It looks like the DNCFR and Houston will not be conflicting anymore, so if it can remain that way, that would be great.

A lot of cool things happened over the weekend at both events. My good friend Wade Sumpter won the $50K in Houston. It’s crazy, but before last year I figured that was almost a guaranteed world title, but it’s not. In the bull riding, B.J. Schumacher won it for the second year in a row and didn’t take over the top spot in the world standings. Chance Smart is on fire.

It was great to Chad Masters and Jade Corkill win over $33K just before Chad went in for surgery on his knee. He just bought a place near Lipan, Texas, so every penny of that will come in handy.

Houston was really a feel good rodeo. I personally can’t believe Billy Etbauer won it in a ride-off. And it’s not like he was battling a young kid for it, it was Rod Hay. Etbauer is 45 and Hay is 39. Billy has a chance to tie Dan Mortensen and Casey Tibbs’ historic record of six world saddle bronc riding titles.

Unless Martha gets hurt, Lindsay Sears is your next world champion barrel racer.

The all-around race looks interesting. Due to a tie-breaker Josh Peek edged out Trevor Brazile to advance in Houston and then went on to win the $50K. If Peek—or Steven Dent who won the $50K in the bareback riding—can keep up with Trevor’s pace, the all-around will be a good race come December.

That said, I was thinking the other day, and I don’t know if it was ever written in so many words, but Trevor’s 2007 season was probably the best ProRodeo season ever—by any standard.

On a personal note, I looked at a horse this weekend that I really liked. Friends of the family, Jack and Sylvia McComber, are raising some nice horses outside of Rocky Ford, Colo. They’ve got a stud called Hi Wild N Woolie that this horse is by that I looked at. That stud is by Smart Peppy Doc, a horse my uncle Greg showed a bunch. SPD by Doc O’Lena. Hi Wild N Woolie is out of a Little Peppy Mare.

This three-year-old I looked at, interestingly enough, is out of a mare named Hangtown Gal, who is out of a mare named Miss Docsana, who my dad once owned. Hangtown Gal is by Son Ofa Senior, who is by Son ofa Doc who, I think, is by Doc Bar. Miss Docsanna is a Little Peppy mare.

Anyway, this horse I looked at is well-bred by my standards so I think I’ll make another trip down this weekend and look closer. He’s a little green, which I wanted to avoid, but it might be worth the effort.

Funny thing happened, though. The guy went to winning. As I write this, he’s second in the world behind Chance Smart—who is riding incredibly himself.

I talked to Mo after he won nearly $20K in Houston and he was emotional. It was as if he had given up ever winning a PRCA world championship, was moving on, and suddenly it was a reality again. He seemed to be at a huge crossroads, but I think we’ll see him rodeoing again, trying to get to the Finals and win the world.

As an update on my horse, the buckskin won’t work out. I like him and in fact offered full asking price, but the sellers decided not to let him go. Oh well.

I’ll be back out there this weekend trying to find something else. Got a few leads.

Keep updated with all the rodeo action this weekend at www.rodeohouston.com and www.prorodeo.com for the DNCFR.

I called some friends and my dad called some friends. I talked to Joe Wolter, he didn’t know of anything, my dad called Tom Moorhouse and he had a bronc he’d sell me, but then he won the AQHA Remuda of the Year award and his price went through the roof. Dad talked to Bill Smith and Rod Smith, but nothing they had was quite right.

Then my dad remembered a horse his neighbor had. He’s an eight-year-old buckskin gelding that my dad’s neighbors didn’t get along with. Supposedly he was bred and trained by Wayne Smith, Bill’s nephew, but we’ve got some calls to make to confirm that.

Well, Dad rode him for a week and couldn’t decide what he thought. My brother’s wife has been sick, so my dad had planned to come from his home in Wolfforth, Texas, (just outside of Lubbock), to the family ranch that my brother manages, to give him a weekend off. The ranch is about two hours south of where I live in Southern Colorado, so we just decided to load up, meet my dad at the ranch and go try the horse.

Right when we pulled into the headquarters, my brother was saddled and had a heifer we needed to bring in. She’d been trying to calve all afternoon and it wasn’t going well. My brother figured we’d need to pull the calf. I saddled up right quick and we loped out to her. Well, he was right so we started driving her to the corrals. Just as we crossed the road, my dad pulled up from Texas with the horse in the trailer.  I trotted over and took the saddle of the horse I was riding, Deuce, and put it on the buckskin. We drove the heifer in no problem, but she was getting weak and wobbly.

My brother decided we should not put the cow in the chute to pull her calf. She acted so weak, he didn’t want her to get down and not be able to get up in there, so he asked me to rope her by a hind leg and he’d just pull the calf in the corral. The cow acted real weak.

I figured we’d see what old buckskin could do right away, so I roped the heifer. I thought she’d lay right down, but she didn’t. She came alive. She started bouncing at the end of my rope and trying to hook my brother. Old buckskin never acted worried at all. He just anchored to the ground. It was so muddy, she pulled us about a foot in the mud, but the buckskin never weakened. I was impressed. (We got her tied down and pulled a monster calf, but within 24 hours the brute was up and sucking.)

The next day my wife and I rode him probably 15 miles, he’s out of shape and a little pigeon-toed, so I figured if he was going to be lame he’d show it the next day. He never did.

He’s been the best prospect so far. He’s got some holes, though. He pushes on me when we ride out instead of just traveling in a straight line. He doesn’t act like he’s ever been trained on a cow, he’s a little shy of things like taking your coat off on him and he tries to booger at things in the pasture, but all-in-all, he handles good and seems to have a kind nature. We need to see his papers—they’re locked in a truck at the Lubbock airport now—and confirm a few things, but he’s the front runner at present.

We’re going to keep looking, but that’s the latest on the horse saga. Thanks for reading.

Of course, we were still doctoring my horse, Badges, from his bad accident. The Sunday before we were supposed to start exercising him he bit his wrap and ginched it up real bad. At first, we thought he just bowed a tendon, which we were pretty frustrated about.

As it turned out, he created tourniquet around his leg and crushed all the blood vessels. The lower half of his leg was getting no blood. We tried to doctor it, but soon it was evident it would not heal. We went from being one day away from his recovery starting in earnest to having to put down our great horse and great friend.

It was a sad day.

My friend and neighbor let me bury him on his place. I’m forever in his debt. I found a nice northwest-facing slope and the vet did her thing. Old Badges found a few sprigs of green grass and was peaceful and content until the end. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the fellas with the backhoe, they did a great job.

At any rate, I haven’t been in the mood to blog, so I didn’t. Sorry.

San Antonio was great and it looks like Houston’s going to be awesome, too. That’s all for now, I’ll get back on track from here forward, thanks for your understanding and enjoy your good horse while you got him.