August Update

We had one of the top scores in the reined work!

Well folks happy to be able to visit with you here, sounds like I don’t do it enough for some of you.  It’s been a really fast and busy summer, working very hard to perfect my skills and my horse’s abilities to try to maximize their capacities. I’m really putting my all into it and it’s paying off. We work really hard every day to perfect new techniques, ideas, concepts and add them to our program if they prove to be good.  We are really on the cutting edge, maybe the bleeding edge, with our training program.  Some of the stuff we do doesn’t really work very well, but boy, there is a lot that does and that’s the stuff we keep and I share with you at my clinics.

We went to the Snaffle Bit Futurity at Paso Robles, last week and my little Sparky had a great show – in fact going into the fence work we were in the lead of almost 100 riders!  Unfortunately I drew a cow that didn’t give me a chance to really show him off, so we ended up a half point behind my good friend Jake Gorrell  at the end.  Sparky really worked hard for me and I couldn’t be happier with his performance!  He feels like a real show horse – like he almost gave me more in the show pen that he does at home and you can’t ask for more than that.   So now we’re desperately trying to buy some slots for the Snaffle Bit Futurity! Usually never a problem this time of year, but for some reason this year they are few and far between!

Another big thing that happened lately is that I showed my 5 year old Hackamore horse at the Salinas Rodeo, a 20 horse class, and we WON! That made my 21^st win at the Salinas Rodeo which is more than anybody else.  They do the finals in front of the grandstands during the rodeo right out there on the track.  To win at Salinas is pretty exhilarating. You can feel the electricity from the 20,000 fans. People even follow you out of the stands to congratulate you!  It makes you feel like it’s a really big deal, never gets old. The conditions are tough, the ground is bad, you’re on a track, the cattle are usually wild and don’t manage real well. You’re next to the rodeo arena which is real western in itself, you never know if a broncing bull or roping steer or something might hit the fence on the opposite side of the wall just before you get ready to turn your cow going 30 mph. Everything changes there, you can’t make a game plan, you just have to be reactive and you have to really go for it.  Its real gratifying to beat the kids, so I’m pretty proud of that win, it put me on a roll.

It’s funny, Turbo’s registered name is Nic it and Sparky’s name is Nic it Smartly, so I have two Nic Its, and at school they’re both wonderful. Sparky’s been the most fun horse I’ve trained in my life, he’s so ready to show it makes me real concerned.  It makes feel like I should do something, but anything that I do now would be wrong I’m sure, because he’s ready now!

The other day I went to the hospital too.  About 3 weeks ago something bit me on the elbow, a bug or something, and it was just a small bump, didn’t amount to anything for two and half weeks. Then I bumped it on the fence, not too hard, but it must have activated the poison or whatever was in there, because I got a pretty bad staph infection overnight!  I thought if I put some ice on it, it would go away.  But someone said to me that they had a friend that died from something like it, so I went and they put me in the hospital. They found that it was some sort of infection that was resistant to most medications but they found something that worked on me. They wanted me to stay for a few days, but I told to do what they could, because unless it was life or death, I had to go ride, so we came to an agreement. So they agreed to let me out the next day.

I went to see my friend Luke Jones in Iowa to help him with his horses, he has some good horses.  He has five Snaffle Bit Futurity horses this year that are all good enough to win. I expect Luke to be a star this year.

Now this is a very touchy time of year, more horses are ruined or crippled at this time of year than any other time of the year, so you’re suppose to have them broke ready to go by June, July at the latest.  If you don’t you have to do something very different, like get rid of them. If you have your horses ready, then it’s no big deal if you’re smart enough to let them cruise.

I had some fun at a clinic I gave in New York, very nice people and had nice horses.  Barry and his wife were wonderful hosts. I got to see the Erie Canal on the Hudson River, and a lot of very interesting stuff.

I went to a family reunion in Lake Tahoe, really enjoyed that, there were about 46 people, all related, a lot of younger ones, I didn’t know before, but got to at this reunion.

Also I’ll be looking for help at the Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity.  We have two helpers already but we would like to have one more. There’s no wages, but we need someone to help clean stalls, groom horses, saddle and unsaddle the horses, so if you want to come to the futurity and have something to do, let me know. If we have 3 helpers no one will be stressed. If you are interested, please contact me at 805-343-9205.

That’s about it, watch for me and the results.  Thanks for reading!

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