Blog
Chatter
Winter.... sucks! Find a few tips how to make your below freezing days better with your animals & ranch!
Here is the second round of the Pink Buckle, the average numbers are coming here shortly. As you will notice there are spaces in some of the horses listed. I have the first round placing horses column hidden at the moment but I kept their spots in place. On the average list I will show which horses places in 1st, 2nd and the Average. Some interesting story lines are starting to crop up. Like Dashin Dynamo's Tiny Dash Of Magic and Riley Parker, who placed in the Futurity, Amateur Futurity, Sale Incentive and Youth for $8543 in earnings for the second round! What an incredible event and incentive to be able to win that with a youth in multiple classes! Many times I feel like people need a big event or something to focus on in order to push them to reach their goals. These events like this are a great example of that. The Pink & Ruby Buckle and a few other divisional races like the BBR Finals and All In Races offer a chance to win big money for many divisional riders. Maybe they are a youth, senior, amateur, or maybe they have never had a chance to ride or own a well bred horse and choose to breed for one, these events in my opinion are a good start at trying to better your horsemanship, your horses pedigree, or just to have a shot at winning some big money! Years ago I was the publicist for Jud Little and got to go to the NFR when JL Dash Ta Heaven & Chicados Cash ran. Although I had been to the NFR before, this was my first time to get to experience it in the mix with some of the barrel racers. And I went to the NFR morning practices and stood in the pearly alleyway of the Thomas & Mac at the ground floor. I had some nice pro rodeo horses prior but never could keep them sound all year. They were older and I had retired them. Just standing there gave me a lot of incentive to keep working on my own horsemanship, my colts, and my future plans. I took a picture, it hangs on my wall and I also put it on a coffee cup that I start every day with. It was taken just outside of where the barrel racers come into alley at from the side gate with what they see before crossing the plane of the alley into the arena. Whatever gives you inspiration I hope you find it!
As someone who does a lot of Stallion Equine Marketing, the Pink Buckle is a huge event, and I heard on a podcast that it was stated at an AQHA meeting that it's the most disruptive thing to hit the horse world since the All American Futurity. And probably so! I am a huge proponent of usage in Registered Names at EVERY RACE. Even on social media. I run a number of stallion social media pages. And many days I start my mornings with searching a stallions name or hashtag.... only to find that 90% of people use their barn names on posts. So not only do I have to somewhat remember your horses name, its breeding, but also its barn name so that I can market the stallion. Please start posting Registered Names and entering under them, my fingers, boyfriend, horses and dogs will appreciate me not being glued to the phone trying to look up horses! We are one of the only equine events that I know of that breeding is a huge factor that allows for people to enter under a barn name. We have to do better. Even if you think your horse's breeding isn't special, someone somewhere bred a mare to a stallion, weaned your horse, got it broke, and trained it (and sometimes in multiple disciplines) before it got to you. And if your horses breeding is special some stallion owner has paid said stallion into UMPTEEN incentives just so you and FLUFFY can go around and never enter under its barn name bc you can't be bothered to write it down on the entry form or facebook post. Producers need to have registered names to have a chance to send it into Equistat! I think a race has to be 60-70% registered names for it to go to Equistat and count for everyone. Ok off that soap box... for now. Breeders events are getting more and more popular and its creeping out of the aged events section and hitting the open divisional races too. I think the neatest thing with the Pink and Ruby Buckle Races is that once you sell a horse or breed your stallion to someones mare, that is where your control ends. You don't have any control over the quality of home/rider/trainer that horse gets if that owner/breeder decides to sell. With these events and with Future Fortunes, Triple Crown and several others now paying out in the Open and in many Divisions it gives the stallion owner and breeder a chance to earn money on the horse its entire competitive life as long as they stayed nominated or payed in to begin with. Kudos to everyone who won in the first go of the Pink Buckle. As I post this they are running the 2nd Go of the Open. I will have more numbers in the coming days for the 2nd Round and Average. As for me, I'd best get back to editing some ads and websites. I updated one of my favorite tee shirts designs today too. Its a super soft Tri-Blend.