horseback magazine july 08

The Southwest’s Equine Sport & Lifestyle Magazine

Vol. 15, No. 7July 2008Priceless

Clint Black Rides Into Sam Houston Race Park August 9th

With an Idea to Save at the Pump

Get a Horse!

Monty Roberts Calls for Racing to Curtail the Whip

I Made Myself Learn Dressage, Cathy Strobel

Carpenter’s Clamps are Handy Flag Holders, Jim Hubbard

Wes White in Face Off with Jimmy the Mustang

Shooting Burros at Big Bend Ranch

Racing Interests Get Smart in Upcoming Legislative Fight

2 TEXAS HORSE TALK - July 2008 www.texashorsetalk.com

www.texashorsetalk.com July 2008 - TEXAS HORSE TALK 3

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8 HORSE BITES

10 PARELLI - Pat Parelli and Steven Long

12 THE HEALTHY HORSE - Dr. Angela Chenault

14 ON THE ENGLISH FRONT - Cathy Stroebel

16 TACK TALK - Lew Pewterbaugh

18 TALKIN’ CUTTIN’ - Gala Nettles

20 THE TEACHER - Wes White

22 CLINT BLACK - Steven Long

24 MONTY ROBERTS - Monty Roberts

26 LETTERS FROM OUR READERS

30 HORSE LAUGHS - Elizabeth Kopplow

32 Q&A ~ HORSE SENSE - Jessica Jahiel

34 HAPPY TRAILS - Destinations and Vacations

38 OF HORSES AND KINGS - Jay Remboldt

42 COWBOY CORNER - Jim Hubbard

PUBLISHERVicki Long

EDITORSteven Long

ART DIRECTORPamela Sease

NATIONAL NEWS EDITORCarrie Gobernatz

RACING EDITORJay Remboldt

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSDr. Angela Chenault Jim HubbardDr. Jessica JahielElizabeth KopplowSteven LongVicki Long Gala NettlesPat ParelliLew PewterbaughJay RemboldtCathy StrobelWes WhiteMonique Littlejohn

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Volume 15, No 7. Texas Horse Talk Magazine is published by El Dorado Funding, P.O. Box 681397, Houston, TX 77268-1397, (281) 447-0772. The entire contents of the magazine are copyrighted July 2008 by Texas Horse Talk Magazine. All rights reserved. Material in this publica-tion may not be reproduced in any form without the expressed written consent of the publisher. Texas Horse Talk Magazine assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs and other material unless accompanied by a stamped, self addressed envelope. Texas Horse Talk Magazine is not responsible for any claims made by advertisers. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or management. Subscription rate is $25.00 for one year.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Texas Horse Talk Magazine, P.O. Box 681397, Houston, TX 77268-1397. Fax: (281) 893-1029

Email: [email protected] Phone: (281) 447-0772

July 2008FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

Green, Green, Texasby Steven Long

The eyes don’t lie, at least most of the Time. And what we are seeing is a lot of green in Texas. Let’s start with the lush grasses that fill the state’s pastures. We saw it, and the eyes didn’t lie.

You see, we made this little trip down I-10 from Houston to San Antonio. The corridor looks good most of the way and it wasn’t until we got to the Alamo City and up the interstate into the Hill Country that we saw a parched landscape. Parched it was. From Bourne to Marble Falls the evidence of drought was there is spades. As we drove north to Lampasas, then over to Koppras Cove and Temple, it got a little better, but only a little.

We were traveling from a Hill Country clinic on our annual trek to Cowtown to attend the World Paint Horse Show in the Will Rogers complex. It wasn’t until we got north of Hillsborough that Texas turned green again. There the fields were verdant all the way into Fort Worth. On the trip home, it was primavera like; lush shades of green bathed both sides of I-45.

Which raises the question of why with all this abundance of green grass, are hay prices still so high? Mind you, we aren’t complaining. In fact we are delighted for our friends the hay farmers who are getting a good price for their product for the first time in memory.

We just can’t figure it out. Mind you, we aren’t sophisticated in the ways of hay. In fact, it’s a safe bet we’ll get a call or note from some agronomist at Texas A&M happy to explain things to us. We’re all ears.

Texas is awash in another kind of green as well. We are blessed in that our state still enjoys a robust economy. On that same trip we saw building cranes in virtually every city we visited – lots of them in fact. Houston, San Antonio, the Fort Hood area, Waco, Fort Worth, Dallas – all appeared to be enjoying a building boom unfettered by the money woes of the rest of the nation.

And another thing here – despite the hardship of paying $4 at the pump, Texans are still traveling. Moreover, there was no evidence what-soever of fewer horse trailers on the road. A trailer dealer client tells us his business is up from last year on high end trailers.

We ran into an advertiser of ours at the Paint Horse Show – an upscale tack and fashion retailer from Houston. He delighted in telling us business is booming in the nation’s energy capital saying that while high gas prices may be hurting the rest of the nation, it sure is helping Texas.

Take a trip and see for yourself.


Horse Bites - Con’t. on pg. 21

H H H H H

Thoroughbred IndusTry Lays groundwork for

LegIsLaTIve fIghT

The Texas racing industry is quietly lay-ing groundwork for what could be a success-ful fight to introduce casino type gambling at the state’s tracks. Officials from the Texas Thoroughbred Association are making the rounds to gin up support for a new coalition of breed associations and other equine inter-ests to put their full support behind a new assault on what up until now has been unas-sailable opposition to slots near the turf.

David Hooper, executive director of the Thoroughbred group will speak to the pres-tigious Greater Houston Horse Council July 21, www.GHHC.com to outline the new group’s strategy aimed at finally getting a workable law passed.

Racing has seen purse money and horses leaving the state for tracks in Louisiana, Ar-kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Par-ticularly hard hit has been the quarter horse industry which as lost 60 show stallions to Kentucky during the last year as well as quar-ter racers.

The TTA has hired lobbyist Marta Grey-tok, former head of the Texas Public Utilities Commission, to spearhead the effort in the next session of the Texas Legislature. She also represents Houston Texans owner Bob Mc-Nair, owner of racing’s Stonerside Stables.

H H H H H

LIvIng Legend honored aT us oLympIc haLL of fame;

pLumb fIrsT equesTrIan To be InducTed

by Joanie morris, u.s. equestrian federation

Mike Plumb defined himself with eight Olympic Games. He defined the sport of Eventing for four decades, and in late June he was defined as a legend with induction in to the US Olympic Hall of Fame across all sports.

The first Equestrian in history was in-

ducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame June 19, at the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theatre in downtown Chicago. With him on stage were fellow sporting icons: John Mor-gan, Bruce Baumgarder, Joan Benoit Samu-elson, Brian Boitano, Oscar De La Hoya, Karch Kiraly, David Robinson, Amy van Dyken, Lones Wigger, Carol Heiss Jenkins, Carlo Fassi, the 1996 Women’s Gymnastic Team and Frank Marshall.

Plumb’s unprecedented career spanned more than four decades and his impact on the sport continues to be profound. Plumb marched in eight Opening Ceremonies: beginning in 1960 and missing only one team (1988 due to an injury) through 1992. Known for his diligent preparation, atten-tion to detail and the ability to deliver a clutch performance when it mattered most − Plumb contributed to five team Olympic medals. He also won Individual Silver in 1976 in Montréal. He won two Team (and one Individual) Gold medals during the 1960 at the Pan American Games and never came home without a medal in his three trips to World Championships.

Since he has retired from top-level com-petition he teaches, rides and trains at his Southern Pines, NC farm.

H H H H H

shooTIng on hoLd IndefInITeLy aT bIg

bend ranch

by steven Long

The shooting of wild burros at Texas’ larg-est state park is on hold, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife Parks Director Walt Dab-ney. The killings, by senior officials of the agency last year sparked protests from animal rights groups and horse lovers.

TPWD staged the last of a series of poorly publicized meetings in early June in Houston to let the public vent on the issue. There were 17 in attendance at a city hall annex in Bel-laire and those who spoke expressed frustra-tion and anger at the agency’s intransigence in insisting the animals be removed even by lethal means if necessary.

A compromise was suggested from the floor that TPWD issue a moratorium on shooting the feral burros on the vast park that stretches 70 miles across in some places.

“We are not going to commit to a specific time line on a burro moratorium,” Dabney told Texas Horse Talk in an email. “We have in essence imposed a moratorium to see if there is an effective means available other than lethal removal. This suspension has been in place since November,” he said.

The state agency has invited animal rescue organizations to come into the park and take the burros out. One group is already there working.

Texas Horse Talk broke news of the meet-ing and Dabney’s response on its Breaking News page at Texas Horse Talk Online www.texashorsetalk.com. The story was picked up worldwide and ran on web sites as far away as New Zealand.

“We began discussions with Donkey Res-cue in December and they began trapping efforts in April. Those efforts are on going.” Dabney told the magazine he had other meetings with groups wanting to discuss a burro roundup. “We are going to give these efforts a chance to show whether they are vi-able or not,” he said.

