Bob Avila Interview - AQHA Hall of Fame

BY TRACY WAGER

A Bit About Bob

Bob Avila has called the American Quarter Horse his obsession for over 35 years. That obsession has led Bob to accomplish a record that most simply marvel at.

Bob was born in northern California, and from the beginning his love of horses was inevitable. Both his parents, Don and Pat instilled the devotion to the horse and showing horses, and the hard work required to succeed, which continues today.

In his performance career he has accumulated over 37 World Champion or Reserve World Champion titles in events ranging from performance to halter. Acknowledged by his peers as one of the most versatile and accomplished horsemen, he is the recipient of the first AQHA Professional Horseman award and he has captured the prestigious title of Worlds Greatest Horseman twice! His lifetime show earnings exceed 1.7 million dollars!

Bob already is in the National Reined Cow Horse Hall of Fame.

He is one of only two horsemen to have won both the $100,000 NRCHA Futurity and the $100,000 NRHA Futurity. He is also in the very elite company of only one other horseman that has won the NRCHA Futurity more than two times.

Bob has had many of the greats train with him including; Todd Bergen, Andrea Fappani, Duane Latimer, Clinton Anderson, Pat Parelli, and John Lyons.

Q - In 1988, You pioneered the sharing of training tips on video tapes with Todd Bergen, and the late John Slack with Heroes & Friends. Tell us a little about that.

A - It was not in 1988, I want to say it was in the early 1990’s. I can’t tell you exactly when it was, but I remember the horses I used in it. I put together a group of people to do the project; it was Cam Essick, Butch Morgan, Todd Bergen, John Slack, Teddy Robinson, and myself. There were six of us that put it all together. Cam was the brains behind the format, Butch was the marketing guy. Teddy and I had done a lot of things already, we knew we could feed off each other and had a rapport already established. We added John and Todd as the young guns so that we could bring in everybody as the audience. It worked! It worked 150%!

We wanted to do something that no one had ever done before, we wanted the quality to be unbelievable. Even the packaging, Cam did the packaging, it was in a cool box with all four videos. We set out to do it right and we did it.

We did exactly what we wanted to do, and it cost us a lot of money to do it that way, but it paid off. Back then, everyone was grabbing their camcorder and doing videos out in the barn with the wife taking the video, while holding a baby and the dog biting her leg while telling her husband what to do. We did not want that, we wanted ours to be very professional, very Hollywood and that is what we did. We set the industry on their ear with it. We sold a lot of those videos and it was very successful. I do not recall how many we sold, but we had cases and cases going out the door. We had a distributor and I remember seeing cases and cases come in and it was a lot! Each case was about the size of saddle boxes, it blew me away.

Q - Horse & Rider published your book “Win with Bob Avila” in 2002.

A - That was my first book and Western Horseman published my second book “Be a Smart Horse Buyer”.

PUBLISHED BY WESTERN HORSEMAN

PUBLISHED BY HORSE & RIDER MAGAZINE

Q - Share us a few tips on what separates the winners from the other exhibitors.

• Physical • Mental • The Team

A - It’s all the above. One of the biggest things is that winners work harder than other people do. When they stub their toe, they don’t let it bother them and they don’t go into tomorrow dragging yesterday with them. They can get over making a mistake and keep going. They don’t think about like, “Oh my, I made a mistake! What am I going to do?”. If you show enough, if you do anything enough, I don’t care whatever it is you are going to make mistakes. I don’t care who you are, but you have got to learn to get over it. You have to see if you learned by your mistake and then keep going forward. Then you need to be aware of the times changing. You must change with the times.

Bob with his World Greatest Horseman Back Numbers

I have an example, at the Avila Pro Shop. We now laugh about it, but when the square toed boots came out, they did not want to carry them. They did not like square toed boots and were not going to order any. I kept saying, “I don’t care if you like them or not, that’s what is selling. You have got to get over it.” This went one for couple of years and they fought it. Finally, they gave into it and I saw Joel at a horse show here about a year ago, and when I looked down he had square toed boots on. Originally, he did not want to accept it. But that’s just one thing as an example. You have got to accept change, and you need to change with things. Sometimes it is not what you want, but it is a big part of being successful in business. You have to be able to change with the times, while still keeping your authentic style.

“If I did not have Cinch as a sponsor I would buy it anyways.“

“Professional’s Choice is just part of me. They are part of my family.”

