Page 49 - Speedhorse May 2019

“I hope that Bodacious Eagle can do everything we ask him to do, but if he doesn’t, he still has a place to live the rest of his life, in the grass trap right by our house in Hereford.” - Johnny Trotter
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Bodacious Eagle stepped out on March 16 in Amarillo, Texas, where he topped the Open Performance Geldings under all four judges, who also placed him Overall Open Grand Champion Gelding. From his first show, he is qualified for the 2019 Lucas Oil AQHA World Championship Show.
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to that back cinch; he’s not used to feet hanging down by his sides. He’s a pretty feely-jumpy horse right now, but he did fine. It’s going to be a slow p p r r o o c c e e s s s s t t o o r r e e s s e e t t h h i i s s h h e e a a d d a a n n d d g g e e t t h h i i m m t t o o j j u u s s t t w w a a l l k k o o u u t t i i n n s s t t e e a a d d o o f f w w a a n n t t i i n n g g t t o o t t r r o o t t e e v v e e r r y y w w h h e e r r e e . . I I t t ’ ’s s n n o o t t going to happen overnight. We’ll probably have him for a month in round pens, square pens and bigger pens before we move on.
“We have a lot of ranch land for him to cover,” continues Roark, who is handy with
a loop. “That horse doesn’t need a job, but
h e w a n t s a j o b . H e ’s n o t l a z y, n o t a p a i n - i n - the-butt kind of horse. I think he’ll make an excellent rope horse. He’s got the mind and the want-to. You can do whatever you want to with that horse. It doesn’t matter, he’ll do whatever. He’s got his mind on his business, the kind of horse that wants to do something. And he’s always wanting to do right.”
It cuts both ways. His horsemen want to do right by the horse.
“Bodacious Eagle and I have always been
buddies,” Trotter says. “We’re sure going to
rope on him, and maybe we’ll do some cattle classes and those kinds of things. When we get t t h h r r o o u u g g h h s s h h o o w w i i n n g g h h i i m m a a t t h h a a l l t t e e r r, , w w e e ’ ’ l l l l p p r r o o b b a a b b l l y y
b b r r i i n n g g h h i i m m b b a a c c k k t t o o H H e e r r e e f f o o r r d d a a n n d d r r i i d d e e h h i i m m i i n n t t h h e e feedyard for a while. That’s about as good a way as there is to get it done: stick a horse’s nose in front of cattle for six weeks or two months or so. I’ve got some good boys who can sit on a green horse and not ask them for too much too early. But five or six hours a day in a feedyard is pretty g o o d t h e r a p y a n d a p r e t t y g o o d w a y t o s t a r t .”
Again, it’s just a start.
“I don’t know how we’ll get all the points
to make him a Supreme (Champion), but that’s what we’re going to try to do,” Trotter contin- ues. “To do that, a horse has sure got to have the right mind. I hope that Bodacious Eagle can do everything we ask him to do, but if he doesn’t, he still has a place to live the rest of his life, in the grass trap right by our house in Hereford.”
Stay tuned.
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t show, well, that’s unheard of. That horse could have spit the bit and sold me out, but that’s not
t t h h e e w w a a y y h h e e i i s s . . H H e e s s h h o o w w e e d d l l i i k k e e a a c c h h a a m m p p . .” ” Roark says that Bodacious Eagle was “prob-
ably 60 percent of being ready” for that first show. “Since then, since we’ve gotten home, I’ve just kind of let him be a horse,” Roark says. “He hadn’t been turned out a lot, so we’ve been turn-
ing him out, letting his mind ease, letting him be a horse, letting him be a kid for a little bit.”
And then it was back to work.
“We started riding him on Monday (April 15),” he says. “He did good. He’s not really used
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SPEEDHORSE, May 2019 47