Page 53 - May 2022

doing but those horses did. And a lot of good trainers were very helpful, holding herd and turning back, telling me things to do, so I learned a lot doing that. I worked for a cutting horse trainer for a couple years, too.”
While working at Billy G. Underwood’s ranch 40-some years ago, he worked with cutting horses, show horses and racehorses, and then started fitting horses for yearling sales. “Back then, nobody really prepped them too much,” Roger says, but he learned a lot that he built on.
When the Underwood ranch went bankrupt, they dispersed the horses and Roger went out on his own. He did some prepping for B.F. Phillips and broke some colts for Bubba Cascio and others and went to various trainers at the racetrack and other disciplines. “That got pretty big, and breaking and sale prepping just outgrew the showing,” Roger says. “It wasn’t by design, it just kind of worked out that way.”
Over the years, Roger watched and learned from those he worked with. In the racing industry, he got to know D. Wayne Lukas
and Sleepy Gilbreath. “Wayne always had
his horses and his shed row looking good, with flowers and stuff out, and his horses were always very well cared for,” Roger says. “Sleepy was a great trainer and a good friend, and we broke a lot of colts for him in the early days. When his horses came back here from the track, they were always in good health and great body condition.
“In the early days in cutting, I watched those great trainers, Shorty Freeman and Buster Welch, and saw how they did things,” Roger adds. “And J.J. Pletcher, Todd Pletcher’s dad, gave me my first job in Texas breaking colts, and I learned a lot from him, and from Charles Graham of Southwest Stallion Station in Elgin.
”Those guys in the
old days worked hard and Doc [Graham] still does,” Roger says. “I learned a
lot from seeing how they did things. And we keep learning. When we go to all these events, I watch all the different trainers and keep learning things from them about training, breaking, and caring for the horses. Horse care has improved so much over the years with better feed and research and medical care that you really must stay up with what’s going on.”
“I love to pick his brain,”
Mary adds. “He gives me his
honest opinion and he’s just
so smart at everything he’s learned. You never quit learning in the horse business, and I’ve learned so much from him just walking down the aisles of his barn and seeing all the horses he’s got there. He knows each one of them and what they need.”
“Handling all the different disciplines keeps us pretty busy year around,” Roger adds. “In the show ring you’re only going to win for so many years, but you can fit horses pretty much forever if you’ve got good help and can oversee it.”
HIS GOOD HELP
Some of Roger’s crew has been with him for upward of 20 to 40 years. “My owners know them and have seen them here for a lot of years,” he says. “In the peak of sale season, there are probably 14 or 15 here at the ranch, and we have a separate road crew
that goes to auctions with us because the regular crew stays here.
“It’s kind of like you’ve got to have a whole Nascar pit crew — good ranch
and road crews, a good veterinarian, a good shoer, and good horse haulers to transport them. It takes
an all-around team—a village—to do what we do.”
Roger and his devoted crews love all of what they do, from the training to the fitting to the sales. “When we break these young horses and they either go to the racetrack or the barrel trainer or whatever discipline—I
call it when they leave here and go to graduate school—if their trainers are happy and pleased with them, we get a lot of satisfaction and pride out of that.
“And we love going to the sales and having the horses look well so their owners are proud of them, and they sell well,” he says. “It’s really important to us that they have good weight, stand out and have good manners
and such. Just seeing those yearlings develop in the 90 days they’re here and getting good reports keeps us going every day and makes us try harder.
“Last year we had one in the July Fasig- Tipton Sale in Kentucky for a client. It brought $160,000 and then the pinhooker who bought it sold it in Ocala [in March 2022] for $700,000. Knowing we get them fit and broke and well-handled so they could bring money a second time brings us a lot of pride.”
“He’s a world-class horseman. Roger does everything from ponies to racehorses to jumping horses.” – Mary Walker says of Roger Daly
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