“They are part of my life, because I have rode them for so long”

“Rios Boots are one of the highest quality boots on the market. I love them!”

I watch things a lot. When I am at a horse show, I may not say anything, but I am always watching what is going on. When I see something that I think is new, I try to learn about what it is. I think that is why, for instance, when I had a mare named Leaguerette she was very low headed and people noticed her and loved the way she carried herself.

Everyone thinks that Boomernic was the first low headed horse that came to the Reining. But Leaguerette was low headed before Boomernic. I have no idea why she was that way, she just was. I won a lot on her, she was a really cool mare, and she was really stiff necked but it made her carry herself very low, she just came that way it wasn’t forced on her. She was very low headed, she ran her circles with her neck really low, and people loved her! So, I kept saying to myself, why are they making such a big deal about this mare. It was because it was something they had never seen before. Then as we went on and Doug Carpenter and I bought Boomernic, as a 2 year old we looked for that something extra, that something special. I still look for that in my show horses today. What makes them set apart for everything else? If they are in a group of horses, why do you go and pick them out and not the other ones? Boomernic had that, Leaguerette had that. They have that charisma.

It is something that maybe you cannot describe that make them different than anything else. I am very conscious when I pick out horses, like the one that Dana is riding right now. He has that beautiful look to him, when you look, he has a kindness in his eye. The judges may not get close enough to see the kindness in his eyes, but we do. I think that kindness just comes out of him when you look at him doing his job. Bottomline is I look for something different, I don’t want what everyone else has. I never have!

Bob and his cow Sunny May

There are exceptions. The horse I won the AQHA Superhorse on was a plain ole bay gelding. But to this day, I think he was the only Superhorse that was a World Champion in 2 and a Reserve World Champion in 3 - he did 5 events! So, he was very special, but he was just a plain gelding, he was not pretty headed, he was just a plain gelding, but he did everything really well!

“They are the Ferrari of horse trailers. The best horse trailer on the market.“

“Kiser has changed our industry.”

“LMF Feeds feed is what has helped keep my horses looking amazing for the last 20 years!”

“They look great on horses and are great to work with. The quality is exceptional.”

I look at it this way. When I walk down my barn alley every day, why not look at pretty horses rather than horses that are not pretty? People have always said to me that “pretty is as pretty does”, but I think that is bull. Complete bull! Because if you give me a horse that is very talented and homely, and then give me a horse that has the same exact talent (whatever that degree of talent is) that is pretty, pretty is going to beat plain every time. To the judges, it may be subconscious, but continued on page next page

Q -You created the “Bit Collection” with Professionals Choice how did that come about?

A - Today I have been with Professional’s Choice for 33 years. I had an idea about 15 years ago. I called Dal Scott that owned Professional’s Choice, when he was still alive, at that time I had already been with them for over 20 years already and we had a great relationship. We knew we worked well together. I had an idea, I wanted to come up with a bit line that was very high quality but still something people could afford.

Bits can be very expensive, it’s nothing to give $500 or $700 for a bit. I wanted to build a bit that people could afford that had the quality and availability for everyone.

So, I went to Dal and Monty Crist, at Professional’s Choice and I told them “I have an idea and I will give you half of it, if you take over the ordering and the marketing and handling. I will take care of coming up with ideas and make sure the quality control was there.” After some discussion about the costs if it did not work, Dal said “Bob has been with us a long time, what’s it going to cost if we make a mistake?” Monty agreed and so we did it. Today, 15 years later, it’s a substantial part of Professional’s Choice product line. We started out with 5 bits and we have over 200 in the line now.

Brother White at the Magnificent 7

Q - How important are bits in high-end performance competition?

A - If you don’t have a bit that your horse likes, your horse doesn’t perform. You do not have to have the prettiest bit in the pen, you need to have a bit that your horse likes. I may have a bit that I use on five horses, and the sixth one does not like it! So, I need to put a different one on until I find on that he likes. In my opinion one of the most important things about training and showing a horse, is finding a bridle your horse likes. A horse has to accept a bit and like it or be comfortable in it to perform well. A horse cannot sit there and say

“Hey Bob, I like that bit”. But you know when they accept it and are good about it. I know when they want to spit it out of their mouth, they are saying “I don’t like this”. I don’t fight them on it, I say “Ok, let’s go find something that you do like”. I own over 200 bits myself, that is how important I feel they are to my job!