Neither Dabney, nor any other high TPWD official attended the Houston meet-ing to answer questions from an audience that was impassioned and often angry with the shooting of burros last year at the state’s largest park. Instead, the director’s special as-sistant, Kevin Good, fielded questions after showing a 20-year-old film produced by the U.S. Navy on destruction of habitat by wild donkeys at a small site it owned.

Good told the crowd that “Texas Parks and Wildlife doesn’t have the financial re-sources to remove the burros short of kill-ing them.” He said that it would cost $750 per animal to remove each of the 200 – 400 burros that live there. What’s more, Good said that even if all the burros were removed, nothing would prevent others from swim-


by pat parelli with steven Long

BREAKING THE BOND THAT BINDS

www.parelli.com

TEXAS HORSE TALK: Probably most of us have encountered and been on the back of a horse that doesn’t want to leave his friend. This separation anxiety can be so strong it is dangerous at times as we attempt to ride away from a pair bonding situation and leave another horse in the paddock or barn. How do we stop this annoying and poten-tially lethal behavior? I’ve encountered this sometimes with the horses we ride, Bruja and Façade. When I get on Façade, a young gelding, to ride into the pasture he is turning and calling Bruja, the mare, constantly as we ride away.

PAT PARELLI: Pair bonding is one of the most frustrating, slash fascinating, subjects with horses. Horses have three major in-stincts, be perceptive to danger, flight from fear, and to be gregarious. The word gregari-ous means to bond to the herd or to the indi-vidual. It takes two horses to make a herd in most horse’s minds. This is fascinating to me because the horses that have a strong propen-sity to pair bond are horses that really readily will pair bond with humans as well.

THT: So this is potentially a good thing?

PARELLI: You’ve heard about two horses pair bonding with a goat or a barn cat?

THT: Not only have heard it, but have seen it as well.

PARELLI: The adage, “got your goat” comes from the unscrupulous race horse trainer that steals the barn goat the night before the race and the horse gets upset because of the pair bonding.

THT: Never heard that one but it is a good one.

PARELLI: My advice is two fold. If you have a horse that has a propensity to pair bond or that are pair bonded, play the seven games. Your objective is to create this same type of feeling with you.

THT: It’s an interrelationship thing then be-tween you and the horse. You are channeling his horseanality.

PARELLI: What I would do if I had a pair of horses that bonded like this, the first time I went to do something, I would take both horses and get their minds and emotions busy with me at the same time and with an-other person.

THT: Busy is the key word.

PARELLI: Play the seven games, win the seven games. Get them totally focused on you so that at the moment you separate them they think about focusing on you rather than focusing on each other.


Dr. Angela Chenault owns La Paloma Equine Clinic in Waller and services the surrounding areas.

Raising your own horse from a newborn in-stead of purchasing one further on in life can be fun-filled and frustrating at the same time. Once you have made it through the scary birth-ing process, your work has just begun. Beyond making sure she gets up and nurses, there’s a whole new set of rules to follow to raise up a foal safely. We’ve all seen people who have foals born and never worry about them and never have a problem but are you willing to just roll the dice after spending all your efforts and money getting this foal on the ground.

First is deciding when the mare and foal can go out in the general population. This depends on several factors. One is how your mare fits in with the rest of the herd. Mares at the bottom

of the pecking order may have a hard time reas-similating back into the herd and at the same time protecting her baby from the rest of the horses. The foal needs to be strong enough keep up with mama while every one runs about ex-citedly. Ideally, your mare and foal could bond for a week before having to deal with the stress of other horses. By then your baby should be robust enough to keep up and be accustomed to listening to her mother’s cues.

Another thing to consider is the foal’s legs. Are they straight enough to be running around on for hours? Abnormalities to look for are val-gus or rotating out of the legs and being over or under in the knees. These conditions dictate how long the foal can be turned out at a time

until they straighten out. Observe your foal’s legs twice daily to determine how the legs are doing and this can change daily. If you see the legs twisting more or if the knees are buckling forward or bending too far back, this could be a clue to reduce exercise or even bring in your veterinarian. Changes to the legs need to be made before one month of age or the risk of permanent malformations is present. Ide-ally, you would have a baby “play pen” made of horse safe fence as new foals will not recognize the dangers of barbed wire or slick wire fencing and will likely run into it at least once.

The first two weeks are the critical time for foal illnesses. This is because the foal’s immuni-ty is at its lowest and just starting to build. The mare’s maternal antibodies within the foal’s blood are at its highest but even this cannot fight an overwhelming infection. Usually these gain access through the navel hence the reason for dipping the navel a few times the first day of life. From there the infection can go to the intestines or the lungs or sometimes just to the joints alone. For this reason, any lameness must be seen by a veterinarian immediately. If you suspect that your foal may be sick, check its temperature. Foal’s can range from 99 degrees F to 102 degrees F the first week. This can also be higher if your foal is born during the heat of summer (not recommended for this area). However, it would be wise to call your veteri-narian if the temperature is over 102 even if it is hot outside.

Other things to look for are the size of ma-ma’s milk bag and watch to see if the foal actu-ally nurses. Many sick foals will go to bag and “bump” the bag but not actually nurse. If the mare’s bag is large and tight, you know to be looking for problems. This may be your only sign of trouble as foals rarely have nasal drain-age or cough until it’s too late. Keep your foal away from horses that travel to shows and trail rides to help prevent illnesses.

You can start deworming the foal with py-rantel or fenbendazole at two months of age. Have your farrier at least look and probably rasp some on you foals feet at two months. This will save you lots of feet problems in the future if you start good foot care at this age. As soon as your foal starts nibbling at mama’s food, put a small amount of an Equine Junior type feed in a creep feeder and offer to your foal. Some foals start earlier than others but at least start doing this by two months of age. Mama needs to be getting all of her own feed to maintain her body weight and milk production and baby will be better with the junior feed than eating her adult feed.

Keep in mind that foals are flighty and accident prone. Spend just 15 minutes a day socializing her and you will have a lifetime of fun with a horse that you helped create.

SO YOUR MARE GAVE BIRTH, WHAT DO I DO NOW?


WHY RIDE DRESSAGE?

More than a few years ago, as a child who lived to jump horses, I had my first exposure to dressage. One day, the head of my chapter of the U.S. Pony Club decided to educate us on the illustrious sport of dressage and proudly gave us a demonstration of her idea of how the sport was done. Watching with great interest I was amazed by her lack of ability to sit the saddle. She proudly bounced her robust figure around the arena on the back of a very kind horse as she explained the finer points of dressage. I don’t recall exactly what she said or showed us at the time but I can tell you that it was at that junc-ture in my life that I concluded that dressage was for people who were afraid to jump and knew it wasn’t for me.

As my horizons broadened, I eventually dis-

covered the joy of combined training and real-ized that learning dressage would be a neces-sity if I was going to be able to experience the thrill of cross country and stadium jumping that make up the sport of eventing. Out of necessity, I willingly learned the test patterns and forged on. Eventing was a blast! My scores were acceptable and as far as I was concerned my dressage was just fine.

As luck would have it, training for cross country was logistically between difficult and impossible from where I lived so my rid-ing reverted back to hunters, equitation and jumpers once more. Nearly a decade went by before I again spiked an interest in dressage. This time it was because I began to notice how the upper level movements appeared to be a lot of fun and I wanted to know how to do

them. However, when I tried to learn the ba-sics of how to put a horse on the bit, I started looking for untraditional shortcuts. I just knew there were easier ways to frame a horse up than to suffer through the boredom of traditional training. It didn’t take long to discover that it was much easier to ride a horse in draw reins or a tie down than to train a horse to be round. You could say that I had missed the point.


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I continued on the shortcut route for a while and wondered why the movements were so difficult. Clearly there was more to it. As I started realizing how little I knew about the sport, I began spend-ing more time in lessons, clinics, reading and watching videos to educate myself. The same basic information kept coming back to haunt me and the principles of dressage began to emerge from the plethora of information that was accumulating before me. Fortu-nately, the one thing that became clearest to me was that the more I learned, the more I discovered how little I actually knew. My thirst for knowledge became insatiable.

Learning to do dressage is a lot like learning to read. Moving up to the next level without confirming the proper balance is like trying to read when you don’t know how to pronounce the letter “a”. You might make it through a few simple sentences but you will never comprehend a novel. Just as with reading, the early stages of learning are tedious and sometimes feel as if you are going nowhere. But as the skills become established, the learning curve accelerates. As each accomplishment is logged, a new challenge emerges. There is always the next level or the next horse to keep it interesting. There will always be a greater level of accuracy or understanding of the complexities of the sport to keep you motivated.

Dressage is more than just for the pure satisfaction of the sport, itself. Dressage is to riding as ballet is to dancing. If one wants to excel in any aspect of the art of dance, the basics and balance learned from ballet will be a huge asset when carried over into tap, jazz, modern or even salsa dancing. The basics and balance learned from dressage will exemplify the results when applied to riding and training hunters, jumpers, reiners or even trail riding. I have met several successful reining trainers who have a strong background in dressage even though they use an entirely different saddle. The style and finesse of the hunter benefits tremendously from the balance learned from dressage. Jumpers gain remarkable strength, agility and balance from dressage training as well.

