I'd like to tell you about the time I hired on as a colt breaker for a big outfit in northern Florida. My mother was living in Florida at the time and I went there to stay with her and her husband. I didn't go there by choice though.

No, I went there because I needed a place to heal up. I was pretty crippled up from my previous job as a colt breaker for an outfit in Montana...

That job was a nightmare.

I learned a bunch, but almost got killed in the process. I was a wet-behind-the-ears kid starting 40 head of wild, 3 to 5-year-olds that almost never had a human hand laid on them. Most of those broncs were wild, rank and down right dangerous.

I was in way over my head but gave it my best shot anyway. (When just starting out and learning, most trainer's have some bad wrecks that hurt like hell at the time but make for good stories to tell later .

Anyway, I'm getting off track. Montana is another story, let's get back to Florida.

So anyway, after I healed up, I hired on to start colts for this big outfit in Florida. I always thought of Florida as a big golf course, all green, manicured and inhabited only by retired senior citizens. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Florida is loaded with big cattle ranches. The ranch I went to work for ran 10,000 head of cattle on 30,000 acres of pasture and feed lot. They also had around 100 head of horses. But these weren't your typical, run-of-the-mill ranch horses.

No, this outfit owned two NCHA world champion mares and several AQHA champion mares plus other mares carrying top performance bloodlines. They also had owned Hollywood Bill, the best breeding son of the legendary Hollywood Gold. Most of the colts I started there were the offspring of Hollywood Bill and out of their champion mares.

Man, those were good colts! I was just starting out and literally didn't have any legitimate training knowledge. Yet, in spite of my lack of formal training expertise, those colts turned out great.

For example, I had never trained or even ridden a cutting horse before, but all of those colts were working cattle well in a matter of weeks. I had never ridden or trained a reining horse before, yet all of these colts would stop and turn around.

And, they did it with style.

The ranch manager asked me to train a couple colts for him and his wife to show at the Florida Gold Coast Pleasure Futurity. If you aren't familiar with this futurity, back in the mid 70's, it was a big deal. All the top trainers across the U.S. competed there.

Even though I had no idea how to train a pleasure futurity horse, I agreed to give it a shot. All I knew was that a pleasure horse was supposed to keep his head low and walk, trot and lope real slow. I had 90 days to get two colts ready.

I figured there was no way. I didn't feel pressured though because I was up-front with the ranch manager. I admitted to him I didn't have a clue. He told me to just do my best and if it didn't work out, oh well.

You know what I did to get those two colts prepared for the pleasure futurity? I rode them in the pastures checking cattle. I walked, trotted and loped them for long periods at a time so they would get tired, learn to relax and slow down. That was it.

That was all I did with those colts cause I didn't know anything else. And you know what, after a couple months, they kinda started acting like pleasure horses.

Finally, the day of the futurity arrived. It was two go-rounds and a finals. I don't remember exactly how many entries there were but it was a lot. The ranch manager and his wife took those two colts and kicked butt on the competition.

He made the finals and placed 5th. His wife placed 9th in the finals. I couldn't believe it. I was sitting in the grandstand watching and figured with all those top trainers and expensive colts entered, the show would be a bomb-out for us.

Now, I didn't tell you this story just to entertain you. No, I told the story to illustrate an important point that most people just never get...

If you have a really good horse...
You don't have to be a top trainer to win something.

I knew nothing about training a pleasure horse, yet the two colts I trained kicked ass at the show. Why? Because they were exceptionally good colts. And I can point out example after example of the same kind of experience I've had with other good horses.

Having an exceptionally good horse is the key to success.

Look, I'm not going to name any names, but there are people out there winning at the shows that couldn't train a fish to swim, let alone a performance horse. Yet, these people win over and over again. How do they do it? They are smart enough to make sure they are mounted on exceptionally good horses.

I consider myself a good trainer. I've trained plenty of top performance horses and have done my share of winning at the shows. However, I'll be the first to tell you that I won't win much if I'm showing just an "average" horse.

The competition is just too tuff. If you want a shot at winning, you better be riding something that's pretty darn good.

Now, a lot of folks have their priorities mixed up. I'll see someone pull into the show grounds driving a $50,000 truck and trailer, but inside that trailer will be a second-rate $6,000 show horse. It doesn't make any sense.

If you want to win, spend your money on the horse, not on the truck and trailer. Nobody will laugh at you for driving a piece-of-crap truck if you are leaving the show with the winning check in your pocket

Until next time, have fun training your horse.