“They make the cool roping chutes, they are great to work with. “

“They have stem cell treatments that are ready to go with no down time or waiting for the treatment.“

“Every vehicle I have had since 1984, including pick-ups, Escalades, Tahoes, semi’s, duallys. I buy every vehicle from them.”

“They are the only sunglass that stays on. They are designed by ropers who actually ride horses.”

Q - Having trained horses for over 50 years, do you find the specialized breeding of performance horses, over-time, has resulted in horses that are easier to train?

A - Yes! When I grew up, one of the things that pointed me to the Reiner/Cowhorse type horses, was that my Dad was a Rope horse trainer. He was a Roper and a Rodeo cowboy. My Mother, when they got together was into show horses, and she kind of talked him into going into show horses. But he brought his rope horses into the show arena as well. I hated riding his rope horses. They were great to rope on, but I hated just riding them because it took the whole arena to turn them around and get them back to the box. They were not fun horses to ride unless you were roping.

I had the opportunity to hang around Tony Amaral when I was a very little kid, and I loved his horses. I used to get to walk them out at the horse shows. I loved his horses because you picked up your fingers and they responded. I think that’s what started me looking for this in my horses. The horses we rode in those days, I’m talking 50 years ago, we would not even have them in the barn today.

The horses we are riding today are very highly bred athletes. We rode horses that were just horses. They were the best horses we had they were the best horses we could find. They were not bred to do any one thing well. They were bred to be as good a horse as they could be at that time. Now we have horses that are bred to be superstars in the Cutting, superstars in the Reining. Now we have horses bred just for Halter. When I first started, we showed everything in halter. My Mother used to say that my favorite event was the gate opening, because I went in everything. I showed in every event the shows offered. My parents would ask me “What do you want to enter’ and I would say, “everything.” I rode English, Western Pleasure, Cutting, I ran barrels and poles, and showed halter I did everything. Now people don’t even think about showing horses unless they are in the event they are bred to do. But that is why they are so good at what they do! Now, when we start horses, they are simple to train. Before you had to really work at it. I am not saying that you don’t have to work at it today, the horses are just naturally talented, the degree of difficulty is different.

“Kurt Heite has taken care of our horses for years. We think a lot them.”

“They are the Ferrari of horse trailers. The best horse trailer on the market.“

“American Hats are so high in quality it’s incredible.”

“DAC supplements keep my horses healthy both inside and out.”

Visitors always ask to see the bits

Bob and Dana

Q - How do you feel about your induction into the AQHA Hall of Fame this year?

A - No doubt about it this is a great honor! I feel a little funny about it because I didn’t get here alone. There were so many people that helped get me to this point in my career. I did not do this all by myself. I have had great, great employees in my life. I am talking about, the kids that I have trained that worked for me. Great people have been the key. My wife has been great, my customers and my sponsors have been incredible. I don’t think I could be as successful without the sponsors. These sponsors have been with me a long, long time and that is one of the things I am really proud of is the relationship I have with my sponsors. I have personal relationships with them; we have even gone on vacations together with some of them. But sponsorships are a twoway street. That is what a lot of people do not realize, they get a sponsor, and they get what is promised, but they don’t give back. You have to be part of it too, part of what is going on.

Q - What happens when you get inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame?

A - Honestly, I don’t know because I have never been in it yet! No seriously, the AQHA Hall of Fame is a really cool museum in Amarillo TX and it is very fun to walk thru. It pays homage to the American Quarter Horse and the people that have made it what it is today. It is an honor to be among the people and horses that are in the hall. Everything in that building has probably shaped my life in one way or another.

Age 5 modeling for a western wear store

Major Leaguer

Chics Magic Potion

Q - Your cutting horse exhibition and galloping down the fence in the opening scene in episode 8 of Yellowstone was very exciting for the audience. How did seeing that opening scene make you feel, considering millions watched?

Bob & Dana Avila with Kevin Costner

Bob on the set with the Crew

TAYLOR SHERIDAN

A - I had no idea what they were going to use in there until I actually saw it when everybody else saw it. Taylor Sheridan called me the night before and he said, “I think you are going to be very happy with this.” That is all I knew. So, when it came on, I kinda went WOW! I saw it when everyone else saw it and it was really cool! Millions of people saw great horses and horsemen, and it was serious horsemanship not acting. I must tell you that of all of the stuff that I have won in my life, I’ve had more reaction out of the public on that, than anything else!