Dressage, as it turns out, is not about patterns or simply riding a movement. It is about balancing the horse before, during and after each movement while guiding the horse through a specific pattern known as a test. If the balance is not confirmed at each level, the horse will not be prepared to move on to the next level and the movements will be incorrect.

Reflecting back on why one should do dressage, I would have to say that it is collectively for the journey itself. Dressage is for the thinking rider of any discipline. It may start with the inherent chal-lenge of putting a horse on the bit that intrigues a rider. It could even be the challenge of perfecting the compulsory school figures composed of circles, serpentines and straight lines that compels the rider. Regardless of what aspect of dressage it is that peaks the interest of a horseman, the development of the skills and knowl-edge required to progress in the sport can become addicting. There is always the challenge of riding or training the next movement. Executing a perfect test is like reaching for the stars. Perfection is elusive, but to strive for it feeds the soul.

Cathy Strobel has over 30 years of experience as a trainer, judge and clinician and can be reached at Southern Breeze Equestrian Center at (281) 431-4868 or www.sbreeze.com


THE ORIGIN OF THE SADDLE

Tack Talk - Con’t. on pg. 19

Last month we talked about the origins of a couple of saddles, but lets go back to the beginning.

The first documented saddles were nothing more than a pad, first placed under the rider, then later strapped down so they stayed in place. The first real “saddle “ was documented by the English about 630 A.D. These first saddles were basically a front and rear wooden bow in front of and behind the rider, connected by a pad and strapped down to the horse. The Moors invaded Spain about 710 riding fast horses using a primitive stirrup and by 1000 A.D., all European countries were using stirrups.

Knights of the twelfth and thirteenth century used saddles with double girths and deep seats to help them stay in the saddle with their heavy armor. By the end of the fourteenth century, gunpowder and cannon had made the heavy horses and armor obsolete and saddles got lighter. Armor still played an important role with the Conquistadors and the conquest of

new lands until about 1800 in the Americas and then saddles really started to evolve toward what is generally seen as a “modern” saddle.

The saddle General Santa Anna rode into Texas to put down the Texans’ rebellion looks very much like a southern “plantation “ saddle except it has a horn shaped like a bird’s head and is inlaid with gold and platinum. The fenders are much like an English saddle with a rolled front roll on the fenders and a cantle much like a modern saddle. The saddle was taken as spoils of war at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, and the general was made to walk home to Mexico.

The saddle horn did not come into existence until around 1825. From about 1820 to 1840 traders from Missouri traded goods to Santa Fe and brought back many saddles from Spanish controlled countries. The first western saddle was probably copied from these “Santa Fe” saddles. By 1850, saddle horns were common. The first horns had thin necks with relatively small horn caps.

The first Hope saddles, the forerunner of the modern western saddle was little more than a tree with a horn.

The California saddle was rawhide covered with a mochila, a leather covering that slipped over the tree. There was nothing to soften the impact between the tree and the horse except a folded blanket and a blanket or robe between the tree and the rider. Four hundred Hope saddles were ordered by the Army in 1857.

In 1858, General George McClellan of the U.S.Army, supposedly traveled around Europe and the Americas looking for the perfect mili-tary saddle. This may be one of the first “fact finding junkets” so popu-lar with politicians today. The McClellan saddle is really nothing more than a Hope saddle minus the horn and was introduced in 1859. The first McClellans were rawhide covered trees with a leather sweat flap and fixed center fire rigging. There was a remake of the saddle in 1866, but since the army had about 4,000 saddles in stock, Congress de-manded that the existing saddle be upgraded as much as possible to the new standards before they started producing the new model in 1868.

The new model had a leather cover over the rawhide which held up much better than the exposed rawhide and also had several other im-provements. The McClellan continued to evolve until 1904 when the last major changes were made and there were hundreds of thousands of 1904 McClellans made. The last minor change was in 1928, when they once again put sweat flaps on the saddle, but very few of these exist. The army, in their typical way, disbanded the Cavalry in 1943, but continued to honor the contracts for building the saddle for many more years. In the 70’s and 80’s there were thousands of McClellan


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Congratulations to Scott and Sarah Ferguson of Hempstead who are the proud parents of a baby girl! Montgomery Frost Ferguson arrived April 8, and the little lady weighed in at 7 pounds, 7 ounces. She was 20.5 inches long and her mom says she looks just like her daddy - except for all the dark hair!

This year Scott, a 2005 inductee into the NCHA Non-Profes-sional Hall of Fame is trying something new. He is an apprentice professional for the 2008 cutting horse season.

Congratulations to Dixie Murphy and Sean Ryon, owner of Sean Ryon Western Store in Fort Worth. The couple became engaged during the NCHA Super Stakes. Dixie is the daughter of Stefanie Murphy and Bill Murphy and works for Justin Insurance Company in Justin.

Then congratulations to cutting horse trainer Gary Ray and his wife Connie, a Throckmorton couple who celebrated 35 years of marital bliss in June. Their children threw them a big surprise party in their hometown and surprised Mom and Dad.

Congratulations to cutting horse trainer and stallion breed-

er Chris Benedict of Weatherford who was recently elected Vice President of the National Cutting Horse Association. Benedict ran against Jerry Black, a veterinarian from Oakdale Calif. According to NCHA, a total of 3,341 ballots were sent back to NCHA with Benedict receiving 1,752 votes, while Black, received 1,589 votes. Interestingly, though, NCHA has over 17,000 members, so that means approximately 14,000 plus or minus did not vote. So, what do you think that means?

Chris, who owns DLR Breeding Station, will assume his duties as Vice President during the NCHA Convention. He will move into the position of President Elect next year, and in 2010 serve as President of NCHA. Incoming President is Chubby Turner, also of Weatherford and first vice president is Bronc Willoughby.

As we go to press the NCHA Convention is about to be held in Grapevine at the Hilton DFW Lakes. The site was chosen because of its close proximity to the DFW airport in hopes of encouraging members from other states to come to the convention.

The convention will be held June 20 - 22. One of the “biggies” up for grabs at this year’s convention is the

non-pro/amateur proposal to combine the two classes. It’s been a hot topic at shows and on a cutting blog whose internet address is www.cuttinghorseforum.com. If you’d like to see the outcome of the 2008 NCHA Survey on Amateur and Non-Pro Classification Issues, you can do so by going to NCHAcutting.com and see how 2152 of the members voted.

There is a new face to advise the NCHA powers these days. The Executive Board recently accepted the resignation of attorney El-dridge Goins who has served NCHA for several years with its legal matters. NCHA didn’t stray far, however, in hiring a replacement for


Goins. James Morris, the new counsel stepping into Goins’ shoes, is an attoney with Goins’ law firm Goins, Underkofler, Crawford & Langdon, which is based in Dallas. Goins will continue to remain active with present on-going litigations.

How about those gas prices and hay prices these days? Even your AQHA membership fee will be higher come January 2009. It’s enough to make a horseman check the sofa for loose change and pick up those pennies on the ground, isn’t it?

AQHA is offering help if you will choose their automatic renewal method. That will lock in your dues at 2008 prices for three years. Go to AQHA.com and check it out.

And speaking of AQHA, thankfully a problem that had loomed with conflicts in showing between the AQHA World Show and the NCHA Futurity has been resolved and dates, which at first could have overlapped, no longer do. The AQHA World Show is sched-uled to run November 2 - 22 while the NCHA Futurity is scheduled for November 25 through December 16.

That still makes it a close call for competitors who want to show at both events, so to accommodate for traveling, getting horses pre-pared, etc., AQHA has changed its schedule to allow the cutting classes to be held earlier.

The go-rounds for the AQHA junior and the senior cutting will be held on November 15 with the finals for the two classes held No-vember 19. The amateur cutting will be held November 11, while those finals are scheduled for November 13. Of course, that is a ten-tative schedule, so do a re-check as the show dates get closer if you’re wanting to make both shows –either as a competitor or a spectator!

Until next time, it’s hot out there and going to stay that way for awhile, so don’t head to the barn without your water bottle!

saddles sold as military surplus at less than $5.00 each.The Pony Express saddle was a very simple saddle, much like the Mc-

Clellan. It was a light skeleton rigged saddle that stayed on the horse. The mochila was switched from saddle to saddle as the rider galloped into the relay station. The removable mochila was quickly stripped from the tree, put on a fresh horse already saddled, the rider swung up and continued on. The mochila had four mail pockets, one at each corner. Three were kept locked, and the left front was unlocked to drop off and pick up mail at stations along the way.

According to my research, the Pony Express Museum in Saint Jo-seph, Missouri does not even have an original Pony Express saddle. If a collector were to find one, it would ensure his retirement since it would be worth a fortune.

