Page 22 - New Mexico Horse Breeder Summer 2018

The Rogers’ Tradition
Family Comes First
by Pete Herrera
CLINT, Texas—The question was one Jarrett Rogers perhaps had subconsciously been longing to hear.
“Are you ever going to come home?’’
Those words came from Jarrett’s grandfather and family patriarch Jerry Rogers.
This defining moment in the latest chapter of the Rogers family legacy unfolded on a summer afternoon at Ruidoso Downs, where the elder Rogers, his grandson and Jarrett’s dad, Casey, were watching the horses run.
“Both of them said it was time,’’ recalls Jarrett. “They said, `if you want to come home you’ll be welcomed. We could use you.’’’
In his heart and in his head, Jarrett Rogers knew without further prodding that it was time to head back to little Clint, Texas.
Back to where he had been the high school football star. Back to the town that grows on you and doesn’t let go. Back to the farm and the family that more than ever needed his youthful energy, enthusiasm and passion for all things cotton and fast horses.
Yes, the time was finally right for this fifth- generation cotton farmer to come home to stay. At the time, Jarrett was a student at Tarleton State University and, according to Jarrett, he needed just four or five more classes to graduate with a degree in agricultural business.
In retrospect, it was probably a sure thing that with or without a degree, Jarrett would eventually come home. Because in the Rogers family, their roots run deep in the fertile soil of El Paso County’s lower valley.
It was here in Clint that Jerry Rogers’ grandparents, Jack and Ollie Rogers started cotton farming so long ago. From humble beginnings, the Rogers farm would grow in size and influence over the years. Today, Jarrett, Jerry and Casey Rogers farm 2,000 acres, most of it in cotton.
It was cotton that made it possible for Jerry Rogers to buy his first racehorse. It was cotton that made sure the Rogers Farm horses kept running and the farm’s broodmares kept breeding.
Jerry Rogers ended up in the cotton and horse racing business because of Jack and Ollie Rogers.
Jerry Rogers was 3-years-old when his mom, Evelyn Maureen Rogers, died. Jack and Ollie
took him in
and eventually adopted him. Jack and Ollie didn’t own any race horses, but they loved watching them run and betting on them.
A typical
summer weekend for the Rogers trio meant heading to La Mesa Park in Raton, Centennial Park in Denver or Ruidoso.
“They dragged me around with them,’’ says Jerry. “They were pretty good handicappers— especially my mom. I always said if I ever got enough money, I’d like to have a racehorse.’’
Growing up in Clint, Jerry competed in rodeos as a calf roper and played football. Jerry says he went to school in Clint for eight and
a half years, then his grandparents decided
he needed to play at a bigger high school and enrolled him at nearby Ysleta High School.
Clint is about as small town America as it gets. The town has three traffic lights and the same number of police officers.
Lencho’s Meat Market, sits at the town’s main intersection. It’s been in Clint since 1889. Inside the market, you can purchase Takis Fuego hot chili pepper and lime tortilla chips. Advertising for the chips says: “find out what fuego (fire) tastes like.’’
As of the 2010 census, there were just over 900 people in Clint. But like Jerry Rogers, a lot of the folks in town find it hard to leave.
Rosvel Martinez, the high school football coach, was 26-years old when he, his wife Jennifer and their two small kids arrived in Clint 17 years ago. His plan was to spend a couple of years at the high school, then move on.
He’s still here and both his oldest son, Edward, and daughter Kiyara graduated from Clint High School. Edward, a running back, went on to
play football at Grambling and now works in
the oil fields around Monahans, Texas. Kiyara is attending the University of Texas. Their youngest child, Ayden, will be a fifth grader next year.
“The town raised us and people like the Rogers made us feel at home,’’ says Martinez.
Through the years, Jerry and his grandfather worked and expanded the farm that Jack Rogers had started from scratch. Two years before he died, Jack sold the then 350-acre farm to Jerry.
Disaster and debt are often part of the farming equation and the Rogers’ had their share of both.
“We both went broke in the ‘60s,’’ says Jerry. “A huge hail storm ruined his (Jack) whole cotton crop and he didn’t have insurance.’’
As for Jerry’s financial problems back then, he says most of them were self-inflicted.
“It was nobody’s fault but my own,’’ he says. “I was gambling, playing golf with Lee Trevino and
Jerry wasn’t ke
drive to his new school.
“When they told me that, I said, `which way
is Ysleta,’’’ says Jerry, who was 14 at the time. “I thought I was hot sh--.’’
It didn’t matter that the car was a 1939 Chevrolet with 100,000 miles on it.
Jerry Rogers never left Clint except for a semester he spent at Texas Tech.
“I don’t know how to get out of Clint,’’ says Jerry, who will be 81 in August. “I’ve been here all my life.’’
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20 New Mexico Horse Breeder
Jerry, Jarrett and Layton Rogers
“When I was 18 ...
I was gone and I was never coming back. Now, you couldn’t get me to leave here.”