse program you would probably be right on track with what Dean is doing, his horses can go either way. He wants to have access to the knowledge to allow him to create horses that can go either way, not to mention, these horses are simply gorgeous. I mean the prettiest bunch of horses I’ve seen. They’re flawless! Just sweet – the kind of horses a trainer like me would love to have to go show. Dean wants a 5-star deal.
His ranch is second to none that I’ve seen in the United States. I’ve been to a few Thoroughbred farms in Lexington and Kingsland, Kentucky, and I’ve never seen one as nice and certainly not one as well designed. These horses have a wonderful home. Dean is absolutely wonderful, he’s really accomplished, he’s a fine gentleman, and you would never have dreamed that he had access to some of the things he does or is who he is. Two of his accomplishments are that he was Country Music Singer/Songwriter of the year for Canada, (he’s Canadian and has dual citizenship). He had a chance to go on in Nashville, and decided that it was not his direction, but is very successful and in high demand. Dean is in his 40’s and his next goal was to win a World’s Team Roping Championship, so he connected with Speed Williams and rodeo’d for a number of years. He rode hard for at least three years that I know of and he almost won as a World’s Championship Heeler – he was second by a narrow margin. He had set a goal for himself, but he also gave himself a deadline, so when he reached it he quit, but he didn’t quit roping by any means. He’s an A+ player, but he didn’t want to go down the road any more. He has a very nice family, two young daughters and a nice wife.
If I’ve talked a lot about Dean, well you’re right! He’s easy to talk about. He’s the kind of fellow that once you meet him you instantly like him, he’s very unassuming, generous and a very busy guy, of all the instructors I’ve had, Dean actually took more time, he videoed, explained what he wanted me to do and sure tried to shape up my heeling and fine tune me. He’s a great teacher, a wonderful guy, and I can’t tell you how impressed I was with his horses. Anybody looking for young horses to go either way, whether its rein cow horses or as a roper, Dean Tuftin has the nicest bunch of horses and he’s certainly on the right track, you’re going to hear a lot more about him. He’s going to make rope horses that could have been show horses depending on how he wants to get them trained. I had a fine time working with him and his team, everybody there was fun and enjoyable. Maybe the best clinic I’ve ever had, couldn’t have been any better.
Then I came home for a few days, and on Memorial Day, got on the plane again and went back east, to Damascus Pennsylvania. My friend Stuart Ryback and his wife Liz, of Ryback Stables put a Cowhorse clinic on for me there and we had a really nice bunch of people. The people in this clinic were like sponges, they really wanted information and absorbed it, treated me wonderfully. I stayed in an 1860’s Victorian style house that was turned into a bed and breakfast, they kept it as it originally was, and the wood had been well preserved and painted. The porch had lots of rocking chairs and tables, with an overhang, and the home overlooked a pond. That area this time of year was like going to the magical garden, it couldn’t have been any prettier, and it was just gorgeous. We had a great time, worked cattle and hopefully these people got what they needed they certainly got better as I saw them.
One of the subjects that I wanted to talk about today is a little bit touchy, that is the cost of showing horses these days and the motives that I have, and I don’t think I’m that much different than most people. The reason I want to show my horses is because I really enjoy training them, enjoying making a product that I’m really proud of in a way that’s really traditional: a super Cowhorse. By the time a horse is trained, it’s become an extension of me, it’s my passion. I love my encounters with my horses every single day. I sure look forward to it, it makes me smile and I play the radio loud on the way home while I eat my Fritos and drink my Gatorade and tap my toe all the way – riding is the high point of my day.
There’s nothing else that really seems to send me like that these days, so I need to ride these horses, that’s just what makes me tick. Not just to ride but to school, communicate with them and try to create something that’s just as good or better than the next guy, something I’m proud of. So of course you would like to go and exhibit your horse and there’s some regional clubs with entry fees that are fairly low, and Quarter Horse shows and the same thing applies, and both of these types of shows are flourishing. Regional shows around here, like Valley Cow Horses, have shows that start at 7-8am and go until dark and they can’t finish at that. They’re overwhelmed, just overloaded with entries. Why? Entry fees are low, $100 or under.
