
Craig’s Spin: Hauling Checklist

There is a manure load of money to be realized in the Bigs, events with $100,000 minimum. Prize money is actually the little money in cutting. Big money is a mare having 20 babies selling for $50,000 apiece. Or a stallion breeding a full book of mares for a couple of decades at $10,000. Each.
Somebody has to decide which pony got the job done best. All cutters are experts. We should be able to decide who was best amongst ourselves. Right? Honey Baked Hams will be franchising in the Middle East before that works.
Until then, we will stick with the five judge/monitor/video review system. The one we have been using for 25 years. It is complicated. It is expensive. It has more moving pieces than a Swiss watch. It is as fair as humans can make it, eliminating anything that could even possibly have the appearance of unfairness.
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Keith HallKeith Hall, owner of 1990 National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Futurity Open Champion Millie Montana and many other cutting horses since the early 1980s, pled no contest on Friday, Oct. 11, in a Weatherford, Texas, courtroom to one count of cruelty to animals. Eight similar charges, also tied to nine horses discovered dead or dying near Weatherford on Aug. 12, 2011, were dismissed as a condition of the negotiated plea.
Jack LidesterJack B. Lidester, age 80, a well known horseman, of Wingate, Ind., died Saturday, Oct. 5, in St. Elizabeth Central Hospital in Lafayette, Ind. He had been in failing health the past several years.
Lane Wood and Pepto BoomWith $25,000 added in both the Mercuria/NCHA World Series of Cutting Open and Non-Pro, there was incentive for trainers to travel from far-flung states to the All American Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio. Texas competitors took the top spots in both the Open and Non-Pro divisions.
Smart Little Pepinic and John Ward • Photo by Primo MoralesSmart Little Pepinic has become the National Reined Cow Horse Association's (NRCHA) newest Million-Dollar Sire. The 1993 stallion became a part of the iconic reined cow horse breeding program at the Ward Ranch in Kingsburg, Calif., when ranch founder Greg Ward purchased him as a 2-year-old. John Ward piloted him to the majority of his Equi-Statearnings, totaling $87,762, both in National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) and NRCHA arenas.
Nick Dowers 2013 Snaffle Bit Futurity Champion from Jim Essick "Too Tall" on Vimeo.
I am posting this video bio I put together for Nick last spring of his horse training business that was intended for private use. Nick's Snaffle Bit Futurity win was so genuine and well deserved I really feel that if you like what you saw in his performance you will be taken by what an authentic horseman he truly is.
Tens of thousands of cattle are estimated to have died in the worst blizzard in South Dakota's history.An unexpectedly early and severe winter storm devastated western South Dakota cattle herds on Friday, Oct. 4 and Saturday, Oct. 5, creating an overall livestock loss estimated at more than 60,000 head, a daunting clean-up project and limited reimbursement chances that might force some cattlemen out of business.