I thought that I had won some pretty cool stuff in my life, but I got more comments from people on Yellowstone, than anything I have ever won in my life. It’s crazy!

NRCHA Open Riders - Kelby Phillips, Todd Bergen, Bob Avila, Corey Cushing, & Tracer Gilson all appeared on camera in Episode 8, “I Killed A Man Today.”

Q - Today your sponsors include industry leaders. How do you score these high-end sponsorships?

A - I don’t really think I scored them. I guess in a way I did, but the way I have presented myself and my business in the show ring and out of the show ring. I think that is what has drawn my sponsors to me. No doubt success in the show arena is key. Once it starts, I think it kinds of feeds itself after a while. Like Bex Sunglasses for instance, Dana and I were walking down the hallway at the Western Market and a gal we know said, “I was at Bex and they want to talk to you.” So, we went to Bex and they wanted to do a deal together. We jumped on it as they are just fabulous sunglasses. I mean, you kind of went WOW, really!

When I got Cinch, I was with a different clothing company that I really was not happy with. Cinch came to me and they were brand new, and they gave me a pair of pants before I had the endorsement or knew the brand. I tried them and just loved them! They revolutionized Western apparel in many ways. Let me give you an example, my son would not wear Western jeans to school when he was little. When I got Cinch, he would wear Cinch to school. Cinch was cool!

I have gotten to know them well and I have become friends with the owners and the people that run the company. Back then their whole projection with Cinch was, we want the kids. When I got in there I looked at them and said, “Guys, do you realize that if you make the parents happy, they are going to give the kids more money to spend!” And they kind of went wow. I have a clothing endorsement with Cinch until I am 80 years old. I just have to live that long.

Lights - Camera - Action!

Q - What is the background of your family?

A - The Avila name is Portuguese. My Grandparents were Dairy farmers and my Grandfather was a horseman. My Dad was a Rodeo cowboy and horse trainer. My Dad owned Docs Dee Bar, which was one of the first great sons of Doc Bar. That Horse did ten events! When was the last time you saw a horse that did ten events? My Mother was very involved in the show horse side of things. Training horses was just a natural progression for me. I was born just south of San Francisco and grew up in Northern California.

Q - What do you do for fun that doesn’t involve horses?

A - We have a boat that we love to spend time on. We go to the river in Parker, Arizona. We also play on our side by side some out on the desert. But the boat, that is really our getaway. We go down there and have a whole bunch of friends there that really have nothing to do with horses. We don’t talk horses at the river; we have another side of our life. We play on the boat and in the pools, on the river and we just get away. It’s close enough to just go for the weekend and we try to get there as much as possible.

Q -- A tour of the ranch reflects the stalls are full of a fine stable of horses. What is next for Bob Avila?

A - I started doing some consulting and I enjoy doing that. I enjoy helping young trainers, I am a fresh set of eyes on their program, it has been really fun helping professionals. I have helped people design new ranches because I see so many people build places that make mistakes. You walk yourself to death across them, because they don’t set them up correctly. Riding is still a big part of it, I have scaled down to 5 or 6 a day. My neck and back started hurting me and that is why I stopped showing Cow horses. I did not want to be a has-been, I wanted to walk out when I was at the top of my game. I have done that with my horses in the past. I have retired them when they were at the top. So, I was mindful to do the same.

Bob showing off his latest Private Collection Bit by Profesional’s Choice

“Farnam has been wonderful to me. They have some of the greatest products and brands.”

Q - One of your sponsors, Farnam, has many great products and have been in business for 70 Years, since 1946. Tell us about them.

A - Farnam is so important to a horse operation, ours happens to be a training operation, but any horse operation no matter the size needs Farnam products on hand. They have the best product lines and they do everything from wormer, to fly spray and hoof care, wound care, supplements, grooming, so many products. You name it they have it, and they have the best! Their prices are good and they offer so many great coupons that are easy to get online or even at the stores that you shop at. Everything a stable needs you can get through Farnam. It is a great company.

Q - You said that it takes a team to be Bob Avila, please expand on that concept.