So my goals are to show my horses, visit a little and to have fun. Just showing the horse that I’ve developed over years, and maybe getting some prestige, recognition and satisfaction as a result. So having done what I’ve done and been where I’ve been, it’s fun to go to the lower level shows. But I also like to play hardball and go to where the competition is for sure.
Well the National Reined Cow Horse Association, as I understand it has a membership that kind of flexes between 2800-3200 (this figure comes from the staff at the Association office). My wife, when we were married in the 70’s, was the secretary. She didn’t get paid, but we didn’t have any other employees either, and she did a newsletter too. It wasn’t as fancy as this one we have now, but it had all the right information and the club seemed to have a lot of money. The entry fees were lower and we had a lot of weekend shows, with $100-$200 entry fees. All the good ole boys, the guru’s, the heroes of the day, they all showed up every week and we had a lot of fun.
At this point, people like myself, who own their own horse, they pay their own entry fees and expenses, there are other clubs that are flourishing. Average person want so to have fun for a reasonable price. There are other groups that seem to keep the prices down, and they are flourishing in terms of participation, and the events pay well because more people participate
Roping the entry fees are much lower and there are probably 150,000 ropers. The team penners and team sorter groups are really flourishing, even in tough economic times. Then we have the mounted shooters – as I understand it the association I read about has only been active for 3 years and they have as many members as the National Reined Cow Horse Association. We just seem to be stuck. People are very interested, I deal with them every week, but the bottom line is that most of them cannot afford to play.
Here is what it costs me this year so far to show – let’s talk about this if you were the average customer and what kind of money you have to invest to play in the major NRCHA or NSHA shows. These are pretty close to the real numbers as I took them off the entry blanks. I paid $2900 all-in for the Hackamore Classic in Paso Robles. I was lucky there. I didn’t have a very good show, but I won my entry fee back. So for the Classic – $2900; The Derby – $3200 (which was cancelled but I had to send in the fee one week after I came home from the Classic); then a week ago I got a letter with an entry blank for the Paso Robles Pre-Futurity (that’s the National Stock Horse Association) for $4336.
The Classic and Derby entry fees were for one horse, and the Pre-Futurity was for two horses. Then you add the Paso Robles Derby which is at the same time as the Pre-Futurity an there’s another $1968. Add the Reno Futurity and for my two snaffle bit horses, it’s $7180 including stalls; then on top of that I have $1522 plus a finals fee for the Reno Hackamore Class. So far that already comes to over $21,000!
Now I don’t get it, we pay in those entry fees, then between $34-47 for a video fee, (however if we buy a video we don’t get any credit and the video could cost $100 or more, so I’m trying to understand where that $47 goes). Then we have an $8 National Rein Cowhorse Association fee, but I’m fine with that.
Then we have the stalls. At Paso Robles (where a high percentage of these shows are) when Igo to a lot of ropings there, and we pay about $30-35 per stall. Then a week later, we go to a major horse show there, we’re supposed to pay $175 for exactly the same stall. Wow! Then at the Reno Futurity we have a tack room fee of $250 too! And here’s one I really don’t understand, this is a pet peeve: some of these shows, like the Paso Robles National Stock Horse Association, they charge $35 to plug in my live-in trailer, or if I just haul in and haul out it costs $15 per day for a haul in fee, you don’t really get anything for this fee, except I guess a parking space.
These entry fees I just spoke about are for only four shows, and I don’t pay any trainer fees since I do my own. Then my own expenses are going to be anywhere’s from $6-7,000 by the time I do all of this, so I’m going to be close to $30,000 in to it before I’m done. The motive I have for showing my horses is not for the money, but with the money that’s’ involved to do it’s stressful! You pay all that money in fees, and if you miss a lead, or you draw bad down the fence, any micro mistake as tough as these classes are, then you’re done, you might as well load up and go home. Your $3,000 entry fee is adios baby, it’s gone.
