I’ve been watching this fella for a long time. He was horseback when he was four days old. I know because I was holding him. His first pony double barreled him in the chest, run him under trees and bucked him off. When he got it figured out, Rio and rial were a team and that pony started a young cowboy on the journey. I had a pony named PeeWee that did the same thing.

When I was doing horse clinics to make a living I spent a lot of time in the Midwest and started lots of Colts and did horsemanship clinics at Lee and Diane Sackett’s. I have lots of memories in that place. Rial was about 10 years old when we first started going there, and went there all the time he was growing up. I think he started his first colt there, and I’m sure a few other things happened that I don’t know about.

This past week He and his Mother did a clinic there together. I watched some of the video and it is great to see his approach at presenting to the horse and people. All the versatility he has learned in horsemanship from riding broncs to jumping fences to handling livestock have shaped what I think is a horseman that has much to offer horses and humans.

Watch Utube video.

He has always stepped up and took the bad ones when we would contract to start colts. I’ve watched him get really good at riding broncs. He can really rope. I have  also watched him cry like a baby when we had to put Rio, his pony down. He has a lot of feel.

It is so nice to see someone just get along and get things done without a lot of hype. I feel that horsemanship has gotten real extreme, and all about ego based training, so I am real proud that Rial has kept that out of his program. He gets results when it doesn’t look like he is doing much. He is thinking way ahead instead of right now results and I think that is very important in horsemanship.

The best thing is is that he thinks for himself. He has always been a little different in his way of thinking and doing things. It’s been fun to watch, is nice to see right now, and it looks like the future is helping animals and people. Stay tuned.