Ashley Whyland

Ashley Whyland on Luther

I entered Richmond, KY PRCA rodeo, which was basically right out my back door compared to most of the rodeos in the Great Lakes Circuit.  It was only an hour and a half.  I was riding another horse for a girl, so I decided to throw her in the trailer to see the sights along with Luther.  A rodeo is the ticket to get one used to the sights and sounds! 

I pulled in early and to my delight I was greeted by the state animal inspectors.  I reached for my binder with all my horse’s information in it and handed over Luther’s coggins and health certificate.  Then as I discovered that I left the mare’s papers at home, the color drained out of my face.  I started to panic.  I explained to the gentleman that I had left them at home and PLEADED with him to let me call home and see if they could read him off the numbers.  He reluctantly agreed.  We pulled over to the side and I called home.  No answer!  What was I going to do!?  I called my mom’s cell phone and found out that they had gone out to eat.  I was REALLY in a full blown panic then!  I had heard stories before where they had taken the horses from the owners for not having their coggins.  There was NO WAY they were going to take Luther from me!   

My last and only resort was to call the neighbors.  We had crank out windows that we never locked and the screen in my bedroom was broken from when my sister used to sneak out (I swear it wasn’t from me!)

They agreed to raid my room for the papers!  The woman was heavy set and the husband was skinny and short.  She had to put him on her shoulders, all the while standing in a raised flower bed, and push him into my window.  Looking back, I cannot BELIEVE they did this for me!  I told them where to look and OF COURSE, they weren’t there!  They literally turned my room upside down looking for them. 

The inspector came back over and asked if I had gotten a hold of anyone.  By that time, I was in tears.  I told him what was going on.  He asked me to let him talk to them.  He said, “So are you having any luck?”  My neighbor Angie answered, “Honey, I’m a 250 pound woman and my husband is a 150 pound man.  I had him on my shoulders and launched him into her bedroom, while I was standing on a flower bed raised 4 foot in the air.  If that girl had us do this, I KNOW the papers are in here somewhere.”

The inspector started laughing then said, “Well I’m glad you found them!”

I looked at him, puzzled.  He leaned in the truck and whispered to me, “I trust that you have the papers somewhere or you wouldn’t be putting your neighbors through all of this.  Fax me the papers first thing Monday morning, but don’t you let that other horse get out of the trailer tonight AND don’t you tell my partner that they didn’t find them.”

I couldn’t thank him enough that night. 

My run wasn’t great at all.  I made the excuse that I had too much on my mind!  But it didn’t matter; every girl from my perf got outrun, because the ground dried up the next day.  That’s rodeo! 

I got home and the papers where nowhere near where I had told them to look, OF COURSE!    

Lesson learned, NEVER go anywhere without your health papers…..

*Please check out Ashley’s new website: www.ashleywhyland.com You can learn more about Ashley and follow her as she hits the rodeo road again!!

Ashley Whyland on Luther

St. Charles, MO is right outside of St. Louis, MO.  I hauled there with 3 other girls.  I always check the weather before I head out, even though it’s bright and sunny where you’re at, doesn’t mean it’s going to be that way where you’re going.  Clear skies and cold all weekend, it was the middle of winter.  It was an all girls trip.  We were all excited to be going.  Annie Peterson and Annie Hyde had both been to St. Charles.  Lindsey Hance and I had not.  Lindsey had just come along for the ride on this one.  I believe she was in between horses at the time.  They said it was a small pen, decent ground, blind first barrel.  Pretty much what we had been used to all winter. 

We arrived a couple hours early.  We went to the girls locker room and got our hair fixed, rodeo “rags” on and put some makeup on.  I had left the house in pair of tennis shoes, WHERE WERE MY BOOTS??  They were nowhere to be found, I had left them at home.  Lindsey had brought an extra pair, but her foot was a size bigger than mine.  Whatever works!  So I walked around with my boots flopping on my feet!  Charming! 

The secretary that we paid our fees to asked Annie if she would be interested in being the feature cowgirl for the opening ceremonies.  She reluctantly agreed.  Annie was a 7 time Great Lakes Circuit Finals qualifier and the champion in 1999.  She was also afraid of heights. 

After sitting around bored and grooming our horses, we discovered that MANY people had been walking through this one lone door and we wondered what was back there.  So, the “curious girls” decided we were just going to bust in and see what it was all about.  Little did we know, the party had been going on without us.  Jack Daniels had sponsored free alcohol and tons of snacks.  All of the sponsors were walking around introducing themselves.  OF COURSE, we had spent a whole hour bored out of our minds and grooming on our horses.