A - I think that anyone in this business that is married their spouse has to back them up 100%. Most of the time it is not glamorous, your spouse must have your back when you have customers and they need help, or you need help managing the work flow. It is not a lot of fun stuff sometimes. We have scaled down enough where Dana and I do everything ourselves, we do not have a lot of hired help anymore, she rides the horses we own and I ride the training horses. We have one wonderful guy Pablo; he feeds and cleans, looks after all the landscaping, and gets horses turned out and longed when we are away. When we go to a show now, instead of getting on a plane and flying, we drive our own rigs. We have a system, and I don’t think you can do this by yourself. It’s really not a business that you can do without your spouse helping you do it. It is definitely a team effort of you want to be successful. It may not be a spouse but whoever it is, they have to be on the team 100% and they have to understand this business.

Mr Dual Rey as a 3-year-old

A big part of it is not that hard. It’s going out to dinner with clients or sponsors. Like when we go to the Western Market, Dana says I shake hands, pet dogs and kiss babies. That is all part of the responsibility, and we do that until we are tired and can barely take our boots off when we get back to the hotel room. Dana helps keep track of who I run into, who I need to see and what we have to do at the Market and the shows. Dana and I work really well as a team. teamwork is the key.

I have people ask me all the time, “Do you ever drive?” I answer, “Oh no, I never drive.” I tell them as a joke, “She drives or she tells me how to drive” and that makes them laugh, but I like it, it’s nice. Why not just let her drive?

Who you have as a partner is a very important part of being successful. This Hall of Fame is a really big deal, but I could not have done this by myself. It’s Dana, and the Sponsors we have, the customers that let me do what I want to do. To buy the horses I want to buy, to show them where I want to show them. And I can’t say I got here without all the great people that have worked for me in the past along the way.

When you got here, Ken Banks was on the phone with me. He is on the Executive Committee of the AQHA, and one of our customers for over 20 years. Ken has had me make decisions, and some of them I did not want to make. He says, “Here, it’s your deal, you take care of it.” That is a big deal and a lot of responsibility to carry.

Being in the Hall of Fame, well it takes more than one person to get that done. There is no way that a person can start in this business and do it all by themselves and end up there. It is just not going to happen.

Bob and Dana

I am really proud of my son BJ, he is a horse trainer now. He bought himself a place two years ago in Texas. He struggles like any other young horse trainer, but he is very talented and has great work ethic. He is working hard to find his own way through it. As a youth competitor he was a superstar, and when that was over with I said, “It’s over with, now you go to college, or you get a job. One or the other.” That is when he told me that he wanted to be a horse trainer. I told him, “It’s a hard life, are you sure?” BJ wanted no part of college so he jumped in with both feet.

Roping on Brother White

Q - Have you done any job other than the horses?

A - I left the horses for a couple of years completely. I am glad it did, I never went through life wondering what the other half lived like. I lived in Reno. My parents had gotten a divorce and I left home and went to work for Goodyear. I never got on a horse for 2 or 3 years. I would go to watch some horse shows in Reno at the center there and see Mary and Greg Whalen, they have been life-long friends and they have helped me a lot. I am glad I got away from it because I realized that training horses was what I really wanted to do. If I had not done that, I may not have had the chance to realize how much I loved the horses.

Q -We have a list of your biggest accomplishments. What are some of the most memorable points?

A -Well, I have won the Snaffle Bit Futurity 3 times. Everyone asks, “Was the second or third one as cool as the first one?” Well sure they are! Every time you win something it is fun. It is just as much fun each and every time. The first time I won the Snaffle Bit, I had worked a long time to get there. It was 7 or maybe 9 years before I won it. I was reserve and third and everything else. I am the kind of person that sets goals for myself, I don’t talk about them until I have gotten them done. That was one of my goals.

When I won it, I learned a great lesson after I won it because I took a big breath. And I learned that you do not want to do that. I had a customer in Seattle that gave seminars to real estate salesman, and he said that the great salesman never pat themselves on their back after a big sale, they always go on looking for the next one. I never forgot that because it is the same thing with this business. I went thru a lull there for a while. I made the finals, which is a great accomplishment, but I didn’t win it. Then I had to jack myself up again and I won it twice more. I was Reserve Champion 5 times there!

