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Les Vogt Biography

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My first horse was a mare called Sweetheart, one of those patient horses that forgive and forget. We got her when I was five, then when I was about ten, Dad bought California Honey Girl. She was a finished bridle horse, and just like a kid hot-rods around when they're learning to drive a car, I about wore that poor mare out. We'd gallop up and down the canal banks and I'd stop her hard a hundred times a day. She'd keep stopping but get a little worse each time, then my dad would take her back and get her repaired again. Every horseman with an honest bone in their body will tell you they wrecked a lot of horses before they ever made one, and California Honey Girl was the first one I ruined.

All the kids around rode and dreamed of rodeos. We knew about the important events, like Salinas and Monterey and the Cow Palace. Some of those places had rodeos and horse shows together, and I didn't realize until much later that I was literally born in the lap of classical California horsemanship. We'd get all dressed up and go watch, and see horse after horse that were bridled in the classic way, showing straight up in the spade bit. Most of the riders were cowboys from the ranches, not guys whose names we remember now, but they were very skilled hands. We took it for granted that there'd be a dozen or fifteen bridle horses in the open stock horse class that were each capable of winning. I grew up watching the greats, horsemen in every sense of the word.

So I got a little older and decided to strike it rich at the rodeos. I rode bareback broncs mostly, and won the California State Championship two years. About that time, my wife, Corolyn, was riding in shows and made it look like easy money so I started showing and suddenly gained a lot of respect for her riding skills. We were young and broke and having a wonderful time.

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