Boyd Rice

“My neck and shoulders were a little bit sore the first day, but I’m fine. All of them [cutting show horses and another turnback horse in the same trailer] are doing well, except ‘Paint.’ The accident just broke his neck,” said Rice, driver and lone passenger in his truck as it hit a slick spot, left the roadway and headed toward the bottom of a hill.

During the accident, the truck and trailer flipped, leaving the trailer on one of its sides. Husband and wife Luke and Nina Hammerness, who work with Rice, were following behind in another vehicle. They assisted Rice during a long effort to rescue the horses. Several passing motorists and many employees from the nearby 6666 Ranch also helped. “I’m going to say it took about three hours [to get all horses out of the trailer],” Rice said.

“We had to cut the top of it off. Luke kicked the vents out of the top with his feet. Then we ran a chain through the vent, hooked it up to the back of my pickup, and I put my pickup in 4-wheel drive and we ripped the roof off. They [Luke and Nina Hammerness] worked their butts off to help me get the horses out and a lot of other people helped, too.”

While still awaiting full reports following veterinarian checkups, Rice said aside from his late turnback horse, all others traveling with him appeared to make it out of the accident relatively unscathed. “It will take a couple of weeks before they know if there are any other back or neck problems, but we are thinking everyone is in pretty good shape.” He realizes things could have turned out a lot worse, Rice said.

The late Deltas Color (Color Me Smart [PT] x Delta Flyers Bueno [PT] x Delta Flyer [PT]) earned a combined $57,797 during his dual careers as a cow horse competitor and cutter. He eventually became much better known among many cutters as Rice’s go-to turnback performer.

“Paint” had helped many earn big checks the past several years. It has been comforting to him, Rice said, reading so many Facebook comments from people the past few days commenting on their affection and admiration for “Paint.”

“When I wasn’t on him, somebody else was was,” Rice said. “There’s no telling how many people he helped win, because everybody borrowed him. Every little kid in the country had ridden him and when he was out in the arena, people took pictures of him that I never knew they took.”

'Paint' & Boyd Rice

Accident Claims Popular Helper 'Paint'

Deltas Color, a 13-year-old Paint gelding that helped Boyd Rice get his start as a cow horse competitor, and who helped many cutting horse riders earn large limited-age checks, died suddenly on Jan. 9 following an accident while traveling home from a cutting in Abilene, Texas, with Rice and several cutting show horses.

Rice and the show horses traveling with him apparently avoided serious injury as the trainer lost control of his rig on a slick roadway, but “Paint” died at the scene.

“Paint,” (Color Me Smart [PT] x Delta Flyers Bueno [PT] x Delta Flyer [PT]), earned a combined $57,797 during his own dual careers as a cow horse competitor and cutter. He then became much better known among many cutters as Rice’s go-to turnback performer.

No slouch in the cutting pen himself with $21,146 in career cutting earnings, “Paint,” bred by Butler Bobby/Ladyhawk Deb, Santa Rosa, Calif., helped many cutting horses and riders earn really big checks. Rice described his longtime partner as “an ideal turnback horse” and an invaluable part of his program during an interview last year.

“It’s an important deal when I’m helping someone,” Rice said. “I might be in the wrong place, but I don’t want it to be because of my horse.” That was seldom the case when he helped someone while aboard “Paint.”

Deltas Color was also the first horse that Rice ever competed with at the reined cow horse world’s premier event, the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity. They competed in Reno, Nev., during early fall of 2002, when “Paint” was a 3-year-old. They also competed quite well. They placed sixth overall in the Open division to earn $25,875 and picked up and extra $6,759 by taking third in the Limited Open that year.

Rice and the same horse had won a 3-year-old cutting title a few weeks before that, taking top honors at the Oklahoma Early Bird Futurity event. That same summer, they also placed fourth to earn $3,200 in the Futurity Open at the West Texas Cutting Futurity.

“Paint” ended up earning nearly $40,000 as a cutter and cow horse during his first season.

While he’d only add about $18,000 more, his prowess as a turnback helper played roles in many other horses securing huge checks. "Paint" and Rice also helped One Time Royalty and Lloyd Cox set a new NCHA Futurity record as the 2007 stallion (One Time Pepto x Royal Serena Belle x Shorty Lena) won the 2010 event with a 230-point finals run to earn $250,000. He also carried Boyd’s son, Tarin Rice, now also a trainer, to a tie for second in the youth division at the 2006 Snaffle Bit Futurity in Reno.

Boyd Rice bought “Paint” at a sale in February of 2002, recognizing him as a winner.

“I had kind of been hunting for something that I could take up there [to the Snaffle Bit Futurity] and show,” Rice said. When he saw the 15-1 gelding, he thought, ‘That might be the one.’ “He really fit the bill,” Rice said.

“Paint” was buried near other great horses at 6666 Ranch in Guthrie, Texas.