My 18 year old roping horse, TJ, has become the local baby sitter..A friends daughter (11 years old and pretty handy with a horse)had her horse come up lame, and a qualifier rodeo was around the corner..She borried TJ and did real well and loved him..Then another kid named Jake and he is about 8 I think had the same experience,and he was horse shy but since his family rodeoed he really wanted to ride but he was a big intimidated...We had a days practice at steer roping, calf roping , and goat tying, and wanted to enter the kids rodeo in Buhel, Id...His first steer came out of the box and Tj didn't move a muscle, Jake was confused? My daughter in law told Jake he needed to spur or lean forward or TJ won't budge..He did and after that he was good to go..At the rodeo he caught his first steer in his short life, caught his first calf in his life and tied his first goat..The steers heeler missed, the calf ran thru his loop, and he did well on the goat, and he is hooked, he was proud as if he had won it all, great kid....He asked my daughter in law if she would ask me if he could borrow TJ for the jr. finals next week, She said I think he will let you borrow TJ..I heeled 10 steer on him last nite and the night before, and he was a ball of fire, we head and heeled one in about 4 seconds flat..He is the wonder horse...My 3 year old great grand daughter rides him in the arena at home, and she has put her claim on him I have a feeling...

Owning an animal like him makes one feel good inside..When you can rope a bunch of steer or calves on a horse and then put a 3 year old on him and go sit down and watch her ride, you know you own the best there is...

Feels good helping these kids, its special..

If a man is lucky, he might own a dog or horse that does it all, maybe once or twice in his lifetime.

It is humbling.

Sharing TJ with those kids is kind beyond words.

BH63

Ive been blessed with a number of outstanding horses like TJ, Harley, Bo, Tater, Mojo, Oscar and a couple of others were all different but great, all were rope horses, calf and steer, some would run barrels and poles,as I had one daughter who messed with them, a good horse will do it all, the all would pack a deer or elk quarters and were good ranch horses...wet saddle blankets are the key to good horses, give them a job as opposed to being a pasture pet..most of my horses were not National finals quality, but then neither was I, they were just good solid horses that could be trusted to do what you asked of them.

My granddaughter raised and trained a horse, cold black quarter horse with good breeding, she roped off him for awhile and a fellow offered her big big bucks for him, and that buyer sold him to the present worlds Champion team roper Wesley Thrope and we watch him rope from time to time on Pistol...She is one handy cowgirl, a Nurse at the Twin Falls hospital, and makes a lot of money roping..All my family ropes and most train horses along with a real job, and that helps pay the bills big time..

A good trainer/owner can bring out the best in a horse.

A bad one can ruin even a great horse.

BH63

true words..

quote:

A good trainer/owner can bring out the best in a horse.

And the difficult part can be taking the worst out of a horse without killing it. A friend called the vet for help and suggested he may have to call the SPCA.

A long boring story that I do not have permission to tell.

Daunte's Inferno is called a comedy because Daunte's Inferno had a bad start with a happy ending. In those days we only had two stories, one was a comedy because it had a happy ending and then there was tragedy because the story had a bad ending.

F. Guffey

quote:

If a man is lucky, he might own a dog or horse that does it all, maybe once or twice in his lifetime.

My son and I was hunting quail near Port Lavaca, TX when a rattler buzzed up; my son is fast. I hollered, "Don't shoot, don't shoot!" and he was confused. He wanted to know why, I explained to him if he shot the snake we would be hunting snakes for the rest of the day.

The dog had no clue what we had planned to hunt that day but as soon as he cough on he would be up to speed.

One day my son said he was taking the dog fishing with him. I explained to him the dog was a bird dog, Labrador retriever and then my son explains to me if that dog is a birddog, Labrador retriever and I take him fishing he will not have anything to do. I will tell you I can not beat that one.

It was two months before my son would talk about the fishing trip. and to this day the dog never knew he did anything wrong. People on the lake called him "The hound from Hell"

F. Guffey

quote:

Originally posted by BuffHunter63:
A good trainer/owner can bring out the best in a horse.

A bad one can ruin even a great horse.

BH63

Same with dogs

quote:

Same with dogs

I do not recommend trying it but some of us were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Raising birds without knowing what to expect was difficult but the reward of turning them loose and having them come back was worth the trip. And then there was the one that took a year to get back. There were no books on raising birds so we taught them to blind-in. Our neighbors knew something was going on and then came show and tell at school.

F. Guffey

I taught my dog to shake hands, I was his pet from then on he owned me..I love dogs, but never could teach them a thing, never tried, just spoiled them I guess..I can teach a horse to talk and do math, can't teach a dog to come here or sit..

TJ, is may be about 21 years old according to a 10 year old vet check that may or may not be correct, few vets can mouth a 10 year old horse as a matter of fact, but don't tell them that...

Any my man has a new home, he is going to California where its warm year around, he has a stall and green pasture and all the love a horse can get from two little girls that are going to learn to rope on him..There dad is a high number roper and they have the horse that can do the job and a dad to coach them..I will miss that old boy, he sure has been good to me, we made a team in the roping pen...

I am not horse people. When I have to ride one I can manage not to fall off, but that's as far as it goes. At a field trial once We had some cattle loose on the course and I asked the ranch manager could they be moved into the gated off area. He told me to take his horse and just go herd them into the area and shut the gate. He didn't tell me it was his cutting horse, and the horse knew more about what I wanted to do than I did. When I got out to where the cattle were and started moving them, that damned horse took over. It took me about 30 seconds to understand that falling off was now a very likely outcome and since the horse had the cattle headed in the right direction already, I whoa'ed him and got off and just led the horse while we pushed the cattle through the gate. I think the horse was kind of disappointed in me as a person and glad to be rid of me when we got back.

Its best if it comes to you as a life style, and learned before you learn to walk! My 3 and 5 year old great grand daughters are now running barrels and poles at the Jr. shows, and working cattle with their dad and mom..its just the natural order of life in my family going back ions and passed down thru generations of family...

Ray, go on line and look at Wyoming Horse and Mules from Banner Wyoming. They are friends of ours. They sell many high dollar horses and mules and are well know.

My problem is finding a replacement..I quit competeing in team roping this year, but would like an aged guilding or mare to go practice once a month with my grandkids and great grand kids, a horse no problems, don't want to train, just want to play. Im a heeler mostly and lean towards a smaller horse, as I age my legs get shorter!! Hopefully I can find a horse thats been a good one, thats broke and finihed just too old to travel and the owner would like to find him a good home and an easy life...

I might add that I don't need a $10.000 to $20,000 horse to practice on once a month and rope 5 steers in a evening..Lots of those around, everyone wants to sell me one.