I hope everyone had a great Easter and got to spend some time with there families. April has been a busy month for me and I have enjoyed every moment of it. My new job with Priefert has had me all over the place and I must say I have got to meet even more wonderful people through this job. When I was in Florida a few weeks ago I met Beck at Red Barn Feeds. Beck is part owner of the Red Barn and an avid team roper. He took us on a tour and I got to see how the other half lives! Most of Beck’s customers are polo and hunter jumper people who winter in Florida. I was amazed at the concentration of horses in such a small area. There are pockets of small horse communities (subdivisions) that have strict building codes. Their barns must match their house! It was some of the nicest barns I have ever seen! What amazed me was how they were able to get so much on a small piece of land. Beck was
telling me that these $1million homes paid for most of there mortgage by renting out their barns during the winter season. He said that a lot of the home owners don’t even own horses! It was truly an eye opening experience for me and I want to thank Beck for giving me and Joey King the tour. We moved on up north and stopped by Ray and Tish Luke’s place. Once again I was shown some serious hospitality! Ray and Tish fixed us supper. Tish is well known for her roping and her cooking but I wanted to inform everyone that Ray cooks a mean steak!! The next day Ray gave us a morning tour of the place and it is an outdoorsman’s paradise!
My new job also took me to Gaffney, SC to the Rock-n-MC arena. I recently done a story on the arena and I finally got to meet one of the owners of the arena Danny Cisson. The facility is very nice and has a lot of potential and Danny seems to be a good man. He can use all the support he can get from the rodeo community! While I was there I also got to meet a fellow roper and the owner of The Hay Loft in Landrum, SC. Don has been in business a long time and has about anything you can imagine in his store including some of Priefert products! I thoroughly enjoyed spending the day with him talking about roping and listening to his experiences when he went to our plant in Mt. Pleasant, TX for Priefertization. These experiences are what make my job a true blessing!
On the roping side of my travels I jumped in the truck with two friends of mine Kelly Reece and Kelly Sorrels (who I can now call my neighbors). We ventured up to Franklin, Tennessee for the TN Classic. We had a great time despite the few set backs we had with Kelly Reece’s navigation and a Tornado that came really close to Tom Bourne’s house where we were staying. The roping was excellent as always and although Kelly Reece was the only one of us who went to the pay window we had a great time. Tom and Shawna feed us well and Tom helped me out with my roping. I got to see some old friends who I hadn’t seen in a while and Michelle Burns’ mom left me a piece of her famous homemade chocolate cake. I also got to meet several new faces around the roping. It turned out to be one of those weekends where you are thankful for the fellowship of good friends.
Speaking of good friends the roping world lost a great cowboy on April 7th. Kid Marley passed away from injuries he got while training a colt a few months back. I will be doing a story on Kiddo for next month. I have received several stories from people already telling about the events they shared with Kiddo. I would like to hear from anyone who wants to tell there story. I can’t promise I will use them all but I will do my best. I would like to leave you all with his Obituary .
Hope to see you soon,
JD