Stepping Up
Children will grow out of horses like they grow out of shoes, so parents should be prepared to have a revolving barn door.
For instance, Mesa Leavitt went through several horses before she was ready for her two standout mounts — Jo Lena Doc (“San Jo”) and Juniors Genuine Doc (“Junior”). Incidentally, Junior was purchased from Rosser.
“Before we sold Junior to Mesa, we had sold her three or four different horses,” Rosser explained. “Each one was a step up, and she just got better and better.”
Sometimes a step-up horse will only be around for a short while, but it’s better to take that step rather than skipping it. Taking too big of a step is more likely to scare the child and cause her to lose interest.
Luckily, Rosser said, the step-up horses hold their values extremely well as there is always another child ready to take the next step up in speed.
“These horses make the rounds teaching a whole bunch of children how to ride and win,” she said, referencing Sherrylynn’s top high-school and college mount, Cinderella Priest, by Passem Priest.
“That mare made the rounds,” she explained. “She went from Sherrylynn to Sassi’s mother and on down the line to Sassi’s older sister before she died. You just can’t beat the older horse as a teaching tool.”
Incidentally, Cinderella Priest is the dam of Little Dash Priest, by First Down Laveaux, Sassie Jae Thompson’s 2007 Josey Reunion winning mount.
Getting in the Loop
Good youth horses aren’t hard to find, but they’re often hard to get a hold of. Sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time, like when a high school girl is selling her seasoned campaigner so she can afford college or getting that top junior boy’s horse bought when the current rider chooses football over rodeo.
When Waddle first started hauling Aubrey to junior rodeos, he quickly found out the best way to help his children get the horses they needed was get in the loop. They got started off on the right track when they purchased a Paint horse named Cisco from Sabrina Devers of Devers Performance Horses in Perryton, Texas. With Sheridan Cummings keeping Aubrey and Cisco tuned and in sync, the duo quickly went to winning.
“With Aubrey, we were brand-new to it,” he recalled. “Now with the younger kids, we’ve got so many friends that we’ve met across the state, it’s a lot easier to find the right horses.”
Waddle and his wife always have their eyes open for potential remounts for the four children.
“I’m always in the back, working the alleyway, and Laura’s up in the stands, keeping times,” he said. “She keeps her eye on the kids who are moving up in age groups and will need a more competitive horse. She gets to see how the horse performs in the arena and I get to see how it acts in the alleyway. You approach the parents later and say, ‘At the end of the year, if you’re looking to sell that horse, would you keep us in mind?’ You just have to put your name in the hat.”
Waddle is currently experiencing the other side of the coin. With Aubrey giving up barrel racing and pole bending for roping this fall, several people have put their name in the hat for his top horse, Bugs. With all that Bugs helped Aubrey accomplish, the gelding’s found a very special place in the Waddle family, but they know he has other children to train. Regardless, Bugs won’t go to just any home.
Buying from Brokers
With 30 years of experience matching horses and young riders, Rosser has perhaps the best reputation in the business for brokering youth horses. She won’t sell a horse that she doesn’t know and that hasn’t been on her place.
The horses that she takes in on consignment are ready to go on to the next rider. They are not trained on or tuned up. The horse is both kid-safe and ready to be sold, or it’s not on their place.
When Rosser first started brokering horses, Sherrylynn was her test pilot. Today, it’s 8-year-old Thompson.
“She sends them to the first barrel from a long alleyway,” Rosser explained, “and if they don’t turn the first barrel, we don’t keep it. If it won’t turn without her having to pull or snatch on it, we don’t want it. If that horse wants to work on its own, we pursue it.”
Another reason Rosser likes to have consignment horses on her place is to assess their behavior and make sure they’re free of any pain-killing or mind-altering drugs.
“These days you can get in a storm because people can give them all kinds of stuff,” she lamented. “I want people to bring their horse in here, so when I sell it to you, I know there’s not drugs in it. If they won’t let me bring the horse in here, then I won’t sell it. That’s how I’ve sold horses down at Martha Josey’s for 25 years. She knows I’m not going to drug it.”
The keys to dealing with a broker, Rosser said, is to know the broker’s reputation and have access to help if you need it.
Access to Help
Waddle noted that brokers will sometimes get bad reputations through no fault of their own.
“Some brokers are real crooks, but most of them get bad reps because they sell a horse to someone who doesn’t know how to keep it tuned. If you’ve got a kid up there jerking on them, the wheels are going to fall off. The buyer starts blaming the seller. People start saying, ‘Oh, well, they must have the horse on some type of drug that made him run really good for two months.’ There are no mystery drugs that make a horse run good for two months. It’s just that you have to be able to get them tuned up from time to time.”
Rosser doesn’t charge her clients for help with the horses they’ve purchased.
“They can come back whenever they want,” she said. “That’s just part of good business. We want them to win because if they win, they’re going to help us sell more horses.”
Rosser added that outside help and both barrel racing and horsemanship clinics are extremely valuable as well.
Find the Right Horse
Whether you’re buying a horse for yourself or your child, fit is the most important factor.
“The horse has to match the kid,” Rosser said. “They’ve got to fit personality wise, and the kid has to be comfortable.”
When it comes to matching riding styles, children often do better with push-type horses as opposed to free runners.
“Martha’s always told me a push-type horse is what you need to give a kid, because it will make the kid more aggressive and give them confidence,” Rosser recalled. “If you give them one that runs off or that they have to check to make turn, they’re not going to excel at that.
“Most of the time you can tell when a kid gets on a horse if it’s going to fit or not,” she continued. “There is always going to be some perfection things — the little bitty picky things that can mean the difference between winning and placing — but you can tell right away if it’s going to work. If a kid gets on a horse and immediately gets frustrated or the horse gets frustrated, it’s not going to work.”
Rosser won’t tell someone that she thinks a horse and rider are a fit. However, she will tell them when she thinks it won’t work. Rosser also noted that if a horse and rider are still having problems three to four months after the horse was purchased, the fit probably wasn’t right to begin with. Either the chemistry wasn’t there or maybe a step was missed on the ladder to a more advanced horse.
Waddle said, first and foremost, he doesn’t want a horse that’s going to scare his children no matter how well the horse works in the arena. For example, he’ll tolerate a horse with some fire in the alleyway, but the horse better keep its feet on the ground.
“The minute their front feet leave the ground,” he said, “I’m done with them. That horse is either for sale or out to pasture.”
Children don’t react to potentially dangerous situations like adults do, Waddle noted. A scared adult will still try to think of a way out of a dangerous situation, but fear will overrule rational thinking in a child.
This article was originally published in the October 2007 issue of Barrel Horse News.
