Easy Street
Think a bucking horse has a tough life well, you haven’t met the Brown Bomber or Easy Street in fact I bet my old rope horse Smokey would give his eye teeth (if he still has them) to be in their shoes. I’m Susan Allen stay tuned for Open Range. Neophytes to rodeo often think bareback or saddle bronc horses have a rough life but in reality a good bucking horse is a stock contractor’s prized possession. While my 26 year old rope horse politely tolerates existance giving beginners lessons, the Brown Bomber, also twenty-six, was kicking up her heels and sending a cowboy to the dirt recently at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver. Like any aging athlete it is nice to go out on top, so news is the Cervi Rodeo Company that owns the mare will retire her after this year. If you were at the Nampa Rodeo last summer you might remember a retirement party of sorts for another Cervi horse called Easy Street. The 25 year old mare had been to the Idaho arena over a dozen times! She has also had twelve trips to National Finals. Compared to the typical performance horse, ridden in an arena five days a week who might never set foot in a pasture, or a even heading horse that makes run after run, Easy Street is on Easy Street. She bucks about ten times a year for a lifetime of maybe two hundred rides. Off season is spent on a Colorado ranch where Easy Street has foaled 11 babies, many that have followed in her foots step to the NFR. Hum, maybe that was why old Smokey crow -hopped the other day, he wants to be on easy street too!
