Les Vogt Biography

page 4 of 6 pages

I gained a classical education with those Chex horses because they taught me what it's like to win big, the feeling of doing something really well. In my life, I've chased a lot of thrills but nothing compares to going down the fence on a great cow horse. Running wide open at thirty or thirty-five miles an hour, hearing yourself breathe and feeling your horse's heart beat between your legs and knowing your horse is going to gather, stop, turn the cow, and be galloping in the opposite direction in three seconds flat is an unparalleled rush.

In a way, I'm a passenger on this ride, and in another way, I make it all happen. Once you ride a cow horse, you're hooked forever trying to recapture that feeling of speed suspended, of time stopped for an instant then resumed fast-forward.

It took some time to find my roots as a horseman after King Fritz, but I kept at it and had more champions along the way. By now it was the late 80's and the cow horse world had lost some of its glitter, and suddenly there was this giant thing called reining. I was riding a great horse at the time called Chex A Nic, and decided to go to a reining and show those split-rein boys a thing or two. It was a very humbling experience. I discovered that there was a world of difference between the cow horse dry work and the way the reiners were showing their horses at that time. A good horse is a good horse, but the reiners had so much precision, so much more finesse, that it was almost like watching a different sport. Unlike the old-time cow horse guys, though, the reiners were friendly and helpful. I hooked up with some of them like Bob Loomis and figured out how to present a reiner, and the next time out I didn't feel like a hick from the sticks.

In 1992, I took Chex A Nic to the Quarter horse World show and he won both the senior reining and the senior working cow horse, the first time the same horse had won both events in one year. It justified my training methods and also proved that a horse can work cattle and rein, that competing in both classes doesn't confuse the horse. Nowadays, a lot of those reiners are getting interested in cow horses, so where I borrowed from them now I'm getting a chance to return the favor a little bit. Western performance horses- cutters, reiners, ropers, cow horses- are all evolving quickly right now towards an ideal western horse that's light, responsive, balanced, athletic, and fun to ride. The horses and the methods are changing, yet I see more horsemen rediscovering value in some of the traditional training and tools.

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