Page 172 - January 2017

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TRAVIS DICKINSON
An 11-year-old sixth
grader at Grantham Elementary School in Clarkston, Washington
Travis plays football himself. So far he has played wide receiver and running back, but he said he might try out as a kicker next year.
“My team won the championship this year,” said Travis, who plays in the Clearwater Football League in Lewiston, Idaho.
Travis enjoys many athletic endeavors. He plays baseball and basketball, and he recently
took up archery. His first love, however, is the racetrack, not surprising since he’s been going with his family for as long as he can remember.
“I like watching the horses run and going to the paddock,” he said. “I also like watching BH Lisas Boy run.”
The Dickinsons are close friends with Bill Hoburg, another owner, breeder, and trainer. Hoburg’s good horses include BH Lisas Boy, an earner of $253,578 who has won several AQHA Challenge races.
When Travis was about 7, he began riding a retired racehorse named Sassy. His current horse is a 15-year-old Thoroughbred named Score King, who won a couple of races in his day.
But Travis looks forward to when he can work at the track as an exercise rider and jockey.
“He would ride races right now if I’d let him,” said Steve.
Travis Dickinson not only has his own race- horse, he rides him as well—though not in races. At age 11, Travis can’t become a jockey for several more years, and he’s hoping he doesn’t outgrow that career choice.
In the meantime, Travis helps his parents, Steve and Amber, with the chores associated with breeding, owning, and training racehorses.
“I groom them, and I pick their feet,” said Travis. “I also exercise them and clean their stalls.”
The Dickinson racehorse enterprise is very much a family operation. Thus, it didn’t take
long for Steve and Amber to give Travis his own racehorse. The gelding is a Dickinson homebred 2011 son of Get Down Perry out of Queen Tango, and when it came time to name him, they came up with a fitting family moniker, Hyho Travio.
“When Travis was a little boy and learning to talk, we’d identify each other by kind of a Marco Polo thing,” said Steve. “He would holler, ‘Hyho Daddy-o,’ and I’d holler, ‘Hyho Travio.’ We’d locate each other in the house that way. When he wanted his own horse, that’s how we came up with the name.”
Hyho Travio officially runs in Steve’s name, and Steve also trains him. But make no mistake— Travis owns the gelding. Travis goes to see Hyho
170 SPEEDHORSE, January 2017
Travio race every chance he gets. Hyho Travio has won eight of 47 races, with seven seconds and eight thirds. One of those thirds came in the 2015 Crooked River Hooked Mixed Breeds Stakes during the Crooked River Roundup meet in Prineville, Oregon.
“He would ride races right now if I’d let him.”
“He runs 870-yard races, and he’s run 660,” said Travis. “He ran five furlongs once and won. He beat Epic Cast, who held a track record.”
Hyho Travio has other qualities that make him Travis’ favorite horse.
“He’s fast and he’s pretty, but he’s also a nice horse to be around,” Travis said. “He’s real gentle. Everybody at the track loves him.”
The Dickinsons live in the heart of the
Pacific Northwest. Their home in Clarkston, Washington, is right on the Washington/Idaho border, and just north of the northwest corner of Oregon. Travis is a Washingtonian, though, as his devotion to the Seattle Seahawks attests.