The scarcity of these old saddles makes them much sought after as collectibles. In most cases they are non-existent. Usually the leather was not cared for and although leather will last for decades when properly treated, it falls into decay within a few years when exposed to heat, humidity, or extreme dryness. Unless you happen onto an undiscovered pyramid that has been sealed for centuries, the chances of finding a truly old saddle with documentation of its origins is pretty unlikely. If somehow you happen to know of one, give me a call, and we’ll both retire rich.

Lew Pewterbaugh is the proprietor of Bandera’s famed Bunkhouse Leath-er, just off Main Street in the Cowboy Capital of the World

Tack Talk - Con’t. from pg. 16


The TeacherBy Steven Long

HE HAD HIS NOSE IN THE DIRT AND HIS BACK HOOVES KICKIN’ AT THE MOON

A few Fridays ago Texas Horse Talk’s Wes White journeyed to Oklahoma to pick up a mustang for a little contest to be held in Fort Worth later this year.

I wasn’t worried about him then, but I am now. Wes is one of my closest friends, an exquisite horseman, a consummate cowboy, a good man. Up until he made that trip to Oklahoma I believed there wasn’t a bronc he couldn’t tame, an outlaw horse he couldn’t whisper, or an incorrigible steed he couldn’t convince that he was a predator about to have a meal.

Then Wes White met Jimmy. The bay mustang fresh from free-dom in the desert grass of Nevada came to the Houston native as his challenge, the horse he would be bound to tame in a mere 90 days as a contestant in the Extreme Mustang Makeover, sponsored by

the Mustang Heritage Foundation and the federal Bureau of Land Management.

Come September, Wes and Jimmy will travel to Fort Worth’s Will Rogers complex to show their stuff. If they are both good, fame will come to Wes White far beyond the pages of this magazine’s monthly column.

Yet it looks as if fame may be elusive. Jimmy doesn’t to want to cooperate, wants to remain the wild animal who was captured by BLM wranglers a spare few weeks ago. While Wes calmed the horse enough in the first day to get him to stand still, even to let him place a pad and saddle on his back, that was the extent of cooperation the THT columnist would get.

He was bucked off twice.“He put his nose in the dirt and his back hooves were kickin’ at

the moon,” my pal told me. “Fooling with that horse is like fooling with a barrel of snakes,”

the always quotable Mr. White says.And that is what worries me. At this writing, the horse has got

Wes White buffaloed, intimidated, cowed, and downright in awe of his intransigence at being tamed.

“There are three levels of performance you can sign up for,” Wes said in a phone conversation from his family’s Cleveland ranch. “I’m sure glad I signed up for the lowest of the three.”

C’mon Wes, that kind of talk sure can’t be coming from the cow-boy I know.

There isn’t a doubt in my mind that the man who once worked a summer for the legendary Ray Hunt will be able to tame the likes of Jimmy. And THT will be there all the way to the Fort Worth arena with Wes.

Wes White is on a leave of absence from this column, destined to return in October. Until then, I’ll be taking a personal interest in how my buddy and little Jimmy are getting along – and keeping our readers up to date on their progress here in the space which is usually filled with the words of one of Texas’ finest cowboys.

Until next month, safe riding and God Bless.Steve


ming the Rio Grande and invading the park again.

After the killings of 71 burros in the park last year TPWD launched an internal inves-tigation which cleared two high parks offi-cials of wrongdoing. Knowledgeable sources have told Texas Horse Talk Magazine that the white paper is a white wash.

While Good denied at the meeting that the state’s motive for removing the burros is a plan to re-introduce big horn sheep for high dollar hunts, Dabney confirmed that is a possibility in the remote future.

“They were decimated (on the Big Bend Ranch lands) primarily by diseases acquired from domestic sheep although they obvi-ously were hunted as well. While there could eventually be a huntable population estab-lished, very few big horn sheep are harvested in America and those hunters who do are part of a lottery or auction and the proceeds of those limited hunts go to further restore the native populations of sheep,” he said.

Dabney reiterated that donkeys and other species compete for habitat with the animals he wants to reintroduce to the park.

“To ever reach a huntable population re-quires a stable population first be established. It is a tenuous effort and predators and feral and exotic animals that compete for limited resources, especially water or harbor disease (Auodad) that can destroy the Big Horn are huge challenges to successfully reestablishing the species,” the parks director said.

Dabney countered the assertion that there has been a white wash in the department’s internal investigation of the shootings. He said that while lethal removal of burros has stopped temporarily, killing of other species in the park continues.

“There was no white wash of any allega-tions in the shooting of burros,” he said. “The game wardens assigned to Internal Af-fairs are independent and work for the Com-mission.”

“The two employees that removed the burros were former Marine Corps marks-men, they qualify annually with their fire-arms consistent with TPW policy to be able to carry out feral and exotic animal removal. Allegations that they intentionally wounded those animals was investigated on site and no evidence was found to indicate that was true.

Horse Bites - Con’t. from pg. 8

Horse Bites - Con’t.on pg. 29


Story by Steven Long Photos Courtesy of Clint Black

Clint Black, Lisa Hartman and daughter Lily Pearl

A Texas Horse Talk Exclusive

Clint Black grew up along West Houston’s I-10 corridor in about as an American boyhood as you could imagine. He talks of catching fish along the headwaters of Buffalo Bayou, and riding borrowed horses in Bear Creek Park. His storied career has come a long way from those miserable days he played in the lounge of a local Holiday Inn and nobody at the bar listened to his music. It paid the bills though. The country music superstar will never face that indignity again. He talks about his Texas roots, going to the Houston rodeo to see Roy Rogers, and just killin’ time.

Black learned to ride a horse, a borrowed one, from friends who taught him to ride on the trails and in the fields of then virtu-ally rural West Houston.

“They say it’s a small world, but when they reduce it down to Houston, it may seem like a big town, but really, we had no clue how big the city was,” Black said. “We were like Huckleberry Finn and Tom Saw-yer out there in West Houston.”

As a kid, Black was the all American boy.

“We built cantilevered forts at Turkey Creek, and caught fish with our hands off the banks at the reservoir,” he remembered

nostalgically. “There were tons of snakes, and we had no idea we were in the city. Since we never went into the city that much, to us we were out in the country.”

“We rode down at the bayou,” he remem-bers of the borrowed horses. “We also rode at Kensington Park and a little at Bear Creek Park.”

As he grew into manhood, a guitar took the place of reins in his hands, but he con-tinued his casual relationship with the horse until two decades ago when he was hurt in a riding accident in College Station. He was planning a pack trip in Colorado when the mishap happened.

Black and his wife Lisa Hartman now live on the outskirts of Nashville. And although he would like to have horses, he can’t at the moment.

“We live in a community where there isn’t a lot of land,” he said

“I don’t get to ride a lot, but I miss it, and I love it,” he told Texas Horse Talk. “I love to get out and do a camping trip, or at least a day ride someplace. There is some great riding here in Tennessee. A fellow who just came to work for me has a place that bor-ders a national park and he’s invited us to come ride out there. That’s the kind of riding I love. Need is the operative word when it comes to horseback riding.”

The need is very much there to this day and it may come very soon again when he is fully recovered from the long ago accident that has resulted in surgery on his neck.

Black recalled the horror of what hap-pened that day, a horror that has happened to most horsemen at one time or another.

“I was up in College Station, and I was running this horse probably about 25 mph and he had a bead on a barbed wire fence and I couldn’t pull him off of it. With a vio-lent jerk I was able to get him off that line – then as soon as I did that the next thing up was a tree.”

In all his years riding, nobody had taught Black the one rein safety stop, an absolute must for any horseman.

“I just got my arm up in time to save my head from a big old limb, so I caught the limb with my arm blocking the blow to my head,” Black recalled. “It knocked me off, and we were going pretty fast. Between that, and motorcycle wrecks it created some work for my doctor.”

“After a while, all that stuff ads up,” he said. “I have bone spurs. I’ve got spurs that tingle tangle tingle as I go riding merrily along. I have had to get those removed. They got the last one about a month ago.”

“I can’t injure myself, and I can only bring about more pain and punishment if I do too much,” Black said. “Pretty soon I’ll be in the clear and I’ll be able to ride again. We have some friends out in California who have a ranch and we’ll try to get out there and ride again.”

Cowboys have been a part of his life from the beginning.

The first time Clint Black ever saw the thrill of rodeo in Houston’s Astrodome he was just one of us. Another snot nosed kid being exposed to the bright lights of carnival

and the smell of aromatic cow perfume. He was just another face in the throng of crowds who came to see arguably the greatest super-stars America ever produced, Elvis included. In one of their final appearances before a live Houston audience, Roy Rogers and Dale Ev-ans stood on the stage in probably the largest venue their iconic figures had ever graced. Sitting in the stands with his mother was that little boy who would someday stand on a stage introduced by rodeo legend Bob Tall-man as fireworks exploded, a star in his own right.

Music stuck for Clint Black, who came from a musical family. His brothers play. Eventually the siblings formed a four piece

band.“We played places like the Honeycomb

Corral on Richmond, places in Southwest Houston, Pasadena and Galveston.