I can only imagine how someone feels who’s paying a trainer and trainer fees too! And then if you do win something you have to split it with the trainer as well. The average person, even if they’re pretty well to do, is going to start wondering if it’s really worth seeing that kind of money disappear out of their bank account!
With that kind of stress, the average guy just can’t afford to play. I can’t really afford it but I’m going to do it just because I have some good horses and I want to. But I’m always stressed about the whole situation because there’s so much at stake. I’m rolling some big dice and that’s not why I started doing this when I was a kid. I started doing it because I love the sport. We’ve clipped the wings of a lot of people who love the sport, because they just can’t afford to play. If we had lowered entry fees, the prestige would still be the same, the champions would still get saddles, buckles, etc., but we would not pay the high, high entry fees. I guess I’m out of line and everybody else is right.
Well anyways, thanks for listening! I thought I would put in my two cents, just remember this is just all my opinion but it’s based on a life time.
Appreciate your honesty about the cost of showing…..Entry fees/stall fees/hotel bills, etc., can be astronomical!!
Hi Les,
I agree with you and your opinion. We owned a very lovely filly (playgun granddaughter) and had her in training here in Canada with one of the top two trainers here. He is a wonderful person, a great horseman and his training costs are what I consider very reasonable. Now this filly turned out to be special but we are not made of money. I would very much have liked at the end of the day to come home with a finished cow horse that I could compete on at the non-pro level. But to do that you need to spend the money on shows, entries, etc. As my husband and I are new to the sport of reined cowhorse (we are team ropers mainly), we underestimated the cost to get to the competition stage. In the end we sold the filly to someone who will see her finished and she will compete, but not for us and not with me on her back. Perhaps the cost of competition in Canada is not the same as the sums you mentioned but it still gets to be very pricey! I’m saving my dollars for my next prospect so that this time I can see it through to the end.
I love Dean Tuftin’s idea of breeding and training for versatility. Any kind of program that incorporates the cow horse philosophy into it cannot go wrong in my opinion.
You’re right on Les. If you’re not a wealthy person you just can’t do it any more and it was tuff enough before. I retired and started riding a few colts to get on a lot of horses to learn and and make enough money to pay for showing. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun and have better horses because of it. But there is no place for the average guy there anymore.
An old timer told me they are just trading dollars because it’s the same people over and over again. But I guess you could say the same about any sport.
Hey Les! I’m a young trainer, haven’t hung my shingle out yet but I’ll get there someday. I dream of winning the Snaffle bit and the Mag 7 and the World’s greatest Horseman. But your right, it’s so expensive. Becoming a competetive open rider is hard enough but that really doesn’t worry me. What intimidates me is the price. I can try to get clients with a lot of money but that would leave me feeling guilty. And before you can get those kind of clients, who are more than willing to pay the prices, you have to show you can win big. As a trainer you know that you can be the best showman and trainer the world’s ever seen but without the right horse power you won’t win against the big dogs like you or Bobby Avila or Teddy Robinson. Guess I should marry rich hunh?
AWESOME, Way to go Les, it’s nice to hear that we aren’t the only one’s that see the high cost of showing even if some are lucky enough to do most if not all the training themselves, I know that there would be more people wanting to show if the cost wasn’t over the top, and YES one tiny mistakes takes you out of the money these days, I think it’s nice that there are several smaller shows with low entry fee’s so that we can all go out and enjoy showing our horses get out there have fun and not stress so much about the high cost of showing when we can spend 35 a class at smaller shows no stall fee’s be home in the same day. with a little money in our pockets if we’re lucky, who knows maybe we will all win the lotto then we could still bitch about the high cost of showing in the big times but not worry so much about what we are losing… Best of luck at all the shows you have entered this far..