Page 98 - August 2016

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SPEEDHORSE, August 2016
It’s the job of the pony horses, outriding horses and their riders to get the race
photo by Richard Chamberlain
A Day In The Life
The game starts early at a racetrack.
“I get to the barn at about a quarter after 3 in the morning,” Mitch says. “I have a round pen in front of my barn, with deep sand in it. I always have four or five horses, and everyone gets their half hour or 45 minutes in the round pen to go out, scratch and roll. Then I gather one of them up, take him back up to the barn, clean him all up, and put my saddle on him.”
While each horse is enjoying his time in the round pen, Mitch cleans its stall. He gets the feeding done and everything situated for the coming day.
“Then about a quarter after 5 to 5:30,
I’ll mount up, leave the barn and go to the racetrack, where I’ll long-trot him half to three- quarters of a mile to just kind of get all the kinks out, and then go back to open the track at 6.”
At Ruidoso, racehorses exercise, gallop and work until 8 a.m., when the track closes to be harrowed and Mitch can give his horse a break for half of an hour. The track reopens at 8:30 and the exercises resume until to 10 o’clock on race days. Mitch and his horse go back to the barn.
“Depending on if I’ve had a rough morning – if I catch one or two, that’s not a bad morning – I’ll come back, give my horse a little lunch and a big ol’ drink of water, and then go back and work all afternoon.”
On most days, first post on The Mountain is at 1 o’clock.
“I get everybody lined up in the post parade,” Mitch says. “I try to get my horse to the starting gate right at post time. I want them in order, and I want them loaded right. In a 10-horse field, I load them 1-6, 2-7, 3-8. . . .
all the way out. I want my inside horses on the inside path, my 6-10 on the outside. I don’t want no waiting on nobody. When they say post time, I want those horses to my gate crew and the crew loading them.”
Most of the time, there is not a problem loading horses in the gate. But, there is the occasional green two year old or maybe an older horse just a mite sour that needs a little extra coaxing before going into the big yellow monster.
“My old horses have doing this long enough,” Mitch says. “One of those racehorses throws his butt off to the side or wants to sull up a little, rather than mashing the gate hand, I’ll let them bounce that horse off my horse and they’ll usually load right up in the gate.”
The starter kicks it and the outrider follows the field to the wire, each and every race.
“If something happens, something breaks down, some accident takes place, I’m in the middle of it,” he says. “I’m like a pickup man at a rodeo. How many times have you seen a pickup man run in there and drag those bronc riders out of a bad spot? You never see one back out. Those are really good horses those guys ride.”
Mike “Mitch” Mitchell, the head outrider at Ruidoso Downs, says the horses he rides must be really fast in order to be able to catch any loose horses.
photo by Richard Chamberlain
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Here head outrider Mitch Mitchell and AQHA President Glenn Blodgett
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lead the post parade in the 2015 All American Futurity.
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