Page 94 - Barrel Stallion Register 2019

I Do One Two Three and trainer Jay Hall.
more than every couple of months, but it drags the ground. Every couple of months, I’ll cut three or four inches off it, and it’s massive. Not only is it long, it’s like a broom it’s so thick.”
In between barrel races, I Do One Two Three resides at the farm of Jay and Lu Hall, Cumper’s parents, in Midland, Michigan. It’s the same farm where he spent much of his young life before he hit the racetrack.
After finishing his initial training, I
Do One Two Three was sent to Remington Park, where he won impressively on debut for the Bays’ T-Bill Stables and trainer “Sleepy” Gilbreath.
Jay Hall got a chance to saddle the gelding himself later in his 2-year-old campaign when the Bays brought him back to Mount Pleasant Meadows in central Michigan, a now-defunct track run by the late Walt Bay. I Do One Two Three’s first start in his native state was a runner- up effort in the Great Lakes Quarter Horse Association Stallion Sale Quarter Horse Futurity.
Adding that race to another second in
the Grade 3 GLQHA Michigan Paint Horse Futurity at Mount Pleasant and a fourth in the Grade 1 Graham Futurity at Remington, I Do One Two Three was named the APHA’s Champion 2-Year-Old Gelding of 2009.
I Do One Two Three came into his own
at age three, starting off with another win at Remington Park. He was consistently in the mix during his 2010 campaign, but he put himself on the national map with a 1/2-length victory in the Grade 3 Lorelei Derby at Will Rogers Downs.
Earlier in the year, he posted a convincing win in his trial for the Grade 1 Graham Paint
and Appaloosa Derby at Remington, then
ran fourth in the finals. He finished fourth again in the Grade 1 Paint Stallion Breeders Association Derby at the same track, and he closed out the season with a runner-up finish in the Talimena Handicap at Will Rogers Downs. That resume earned him Champion 3 Year Old and Champion 3-Year-Old Gelding titles, as well as the APHA’s Running World Champion honors for 2010.
In the meantime, the gelding would occasionally get a look from shoppers considering him for a second career as a barrel horse, but even his championship credentials weren’t enough for anyone to seal the deal.
I Do One Two Three raced for one more season, ending his career on the track with a 102 speed index and $74,465 in earnings. He then retired to Hall’s farm, where he spent two years living the quiet life of a retiree. Cumper, once an avid barrel racer, had largely stepped away from the sport to raise her two children, but the itch came back when her first got old enough to show an interest in rodeo. Hall suggested Cumper give the Paint a shot.
“I thought to myself, ‘I know that’s a very nice colt, but a Paint, Dad? Really?’” Cumper said. “I always jokingly said if this sucker can’t run barrels, I don’t know what we’re going to do, because we can’t sell him. He has too much sentimental value.”
The horse was fast - that was well-established – but that’s only part of the equation when it comes to turning barrels. Teaching I Do One Two Three to harness that speed into controlled bursts while maintaining the composure to turn on a dime proved to be a challenge.
“He’s so fast,” Cumper said. “That was his biggest downfall in the beginning. He can just explode out of a turn and he is gone. Some days, he would act like he was paying attention and was going to turn, so you would trust him and ride him into his turn. Then, he’d forget and he’d sail on by a barrel. I would slow him back down and we’d go half-speed again.
“The nice thing is, he’d always let you
do that,” she continued. “Then, he would get to where he was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got it.
I’ll turn.’ Then I would tip a barrel on him because I didn’t ride him hard enough to his spot. The challenge was, just when I thought he was paying attention and was starting to get it, he didn’t have it. Then, just about the time I thought he had it, he didn’t and he’d hit a barrel.”
Still, Cumper knew she had something there. Carolyn Bay said it was apparent to anyone that saw her turn barrels at one of their first events together, the Clare County Fair in Harrison, Michigan. The stakes were about as low as they get at the modest venue, but the breakthrough experienced by the horse and rider was extraordinary.
“When she got out of the ring, I don’t know if anyone’s eyes can get twice as big as they normally are, but Cami’s eyes were just huge, and the horse’s were big, too,” Bay said. “He was so fast. He not only could turn, but his speed coming back from the last barrel, he makes up a lot of time. I never saw such big eyes on a person than Cami’s.”
Cumper compared I Do One Two Three’s discipline in the rodeo arena to that of a robot. The gelding is responsive to a fault, but that also means he is only as consistent as the rider on his back. If Cumper makes a mistake, I
Do will follow the orders, even if it leads to a wide turn or tipped barrel. While that can lead to trouble, Cumper said it has forced her to become a more efficient rider.
The duo is now in the midst their fifth year together on the rodeo circuit, with 60 to 80 events under their belt by Cumper’s count. She said the last year and a half has seen them get into a much more consistent rhythm, and the results have spoken for themselves.
To name a few of their accomplishments, they posted the fastest overall time of the weekend
at the 2017 Michigan National Barrel Horse Association Open Championships during their first go-round, then finished third in the short go. In February 2018, they won the Spartan Stampede on the campus of Michigan State University, one of the state’s top rodeos, avenging a runner-up finish at the same event in 2017.
Cumper said I Do’s ability to adapt to the wide open spaces of larger arenas and the tighter turns of more modest venues has become one of his strongest traits.
92 SPEEDHORSE
Joe Nevills