“We weren’t together very long,” he said. “When the band broke up I was almost 19 and I went solo acoustic and I played all over. I played Clear Lake, Galveston, Tomball, all over.

“My thing was I really wanted to play for people who wanted to hear music,” he said. “I took one gig at a Steak and Ale and they just wanted me to keep turning down the volume and I said I’m not going to do that anymore.”

Clint Black - Con’t. on pg. 28

Clint Black and Roy Rogers


To do a dissertation on the whip in racing, I feel the first thing a horseman should say is, “It does not matter whether it’s racing or any other discipline, the whip is the whip.”

Equus, the flight animal, is about 50 million years old. If you accept the discovery by Dr. Louis Leakey of Lucy in the Olduvai Gorge, then humans are approximately 3.2 million years old. We must conclude then that horses got along just fine without human beings for 47 million years. We are quick, however, to use the term “problem horse,” a quite pompous statement from a species so junior.

A scientific fact is that horses are flight ani-mals and, as the reader knows, they only have

Editor’s Note: The Thoroughbred Safety Committee of the Jockey Club an-nounced in late June a recommendation for a dramatic scale down in the use of the whip on U.S. race tracks. Some, such as famed horseman Monty Roberts have long advocated more human treatment of horses in the sport of kings and in other sports. Roberts has spent a lifetime on and around the turf. His thoughts are compassionate and kind. More importantly, they make sense.

two goals in life (survival and reproduction). Horses do not often think strongly about re-production during a race, which leaves us with only one facet of a horse’s existence, his goal to survive. Consider for a moment that we are human beings dealing with horses under cir-cumstances extremely demanding and fright-ening to them. Knowing that they are vitally concerned with their own survival, we often conclude that the best course of action is to whip them and cause them pain in the hopes that it will get them to run faster.

I submit that this is not only a bad decision from a humane standpoint, but a worse decision where its effect is concerned. Horses are “into-

pain” animals. Their natural tendency is to push into pressure, like a child does biting on hard bread when cutting teeth. We may frighten a horse the first few times we whip him in a race, but very soon he may resent the whip and back-up to it, actually causing him to run more slowly. You so often hear the statement, “We need the whips for safety’s sake,” but, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth, because far more accidents are caused by whips than are ever averted by whips. In fact, if a jockey felt the need for a whip to guide the horse, why not use a spongy, Nerf whip so that no pain could be produced?

In a recent conversation with Trevor Den-

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man (a race announcer at the Santa Anita race track), he said to me that he felt it would be a good idea if every time there was a disquali-fication, the newspaper should read that, “the horse ducked from the whip and interfered with the progress of another horse and was thus disqualified.” Trevor suggested that an extremely high percentage of disqualifications were caused by using the whip. Further, he said that if the bettors could understand that, they would be less apt to insist that jockeys use the whips to verify that they are trying.

Aside from whether it is effective or not, let us examine for a mo-ment how we stand with the rest of the world on this issue. Nearly all the racing countries of the world are dealing with the issue of the whip in ways that suggest it will soon be obsolete. I believe Great Britain is down to five strikes now, while Sweden has restricted the use of the whip severely, and, I think, only in front of the girth. In Germany, it is interesting to note that all two-year-olds are ridden only with a soft Nerf whip, which is handed to the jockey as he leaves the weighing room. Up until now, the United States has been virtually the only country to fail to act on what has become an important issue to race fans the world over.

The third facet, and possibly the most important, is in the area of public perception. We, in racing, need to be pro-active. We need to realize that many potential race fans abhor the use of the whip and are turned off by our sport. What if we had whipless racing? Someone would be first, someone would be last and someone would be in the middle, exactly as it is with the whips. As for finding the genetic apti-tude for racing, would you not prefer the winning horse to run out of a natural desire, rather than running from pain? And, wouldn’t we be more acceptable to our audience?

I believe the number of race fans would increase with a strong pro-motional program featuring whipless racing. As racehorse people, we often say we are giving the horse a chance to do what he loves best, run. I believe that is a true statement, but if it is what he loves best, why do we have to whip him to do it? We do not.

It is my opinion that the best jockeys would still be the best jock-eys, and in fact, true horsemanship skills would come to the front if we were to eliminate whipping.

Barbaro ran the last quarter mile of the Kentucky Derby with the fastest time over that turf since Secretariet without ever feeling the whip of jockey Edgar Prado.

Prado never touched Barbaro with his whip, never asked him to do anything more than was necessary. His gentle handling of Barbaro had more to do with humane rather than competitive considerations, Prado says. “If he’s running real hard, why should he be punished?” he says. “I’m a horse lover more than anything else.”

I sincerely believe that the buggy whips used at the starting gate cause far more trouble than good. I have spent a good deal of my life studying equine behavior at the starting gate and I am absolutely convinced that the elimination of the whip would actually make life easier for the starting-gate crews.

People love animals, and we are supposed to be a civilized species. Is it not time for us to consider changing some of our retained bar-baric ways? We have stopped lashing prisoners and whipping small children. Is it not time that we stopped whipping our horses, flight animals, who have no intention to hurt anyone? My goal is to leave the world a better place than I found it—for horses and people too. Racing could lead the horse industry in this truly important area of humane treatment.

Monty Roberts shows you how to benefit from his 65 years of training in his free weekly Ask Monty. This question and answer format allows readers to get inside the mind of the master trainer to problem solve. Sign up at www.montyroberts.com or call 888-U2-MONTY


LETTERS FROM OUR READERS

ThanksFor you all who do not get Texas Horse

Talk – take it from me – it is the best horse publication I have ever received. And it is very artistic. No dull pages, and all good information. I’m almost giddy, when I open the mail box and find your maga-zine. I have “Texas Horse Talk” proudly displayed on the coffee table in the living room. The first thing my adult children did, last week when they came by to talk horses, was to scan the table for the latest copies (they can read here, but they can’t take my copies home).

Chris said, “Guess you’re movin’ to Texas, huh.” And the right word is “artis-tic”, with beautiful pictures and so much to read and learn on so many pages. The adverts are a knock out, too! You really, really, do the best job and you & Vicki are appreciated. Thank you. The icing on the cake is you are anti-slaughter. This alone puts you head and shoulders above the rest. Well done!

~Bonnie Oliver West Virginia

Track DeathsRacing Fan Comments on Associated

Press story reporting that three horses were dying on U.S. Tracks each week.

That article is horrible.I find the num-bers almost impossible to believe.

Assuming the numbers are accurate, if this article or information from this ar-ticle start making the rounds, especially if it ends up on the news or on a TV news

magazine, the horseracing industry is go-ing to be turned upside down.

With government announcing they’d be looking into the steroid issue surrounding Big Brown, I think it’s already started and may only get worse (or better, I suppose). If the bad press ultimately through change and improvement causes horse racing to become safer for the horses via tighter re-strictions on medications, whipping, and even general care, then it’s a positive thing for the safety of the horses. Unfortunately, with the piles of “dirt” likely to surface during the investigation and implementa-tion process, the immediate damage to the industry will be hard to overcome.

We are one highly publicized horse ac-cident or death from an industry blow-up. With the thousands of eyes on racing at this time, sadly, my wager is that someone will find one.

~Joe Saverese, Houston


Clint Black - Con’t. from pg. 23

“One month when I was really having trouble making my car payments I took a gig at the Holliday Inn in the Greenway Plaza area,” he recalled wistfully. “The bar in there was called the Ticker Tape Lounge. I played there five nights a week during happy hour for one month.”

One agonizing month was all Black could stand.“I remember thinking, no matter what, I’ll never do it again,” he

said. “Nothing against the people. They were nice, but people com-ing into those kind of bars are wanting to talk to each other. They are not there to hear music.”

But Black’s month at the Ticker Tape Lounge would endure in the form of a song he wrote “Winding Down.” The tune appeared on his first album, “Killin’ Time.”

“One night after coming home and thinking, What am I doing playing happy hours for people who don’t even hear me? I sat down and in 20 minutes I wrote that song. It’s always been a favorite of mine because it has always been kind of an inside joke for me be-cause the next night I sang it for them.”

And then it began. Up until this time Black had played the sec-ond and third level venues of Houston while other local talent such as Shake Russell and Dana Cooper scooped up the top spots includ-ing minor local concert appearances.

“I was in a music store looking at guitars I couldn’t afford and Shake, who I was a big fan of, was standing there also looking at guitars on the rack,” Black recalled. “I played the intro to “You’ve

Got a Lover” and he looked over and smiled. I introduced myself. After a little while, he left the store. I came out to the parking lot and was talking to him.”

“I said, ‘How’s a guy get to open for Shake Russell,” Black re-members. “You see, Shake was playing all the places I dearly wished I could be playing. He gave me his road manager’s name and number and said, ‘You can come open for me Wednesday night.”

Clint Black quickly became Shake Russell’s favorite opening act. Soon, Black was doing his own gigs as a local Houston headliner in clubs where the patrons paid attention to what was being played on stage.