I wanted to win the Reining Futurity, and when I sold Boomernic I kind of laid back and said “well.” I knew he was very special and I did not have anything to replace him that year other than Mist and Smoke. She was kind of my stepchild or at lease so I thought at the time. She was not the quality that Boomernic was, but I went and showed her. She made the finals that year. Then over the next two years I won the World on her in the Cow Horse. She turned out to be a great mare. When BJ was little, I told him if he could beat the kids on the old gelding I gave him, I will put him on a really good one - and he did! So, I put him on Mist and Smoke, and he won the reining at the youth finals when he was 9. I don’t think she ever got schooled in her life, you walked into the pen and showed her as hard as you wanted to every time and her ears would be up and she went and did her job every time.

The year after that, in 1993 I took Smartn Off and I was Reserve Champion on him. I was Reserve in both the Limited and the Open. Back at that time there was only the Limited and the Open and you had to show them twice in both. It was not one of these deals that you show once and they give you all of your prizes. He made 4 runs back then and won almost $100,000.

The next year I took Lenas Wright On and won the Reining Futurity on him. The year after that, Todd Bergen won the Reining Futurity Todaysmyluckyday that we had in our barn, and the year after that John Slack won on Ray Gay Quixote. It was quite a little run for us. After that Duane Latimer who had worked for me, won it twice. Those were some great accomplishments. I enjoyed my apprentices winning as much as winning it myself.

Light and Fine at the World’s Greatest Horseman

One of the biggest accomplishments was winning the AQHA Superhorse. In 1986 I won the AQHA Superhorse on Smoke Um Okie, and that title was a big deal. We had an article written about how we wrote the blueprint to win the Superhorse. JD Yates, myself and the people that owned him all made a plan. In 1985 we showed him and did not win. At that time they did not give you anything for being 2nd or 3rd and we were 2nd place.

Bob at the new ranch in Scottsdale

Afterwards we all sat down together and created a blueprint on what we were going to do for the next year to come back and win the Superhorse. It was all on paper, the whole plan a business plan. We went back and won. That was a great accomplishment because it was completely planned. I backed JD and he backed me. If we had to be there and groom horses, we did it. It was real teamwork! Kim Fritz owned the horse and she would haul him around wherever we needed him.

One of the key components of the plan was to get him qualified as early as we could and then let him rest before the Superhorse. This was in November and in December we went to the Holiday Circuit in Tulsa. We basically got him qualified there and he had almost the whole year off. He was well broke and did not need that much. We waited a long time to get him ready and just started getting him legged up. He was spectacular. He won the Calf Roping. I cannot recall if it was the Heading or Heeling that he won. I won the Reining on him and was Reserve in the Cow Horse. He had 3 World Championships and 2 Reserve World Championships that year. He just blew their doors off.

AQHA and Farnam are working to build the Superhorse event back up. The World show was just spectacular at that time, back in those days for the evening performances the men would wear a sport jacket and the women would dress like they do now at the NFR. Everybody would then go out to dinner afterwards. JD and I are on the judges committee together and about a year ago, JD said to me “You know we got to show horses as the best time there ever was!” We had the best time showing horses; it was the best of times for sure!

1999 was the first World’s Greatest Horseman Contest, and I had the horse to win it, and everybody knew it. I knew it…He was Paid By Chic. He had topped the 2-year-old sale at the Cutting Futurity. I showed him at the Snaffle Bit and he was 3rd there and 3rd at the Reining Futurity. When it was time for the World’s Greatest, he was spectacular! He was like strapping yourself to a rocket ship! He did all the events, and he did them all really well. In ’99 I showed him in all of the eliminations and he did really well making the Finals. Well in the finals in the reined work and I go to back him up and he kneeled down. So, I am a zero, I am out. Go home, bye, bye. I got over it and said, I am going to take him back next year and win it. I did and I won it! I won it in 2000 on him.

My style was a little different, especially in the Reining. I took the Smart Little Lena’s to the Reining events. Everyone else was riding the Hollywood Dun it’s which were great reiners, but completely different from the Smart Little Lena bred horses. My horses that I won on, if you thought it, they did it! I never had to think about it and then ask them, if I thought it they did it. It was nothing evil; it was just really fun to show.

After the World’s Greatest I kind of has in a lull. The goals I set for myself, after I accomplish them, I kind of take a big breath. Then I kind of let down, and I have to grab myself and say, “Hey, you have to fix this!” So, it was a couple of years, and I always had great horses to ride, show and train on. Everyone I showed was a really good one, and I trained them for every event myself.

