For non-rodeo people horse power is a car or truck thing. For rodeo people it’s about the best compliment a timed event person can get. Great horses become as famous as the cowboy or cowgirl that rides them.
The National Finals Rodeo is going on and there will be all kinds of shows and experts on TV. Joe Beaver will commentate on the team roping and calf roping each night. Joe won five calf roping World Championships and qualified for the National Finals in the team roping as a header. Joe can quickly point out the little mistakes a roper makes during the run. He also points out what a roping horse did or did not do.
During years Trevor Brazile was making the finals and being so dominate, Joe Beaver said several times one of Trevor’s best qualities was his horses. Joe jokingly would say, “Trevor doesn’t mind writing that check for a good horse.” Trevor and Texaco and the bridle-less run come to mind. I think that run really caused that horse to become famous.
Topper and Roy Cooper are probably the most famous in pair in the calf roping. Charmayne James and Scamper, the most successful pair to ever run the cloverleaf barrel racing pattern. Clay Smith and Marty in the team roping come to mind. Willie and all the bull doggers that rode him in the steer wresting.
I’ve been fortunate over the years to own some really good horses. I had a Two Eyed Jack horse I sold some people in Michigan. They made the IFR in the team roping for several years riding him. I was lucky enough to buy a semi-retired barrel racing horse from an NFR qualifier for my daughter when she was in high school. More recently I was lucky enough to purchase Django from Sylvester Mayfield. Django is the horse Shad rode at his first NFR.
My great uncle always said, “it doesn’t cost anymore to feed a good one.” I guess his philosophy has became ingrained in me because I’ve had some horses I hated to feed. They weren’t winners and everytime I fed them I felt I was wasting time and money. This past year I culled several I had around the house. We don’t have very many horses anymore, but the ones that are still here it doesn’t bother me to feed them.
Django is an escape artist so I have to really keep an eye on the stall door latch. He can untie himself when he’s tied at the trailer, and he can figure out how to unlatch the stall door and get out.
Fred Whitfield said one time, “you put those top guys on a dink and they can’t win nothin.” My son was thirteen when we bought Django. He’s won money at all but eight rodeos since he started riding him. Horsepower, Webster’s dictionary needs to update their definition during the National Finals Rodeo, because it sure shows up in the Thomas and Mack.
Shad Mayfield riding “Django”
James Lockhart lives near the Kiamichi mountains in southeast Oklahoma. He writes cowboy stories and fools with cows and horses.
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