Black’s style at the time was a mix of country and blues, a fitting combination for a town that could spawn Lightnin’ Hopkins, ZZ Top, and the likes of a Clint Black.

“People were coming there to hear the music and it was a great change from what I had been doing,” he said.

Black went on to sign a management contract with ZZ Top’s sto-ried manager, Bill Hamm.

But when he was just Clint Black from out west on I-10 before he was famous, he did the Houston thing. Like most residents of the Bayou City, he got “February Fever,” when it rolled around to rodeo time each year.

“I would go to Memorial Park when the trail rides came in year after year and go from campfire to campfire where they were camp-ing out and sing songs and sample people’s beverages.”

Each year, as a prelude to Houston’s orgy in rodeo madness 13 trail ride and 4,000 riders converge on the city’s lushly wooded Me-morial Park for a night of camping, eating, and drinking in advance of the next day’s big rodeo parade downtown. Some come from as far away as the Rio Grande Valley where the Los Vaqueros Rio Grande Trail Ride treks 386 miles from Hidalgo to the biggest rodeo on the planet.

“I remember, when I got my record deal I made sure to get out there that year because I thought if I have my way it will be com-pletely different the next time I want to come out because I will be famous,” he told THT. “I had a sense that was going to happen because I was signing with a major label and I was excited. That last time I went down to Memorial Park and had my fun. The following year I was playing in the Astrodome.”

Clint Black hasn’t completely deserted Houston.“I get back three or four times a year, need it or not,” he says. “I

get back to see the family and try to get in some golf. It’s kind of tough with us because we get all the men and we are a fivesome, my Dad and four boys. We have to really depend on the charity of the pro at the golf course to let us go out as a fivesome.”

When Black returns to Houston for his August 9, appearance at The Showgrounds www.theshowgrounds.com at Sam Houston Race Park, he’ll at least be around horses whether he’s healed enough from his neck surgery to ride or not.

And he’s sure to be playing a new cowboy song for his Texas Horse Talk fans called “You Go It Alone,” a tune about two cowpokes .

“The trail’s coming to an end for one of them,” he hinted.And opening for him will be an old friend from long ago.“It’s going to be great to have Shake on the show,” Black said.

“What a great treat.”


These two employees actually do not sport hunt. They removed both Aoudad and burros and we are still removing Aoudad at any opportunity.”

The director has a long history of attempting to restore big horn sheep to habitats.

“As National Park Superintendent for the South-east Utah National Parks including Arches and Can-yonlands, I worked diligently with Utah DNR to bring back the desert bighorn to a stable population and then use that herd to try to re-establish popula-tions into Capitol Reef and other locations in the state where they had been wiped out primarily by domestic sheep spread disease.

H H H H H

supremes uphoLd sLaughTer ban

The United States Supreme Court has let stand a lower court’s ruling upholding an Illinois law pro-hibiting the killing of horses for human consump-tion in that state.

The case went to the Supreme Court after Cavel International, the last remaining equine slaughter-house still operating in the United States closed its doors after an Illinois federal court upheld the newly legislated ban.

The facility, near Chicago, slaughtered up to 60,000 horses, most of them healthy, annually.

Two Texas facilities had closed their doors for good late last year after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 1948 Texas law banning the prac-tice.

U.S. horses bound for slaughter are now shipped to abattoirs in Mexico and Canada. Facilities in both countries have come under fire after reports in the press exposed cruel practices including stab-bing horses to stun them as the butchering process began.

Horse Bites - Con’t. from pg. 21


Horse Laughs

No Foot, No Horseby Elizabeth Kopplow

We all need them, we all have them and they are probably the singularly most im-portant component of our horse’s care. But they frequently get neglected and abused. They get stepped on, pushed around, leaned on and kicked. Sometimes they are left out in the rain or the blazing sun for hours with our horses, but we still expect them to function at their best under the worst of conditions. I am talking about our horseshoers.

When our mode of travel actually was horsepower, the blacksmith was a very im-portant man in town. Without him and the protection he hammered onto our horse’s feet, things would have just ground to a halt, literally. When we started driving cars instead of teams, horses became a luxury instead of our only means of transporta-tion and things changed. A horse that was worked all day undoubtedly was thrilled to see the shoer, since it meant he could actually stand still and catch some shut eye while he got his pedicure. Our horses to-day probably have a different view of this process, since most of them are standing around idle all day just thinking of ways to amuse themselves at the horseshoer’s expense.

Do you have one of these playful exam-ples in your barn? If so, you may be one of the shoer-abusers that I am talking about.

THE SWISHER

Most horses are extremely accurate with the tip of their tails. That appendage is de-signed to be able to annihilate flies, a target

much smaller than your horseshoer’s eye. In trying to protect his vision, it is always a good idea to try and keep your horse’s tail quiet while your shoer is within it‘s range.

THE LEANER

A leaner has nothing to do with lean and is not a slim horse, as luck would have it. Most horses that are leaners are very overweight, compounding the problem. Your poor sweet overweight horse is very capable of standing on his own three feet while the shoer works on the fourth, with-out using him as a crutch. Although most shoers are relatively strong individuals, the human back is not designed to support even a small portion of a 1,100 pound ani-mal. Keeping your horse off your shoer’s back will definitely extend his career and his good posture.

THE PUNTER

Although some horseshoers may enjoy Monday Night Football, I highly doubt many of them want to be the recipient of your horse’s attempt to show off how ac-curate they are with their back feet. I have never known a shoer who was moonlight-ing as a football recruiter.

THE NIBBLER

I have always wondered why folks feel that horses, who have a brain the size of a walnut, vision quite different than ours when it comes to color, and a better sense of smell than ours, would be able to tell the difference between a carrot (that is shaped quite like a finger) and a finger that was


Elizabeth Kopplow

just holding a carrot. So, finger…… smells like carrot, shaped like carrot, who knows about the color, maybe to a horse a fin-ger is even the same color as a carrot, but we insist on feeding horses carrots from our fingers. Then we wonder why the horse becomes a nibbler. I personally feel a shoer can show much more finesse in his job if he is working with all his fingers, so this is another one of their body parts we should try and protect.

If you recognize any of the horses described above, try and spend a couple of extra minutes each day working with your horse so he is well behaved when your shoer is out in the 90 de-gree heat, bent over working on his feet, making sure he is sound and ready for your next riding adventure. Without our shoers we would soon discover why it has been known for centuries that No Foot, No Horse.


REARING TRAIL HORSE AND BEGINNER RIDER

A

Q My sister wants a trail horse for her husband (beginner rider). She is con-

sidering an eight year Appaloosa gelding that has been used in the Park Service as a trail horse. She does low-level eventing and plans to work with the horse herself. She found that when the horse was alone it was reluc-tant to leave the barn. She made several at-tempts to move it away from the barn. The horse eventually cooperated, but on the last try he evaded by rearing. She doesn’t know if this is his usual evasion or an unusual event.

He does not like any kind of contact from the bit. I suggested getting his teeth checked. But she doesn’t want to invest in this horse unless he is safe for beginners.

You are asking several questions here. First, would this horse be a good trail

horse? Second, why is he rearing? Third, is he suitable for a beginner rider? I’ll try to answer all three questions and provide some horse-shopping tips.

Park Service experience is good, but your


sister should talk with the horse’s regular rid-er/handler. Was this a good trail horse or a barely acceptable one? After all, he is for sale and it would be good to know why, especial-ly since he is only 8. Even if he is considered to be a good trail horse, he isn’t necessarily right for her husband. Not all trail horses are well-suited to packing beginners.

A barn-sour horse (not unusual if the horse hasn’t been ridden recently and/or isn’t used to being ridden alone) may do just about anything to avoid leaving his “safe” place. Typical evasions include balking, backing, rearing, and bolting back to the barn. Be-ginner riders should not have to deal with these behaviours. Even if the rearing was a one-time event, it could easily become a habit, especially with an inexperienced rider on board.

When horse-shopping, the buyer should take every possible precaution and begin by checking the horse carefully, paying particu-lar attention to his teeth, tongue, back, legs, and feet, because pain or injuries in these ar-eas can cause unwanted behaviours. It’s also important to check the horse’s tack - a pain-ful bit or a badly-fitting saddle can cause a horse to rear or even fall over. If everything seems fine, the next step is to watch him be-ing ridden at the barn and away from the barn. In the case of a trail horse purchase, it’s best to ride another horse on the trail and watch this horse under its usual rider. When considering the purchase of a riding horse, always ask to see the horse ridden by its regu-lar rider. If the rider is reasonably competent and the horse goes badly, you can walk away, thus avoiding a potentially dangerous experi-ence!

The next step is to try the horse (whilst wearing a safety helmet with the harness fas-tened!) on the same trail, in the same tack. That will give you an idea of how he reacts. If the horse is calm and quiet, deliberately spend some time riding like a beginner and find out how he reacts to unbalanced riders and conflicting signals. Then, if the horse seems still, her husband should try him (in a confined area, wearing a safety helmet, and preferably with his instructor present). If ev-erything goes well, it will be time for a pre-purchase veterinary examination.