We participated in the grand entry and immediately following that was when Annie was to be presented as the “Feature Cowgirl”.  They told her to climb up the bucking chutes and stand on a 2×4 that was rested atop the chutes.  She said, No way!  I told her to go ahead and she would be fine.  I told her not to lock her legs and don’t look down.  Reluctantly she climbed up as they blacked the lights.  Then a spotlight was pointed right at her.  I couldn’t help but bust out laughing when I looked at her face.  She was getting ready to puke.  No smile, she was as nervous as she could be.  They spent their time really talking her up and mid-sentence she ducked down and off the chutes.  So they had to hurry up and take the spot light off from her.  She then told me that she was NEVER doing that again. 

We then had to each walk out into the arena lined with fire while they presented each contestant and where they were from.    

Our time to run had come and we were all up in the performance.  We had all buddied together so we ran back to back.  Annie’s horse had been acting really weird while we were grooming them.  Every time she would try to touch him, he would pin his ears and try to kick her.  But we couldn’t find anything physically wrong with him, he was just acting evil.  She was up first.  Of course, the spotlight was on her since they had talked her up so much during the opening ceremonies.  She went hauling in to the first barrel and he sat to turn and then bounced left and flew up the wall.  I couldn’t believe Annie stayed on.  I have to give her credit.  That horse made a HUGE move and she stayed in the middle. 

I was next.  Although I was distracted by what had just happened, I had to pull myself together and make my run.  Luther was ready to go, I wasn’t.  He came flying into the first barrel and we were at the wrong angle.  We hit it and then that caused him to bow off the backside.  I decided to go ahead and make my run.  Of course, he had a great second barrel and a great third barrel.

Anne was next.  She had a great run to place 9th at the rodeo.  My time would have placed, but knocked barrels get ya nothing!

We got the horses ready, gathered up our things and hit the door, only to find the whole parking lot was FULL of snow and it was coming down hard.  We loaded the boys into the trailer and headed out.  I had 5 missed calls on my cell phone.  I called my mother back to find out that there was a freak snowstorm that had hit St. Louis.  It was totally unexpected.

We decided we couldn’t wait it out, since it was coming down so hard.  There was no place to keep the horses overnight.  I have to say, it was pretty stupid of us.  Cars were literally sliding all over the roads.  And we were in a loaded rig. 

What took us 5 hours to get there, took us almost 12 hours to get home.  We were worn out.  The snow never stopped.  Of course, we travelled WITH the direction of the weather.  So by the time the storm blew over, we had about 8 inches in Indiana.  So much for clear skies…

 Oh yeah, a side note:  Annie took her horse to the vet the following week to find out that he had tore a muscle in his stomach.  He had a slip on the ice the week before and they were pretty sure that is what caused it. 

Bad luck, hard luck or no luck….whatever you call it, we didn’t have any good luck that weekend!            

Ashley Whyland on Luther

Mud and trashy ground was Luther’s specialty.  No matter what, I knew he would stand up, turn tight and run hard in it.  We arrived at Greensburg, IN after a whole day of raining.  And once I saw the backhoe dragging the slop out of the arena and into a big pile, I wondered if we were just wasting our money on this run. 

The rodeo pen was set up on a trotting track, which NORMALLY has a lime/sand mixture that holds really well, but after the backhoe was finished it was left as sticky and slippery mud, which is a whole lot trickier to run on than slop, in my opinion. 

I normally keep a pair of old support boots in the trailer for rodeos like this.  Luther would get his back legs wrapped in polos on regular ground, but in mud I don’t trust the polos to hold up to the saturation and stay tight during a run.  So at Greensburg, I resorted to boots all the way around.

We all warmed up on the track where they still had the lime/sand mixture.  I was one of the last ones out in the performance.  I watched some girls run to evaluate how the ground was holding.  I decided to just let Luther work however fast he wanted to.  Most of the time, this was best for Luther in mud anyway.  Stay out of his way and he will make it happen how he has to. 

I approached the alleyway and Luther let go.  We went a smidge past the first barrel, but Luther fired off hard to the second barrel.  I didn’t hustle him or kick him, but he was running hard.  The second barrel was flawless and the third barrel was even better.  After we rounded the third I decided to ask him to run out.  The alleyway was small, so I really had to hustle him through it.  Luther had a tendency to prepare for the stop, which in big pens was fine, but this pen I needed him to hustle all the way out. 

Once we hit the alleyway Luther found another gear as I heard the announcer say that we just took the lead.  And only then did I realize that his racehorse days were coming back to him.  I can honestly say I have NEVER had a problem getting Luther to stop after a run.  He could always drag his butt and stop right when you asked him to.  Not this time.  Ears pinned and neck stretched out, we were GONE and he was gaining speed.  I tried stopping him but he was only ignoring me and pushing on through.  Finally half way around he track, he wore himself out!  So much for being a “quarter” horse!  I couldn’t be upset with him, we were winning the rodeo! 

I finally brought him back around to the arena and EVERYONE was staring and laughing.  How embarrassing!  I think the crowd had forgotten about the barrel race and was more entertained with the horse race happening behind them! 

After the next day’s performance, Luther and I still held the lead to win the Greensburg rodeo.