A lot of guys send them out to get roped on by someone else and stuff. I trained every one of my World’s Greatest Horseman horses for every event myself. While I was going through this lull, I called JD Yates and said I want you to do something, I want you to come and give me a private roping clinic. I said, you tell me what I owe you and I am going to fly you down here to do a private clinic. He came about a week later and he taught me more in two days.

Major Investment

Over the years, JD and I went to a lot of shows together and one day he said to me, “If you quit being a horse trainer, you could be a good roper.” I grew up roping my whole life roping and at the World’s Greatest the roping is so important. JD came out and helped me and it was just BOOM, I came back. I won the WGH again 2007 and I was Reserve in 2009. The World’s Greatest Horseman was my favorite event for sure. I can be pretty quiet, but when I decide to do something, you can take it to the bank.

In 2003 preparing for the Snaffle Bit Futurity I had great horses; Chics Magic Potion and Mister Dual Rey. All Year long you knew that both of them were stars, but Magic was the same horse every day. He came out and was like “How hard do you want me to try?” I would tell him, I want you to try real hard and he would be “OK, I’ll try real hard.” Mister Dual Rey, when he came out everyday he was so talented, he could turn around so fast you did not even know where you were at. Just channeling and trying to control him was the trick. These horses were both awesome. Magic ended up winning that year and Mister Dual Rey was in the top 5 I believe. Magic went on to win more than any horse I have ever rode he was so special tome. Mister Dual Rey was purchased by Craig Schmersal as a reiner and went on to a tremendous amount of success as well.

The most important thing that you can do in this business is to not have an ego and ask for help, Today’s guys just do not ask for help. I learned more from the kids that have worked for me. Like John Slack, Todd Bergen, Brent Naylor, all of them. I learned so much from them because I would just sit there watch them all day long. You want to make sure they are doing it right, then all of a sudden you have a John Slack who does something, and you say what did he just do? It’s cool looking and it works, what did he just do? You can learn something from anybody. When you think you can’t, is about the time you are finished in this business.

“The reason that Bob is so well known, has the endorsements, and has been successful is that he has hit so many parts of the industry, and he is so well known for that” says Dana, “ He has so broad a scope to what he does.” I have won the AQHA World in Halter, Reining, Western Riding, Cow Horse and Cutting. I was 3rd in Western Pleasure a few times. I can go sit down with Halter guys and talk halter horses, I can sit with Pleasure people, same thing.” was allowed to know the judges beforehand. When Bob walked into the arena, nobody argued about it or said a word. Bob has the respect from the industry because he has competed successfully in so many events, I always impresses me how well he is respected in the industry. He has truly earned it!”

“I am so proud of Bob, he has worked so hard for it. Bob is an icon in the Quarter Horse Industry as well as the NRHA and the NRCHA. I am proud to call him my friend.” Al Dunning

“Bob has been professionally endorsing Farnam and Horse Health Products for more than 15 years!" Stash Easton. Farnam’s Marketing Director

“Bob is really the epitome of what an endorser for a company should be. He is a great ambassador for the Cinch brand and our industry. Bob represents our brand in every way he can. By wearing the products, promoting the branding in any way possible, like in his ads, photos, at events and so much more. When he is representing Cinch he adds credibility and authenticity to our brand.” Bobby Smith President Rod Patrick Bootmakers

“There are very few men or women who are truly great horseman and at the same time great competitors. Sometimes the determination and desire to win overlaps the compassion, empathy, and love of the horse. Working with Bob redeemed my belief over and over again that a great horseman and great competitor can coexist in one person. Bob is not only revered by those in his industry, but also by professionals in every facet of the equine industry. He maintains being a student and a mentor simultaneously. He is passionate about his horses and educating others to be the same. I feel I have been lucky to call Bob a friend for over 20 years.” Kurt Heite DVM Brazos Valley Equine Hospital

“Bob Avila’s impact on the industry is more than just what he himself has Won or titles he has achieved. It goes much deeper than that. Not only is he a multi time World Champion, World’s Greatest Horseman, Million Dollar Rider in the Arena, but he has also trained others to be World Champions and multi-million dollar riders in many different disciplines as well. It has been a true pleasure working with Bob for 20 plus years. Thanks, Bob, for all you have helped Bob’s Custom Saddles with, and the Equine Industry, Congrats on the AQHA Hall of Fame.” Chris Weaver Vice President Bob’s Custom Saddles