Warning: Any horse that habitually rears and doesn’t accept contact is dangerous - not safe or suitable for any beginner. It may be beautiful and talented, but it’s at best a re-training project for an experienced trainer,

and that only if it is basically quiet, well-trained, and reliable but is reacting to a re-cent problem such as a bad or inconsiderate rider.

If a usually quiet, reliable horse begins rearing, the rider’s influence may be the is-sue. Any horse ridden on painful contact, especially sudden or prolonged painful con-tact, may rear in protest. Riders who are accustomed to riding on contact often get into trouble when they ride Western-trained horses that have been taught to go behind the bit on a loose rein. When a rider tries to establish direct hand-to-bit contact through the reins, the horse thinks it is being pun-ished for moving forward, and that the rider wants it to run backward - or rear! That’s an-other good reason to see the horse ridden by his regular rider first. This provides an op-portunity to observe the rider’s position and cues and the horse’s reactions.

If the horse is injured, sick, or has been ridden badly for so long that it dislikes being ridden, then I would advise against buying it even as a re-training project.

Your sister should ask herself (1) Is it worth the time and effort and expense? and

(2) Will the horse be suitable for a beginner, even after retraining?

Your sister should buy a horse only if she is convinced that it is suitable for her husband, and she should first have a comprehensive vet check. No horse is perfect, but some imper-fections can be lived with – others can’t. Her final decision should be based on whether the horse’s problems are serious and whether they can be easily solved. Solvable problems would include over-confinement, teeth that need floating (or wolf teeth that need remov-ing) and uncomfortable tack.

Your sister’s instructor or her husband’s instructor, or both, should also observe the horse, try the horse, and give their opinions. After all, if she buys the horse they will be working with it.

There are many nice, uncomplicated horses in the world. Your sister has only one husband - at least, I assume that’s the case! Safe is always better than sorry. I personally wouldn’t even consider purchasing this horse for a beginner rider! If she decides to buy this horse, it should be on the basis of as much solid professional advice as she can get.


Destinations of ChoiceHappy Trails

East Texas’ Best Kept Secret Nettles Country, a Little Piece of Cowboy Heaven

Nestled in the piney woods of East Texas between Cleveland and Conroe just 65 miles from Houston is a horseman’s paradise. Driving into TC Ranch the land is flat with hundreds of pine trees beside a sandy road. Continuing for almost a mile you come to an

opening and swear you are in the hill country. Green pastures abound high and low in the bottom land, with plenty of cattle and 150 free roaming horses and their babies that make this a picturesque almost perfect getaway from the hustle and bustle of the big city.

TC Ranch’s 600 acres is just to the east of the Sam Houston National Forest, which allows their guests another 1,300 acres of trail riding. There are creeks and ponds for fishing, and a wide branch of water that cuts through the ranch.

Wildlife consisting of wild hogs, deer, raccoons, and turkeys abound and shy away as the rider comes upon them.

TC Ranch is rustic, boasting over one hundred years of farming and ranching. For the citified there are plenty farming and ranching tools and equipment to view giving an idea of what goes into running a ranch.

You can rough camp at the ranch, and you can bring your own genera-tors. (Hook ups are in the process of being installed).

If camping is not for you there is a bunkhouse that sleeps 12, with air-conditioning, restrooms, and shower. Stalls are also available for your horses.

If you don’t have or want to bring your own horse, you can rent a ranch horse of exceptional quality, and suited for riders from the novice to the most advanced. The horses are out of such cham-pion bloodlines as Delta, Shots Flying Sparks, Peptoboonsmal, Leo, Doc Bar, King, Poco Bue-no, Cutter Bill, Blue Valentine, Blondys Dude, Doc Tari, Doc O Lena, Sonny Dee Bar, Amigas Tina,Gay Bar King, Colonal Freckles, Docs Hadias, Wimpy, Waggoner Mare, Oto, Poco Pine, Jessie James, Hancock, Skip A Star, Two Eyed Jack, Peppy San Badger, & High Brow Cat.

There are many trails at TC Ranch. Some are easy, some are difficult, and some are even extreme. You can ride out for two, four or even more hours.

TC Ranch is a great place to have that special birthday party, family reunion, church retreat, or a company that wants to treat its workers to some good old “cow-boy relaxation” with dinner rides where a group can ride, fish, and eat one of the best steaks available in the state. A 20 X 20 brush arbor with a pavilion is currently being built for cowboy weddings.

TC Ranch is also offering a camp for girls the last two weeks of July and the first week of August. July 7 – 11, will be a clinic for mothers and daughters. These are a week long with accommodations in the bunkhouse. Three meals per day are provided and awards and a buckle are given out if eight or more riders are booked per week.

Check out why several previous guests have called TC Ranch the “best kept secret in Texas”. Who says all the dude ranches are in Bandera? TC Ranch 936-767-8111, 3281 Dabney Bottom Road, Cleveland TX 77327, www.tcranch.com, [email protected]

It’s early morn, one of the few quiet peaceful moments at Nettles Country, a ranch complex owned by Hall of Fame Cutting horse trainer Ronnie Nettles and his wife Gala. The sun hasn’t been up long when the sound of a feed cart rolling along the gravel road breaks the morning music of the chirping birds. Rocking chairs on every porch on the complex make this a special time of the morning.

Nettles Country is about 100 miles north of Houston, about the same dis-tance south of Dallas on the outer edge of the small southern town of Madisonville. Madisonville is home to approximately 4000 people, a lot of them farmers and ranchers. Even most of those with other

professions these days have family ties to the soil. The innovative Nettles Country Ranch, located three miles west of the

town square on Hwy 21 – that’s the same highway headed toward Aggie land - has been home to Ronnie’s cutting horse operation for almost three decades. It’s where he not only trains horses, but also teaches aspiring rid-ers who come from near and far in the art of cutting.

The trainer is also known for his famous Nettles Stirrups, a product he designed more than 20 years ago when he couldn’t find what he needed. That gave birth to Nettles Stir-rup Manufacturing Company, now managed by the couple’s son and nephew, Robby Rich-ardson and Mark Davis. In fact, Nettles Stirrups are one of the few pieces of western tack made on a working ranch. It certainly gives an authentic twist to the term “product testing.”

Today, though, there’s a lot more going on at Nettles Country than training horses, giving lessons and building stirrups. This year, Gala Net-tles, journalist and the author of 15 books, put down her pen just long enough to open Masterpieces, a retail store filled with high quality tack and fine western décor, as well as Bunkhouse & Biscuits, a western style B & B. The additions have made Nettles Country a hot-spot of activity where curious city slickers, horse lovers, western décor enthusiasts and the real Mccoys visit frequently.

“Masterpieces is just a fun store,” began Gala Nettles as she described the fulfillment of her dream, having overseen for years a booth at horse shows that featured her books and the Nettles Stirrups.

“Since many of our pieces are custom-made here on the ranch, things like benches and shelves of all sizes and décor, unique lamps, even antler-decorated bookends, Masterpieces seems to ebb and flow with a life of its own and that’s fun. Since good craftsmanship takes time, we have quite a few customers who stop in frequently to see what might be new. Those pieces tend to find new homes quickly making things ebb and flow.”

The custom-made pieces are only a part of the menagerie in Master-pieces. Along side of them are hair-on-hide furniture and accessories, bed-ding and bath items, fringed tablecloths with matching quilted placemats, even exquisite western style crystal and pewter and Chet Vogt jewelry.

Then, there’s the unusual. Want a wooden Indian? You’ll find all sizes at Masterpieces. How about one-of-a-kind teak furniture? A western style rocking chair? They line the southern-style front porch of Masterpieces, which is also filled with big Texas stars, Amish wagon wheels and even a country buggy.


Destinations of ChoiceHappy Trails

Riding the Santa Ynez Rangeby Monique Littlejohn

And of course, amid al of this décor, reigns the tack section featuring some of the highest quality tack in the equine industry.

“That saying ‘The most expensive thing you can buy is the cheapest thing you buy,’ is certainly true

with tack,” said Ronnie Nettles, who has more than 40 years of training behind those belt buckles. “I learned a long time ago it’s the cheap stuff that can get you hurt, so we sell only the best here, things like Dennis Moreland Tack, Cactus ropes, Burlington buckets.”

Of course, there are other things to do at Nettles Country than just shop. Watch them build stirrups through the glass windows, walk up the gravel road to the horse barn and talk with Ronnie. If you arrive early enough you might even get a chance to watch him train horses or pick up pointers as he works with a student. Visit with Cash, the stallion whose best buddy is Butterscotch, a miniature gelding that often stands beneath him. And if it’s feeding time, watch the horses and the cattle as they gather to the sound of the feeding cart ambling down the gravel road.

Of course, a visit to Nettles Country doesn’t have to be just a one-day trip. Sitting quietly behind a group of oaks just past Masterpieces is Bunkhouse & Biscuits, the three- bedroom, three-bath bed & breakfast, also with a long front porch with rocking chairs and swing. The B&B was originally born as a boarding place for out of town students, but it’s grown past that. These days it sees all kinds of boarders.

“We’ve enjoyed horse people, doctors, couples who just stopped by, even newlyweds,” smiled Gala. “Some come late in the afternoon and leave early in the morning; others come early and linger late into the next morning.

“By the way,” she added, “It’s named Bunkhouse & Biscuits because you pop a biscuit from the freezer into the microwave while making your-self a cup of coffee. There isn’t any cooking here!”

Whether you’re a dreamy horse lover, a cowboy in need of some good tack, or just like to decorate with the best in western décor, visiting Nettles Country is like visiting a piece of cowboy Heaven right in the middle of Texas.

It’s on highway 21, the same highway headed toward Aggie land, just up the road from Houston or down the road from Dallas

NettlesStirrups.com and tel. 800-729-2234

My husband, Chris and I took a drive to the Circle Bar B for a trail ride on a cloudless June day. Since we are in Southern California, the weather is sunny and 70 degrees almost every day of the year. This is a welcome change from the hot and humid summers I grew up with in coastal Texas.

We joined two other couples for a trail ride to the coastal ridge of the

Santa Ynez mountains. Our guide, Ashton, a rodeo cowboy, shared several tales of the history of the ranch. As we took the steep trails, we passed the Hanging Tree where an outlaw was strung up - a noose still hangs from the tree. We also passed a 60 foot cascading waterfall that ended in a 6 foot deep swimming hole. While we didn’t see any bears or mountain lions, Ashton pointed out their paw prints on the dusty trail.

He also mentioned that when Ronald Reagan was president, he would spend his vacations at the Western White House. Rancho del Cielo is lo-cated next to the Circle Bar B. Reagan’s secret service agents learned how to ride horses at the Circle Bar B so that they could protect the president during his long rides. The president’s ranch is now in private hands and is run by the Young America Foundation that is dedicated to his memory and the conservative philosophy.

Actor Carey Grant and his daughter also stayed at the ranch in the 1970s.

These are some of the best-trained and healthy trail horses I’ve encoun-tered. They are let loose on the trails every day after they are finished work-ing so they can use their herding instincts, which keeps them from becom-

Riding the Santa Ynez Range - Con’t. on pg. 36


ing barn sour - a really neat idea. The only horses that stay with the cowboys at the stables are their own mounts, or “using horses.” Ashton explained that if there is an emergency such as a forest fire, the cowboys can round up the herd.

All of the Circle Bar B horses neck rein.The horses are available to the public, but for the

best experience, there are beautifully equipped guest houses and lodge rooms. The lodge was remodeled in 2003 and decorated in a western lodge theme, complete with animal trophies and wood paneling. The property also has a renowned bar and restau-rant serving western fare in a buffet setting for up to 45 guests. Third generation owner, Kathy Brown and her family has kept the tradition of the private guest ranch alive by only allowing overnight guests to enjoy the bar and restaurant. The ranch accom-modations are moderately priced, starting at $265 including breakfast and dinner for two guests.

For evening entertainment, they offer a small dinner theatre that is open to visitors. Many of the shows are comedies that are shown to a sold out crowd on the weekends.

The ranch was a great way to get away from it all; enjoy the trails, swimming pool, game room, or simply read a book on the porch of my cabin. How-ever, during the day, many guests visit the wine trails in the Santa Ynez Valley made famous by the film Sideways, or visit the old Spanish town of Santa Bar-bara and the Danish town, Solvang. For die-hard horse travelers, many make the pilgrimage to horse whisperer, Monty and Pat Roberts’ Flag is Up Farms for daily demonstrations, free to the public. With so many things to do, it would be easy to stay a week at the ranch and still not experience everything the area has to offer. I will be back again soon.Directions

The Circle Bar B is a guest ranch and stables are located 15 minutes north of the Santa Barbara, Cali-fornia airport.

Fly to the Santa Barbara Airport. Drive north on Highway 101 and take the Refugio Road exit and follow the signs. The ranch is 3 ½ miles up the road. If you continue for another 3 miles, you will reach the Reagan ranch.

Circle Bar B Guest Ranch1800 Refugio RoadGoleta, CA 93117

(805) 968-1113 www.circlebarb.comMonique Littlejohn is the daughter of THT Editor Steven Long. She is development director of the famed Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Riding the Santa Ynez Range - Con’t. from pg. 35


TO THE WINNERS BELONG THE HONORS

The horse racing business can be a very ex-asperating or a very exciting life. Many people toil for years and they have a few winners and are happy. Then there are some who put in the years of hard work and have many successes. For those that stick to it and have the multiple winners they are rewarded with success and honors. The latest of such honorees are the ones being inducted to the LoneStar Park Hall of Fame.

Two names that stand out in Texas racing are Clarence and Dorothy Sharbauer; they have been involved with racing for many years. Valor

Farms in Pilot Point is their magnificent stable. They have had 5 Quarter horse champions and Clarence was a past President of the American Quarter Horse Association. He was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 1992.

By the way the Sharbauers were the own-ers of a horse you might remember, the great Alysheba, winner of the 1987 Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. Alysheba was also the horse of the year for 1988.

Bill and Connie Heiligbrodt are also going into the Hall of Fame. They have also been ac-tive in racing for many years. The Heiligbrodt

name is familiar to many since their name ap-pears in racing forms all across the country - usually with Steve Assmussen as their trainer.

The Heiligbrodt’s got started in Texas Quar-ter horse cutting competitions and went on to racing. Between 1999 and 2007 they won 11 two-year-old stakes races at LoneStar Park. You see Bill is a big fan of running two-year-olds and watching them develop. They own Palacios Farm in Texas

People are great to have in a Hall of fame but if it were not for the horses we would not have to even think about honoring people.

So we are going to honor a horse, Dixie Dot Com. As a six-year-old in 2001, he became the only horse in history to win both the Grade 3 Texas Mile and the LoneStar Handicap in only


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two appearances at LoneStar Park. He had 8 wins in 23 starts and was in the money 15 times. He earned

$1,332,775 in his 5 year career. Sixteen of those races were graded stakes races and he finished in the top three ten times. Dixie Dot com’s owners are Don and Carole Chaiken along with Bart and Ronelle Heller. Con-gratulations to all the inductees.

See you in the paddock.


Hear about plans to provide new revenue streams that will positively impact the entire Texas Horse Industry.

Attention all Horsemen and Women!A Meeting You Can’t Afford to Miss!

REVENUE FOR: •Racingandbreeding

•Horseadoptionandretirementprograms

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•Eventing:crosscountry, hunter-jumper,dressage

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•Haltershowing

•Trailriding/enduranceriding

•Gymkhana:barrelracing,polebending,etc.

•Combineddriving/carriagedriving

•Polo

WHODave Hooper,

Executive Director, Texas Thoroughbred

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July 21 at 7pm (dinner at 6:30)

WHERECarriage House Café

7955 Fallbrook Houston, Texas


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THE MARKER CLIP

Howdy, welcome to Cowboy Corner. Last month I wrote about ol’ dogs and new tricks, which is kinda an ongoing thing. At least the old dogs part is never ending.

Anyone who has read Cowboy Corner for a while knows how much I like using surveyors marking tape in fluorescent colors. Best thing I have found to mark a road, a hole in the fence, a gate to close, and the way the wind is blow-ing. Carry a roll in the truck and another in my saddle bags. Like the fluorescent orange best,

but hot pink also works well.Was hauling some greatly abused cattle pan-

els to the repair shop the other day and got to thinkin’ about the four feet of the twelve foot panel hangin’ behind my eight foot truck bed. Don’t have one of those fancy red flags used by the eighteen wheeler boys, so I started looking for my marking tape.

Several days before at a sale, I had bought some spring clips (clamps) in four and six inch sizes. These clips are good for holding material while cutting, drilling, or gluing. Lady at the sale said she used the clips to keep a tablecloth on her picnic table in the wind.

Got to thinking this clip would make part of a good caution marker for long loads. The handles have a hole near the grip end, so I used a piece of hay string to make a place between the handles to attach the marking tape. Used two pieces of tape, three feet long, doubled, to attach to the hay string. So the fluorescent or-ange streamer has four eighteen inch pieces.

“If a fella can’t see that, he ain’t got no busi-ness drivin’”, was the comment from one of my ol’ saddle pals.

Have used the clip and tape combination many times instead of using clothes pins.

Clothes pins don’t have the strength or distance between the jaws for highway use. The clothes pin markers are great for marking wire fence as described in Cowboy Corner years ago. Guess we’ll just call the spring clip marker another new trick for an ol’ dog.

Regardless of what the calendar says sum-mer is here. The record high temperatures and no rain has made summer go into fast forward. Remember the 180 rule, be careful when the temperature and humidity add up to 180 or above. Use electrolytes either commercially available or home brew and watch your water supply. Float valves on water troughs always seem to break during the summer.

Happy Trails!

horseback magazine july 08

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