Ep. 120 - **EXCLUSIVE** Road to the Horse Part II with JR Robles

THIS EPISODE… Podcast Episode Produced by Katie Schrock; Podcast Episode Research Curated by Katie Schrock & Katie Surritt; Podcast Episode Hosted by Katie Schrock & Katie Surritt.

We are excited to have Jona Robles back on the podcast for a very unique part II of the podcast that we haven’t really done before but we had made plans long before JR had headed to Kentucky for the Road to the Horse. Catch his first episode by clicking the link below.

To recap, the Road to the Horse is no small production at all, and JR made it to the mega-event in Kentucky by winning the Wild Card Round in Fort Worth just a few months ago.

“I was looking forward to this episode because I knew there was a lot of cool stuff in Kentucky,” says JR.

“It was interesting to watch the podcast episode numbers,” says Schrock, discussing how the podcast episode with JR started to spike as we got closer to the Road to the Horse in Kentucky as people started trying to figure out “who the heck this JR guy is from Oregon!”

The Last Few Moments Before Kentucky

“I was absolutely stressed out,” admits JR. Meeting every night leading up to it, making plans for everything from the competition to the horses at home. “It wasn’t just preparing for the event itself… I had to make sure my flights were arranged, that my assistants back home had the schedule for the horses back home… that the merchandise we were taking was in order… making sure the horses with the haulers, everything was set up with that.”

Thankful for his team, JR knew that as soon as he got into the round pen, everything was going to be okay. “I do it to myself,” JR says with a laugh. “I have people that I trust, but I like to have my hand on everything.”

But it’s a big reason as to the success of his business, because that hands-on mentality has curated the success he’s had.

The nerves started to take its toll however and just a few weeks before he headed to Kentucky, he found himself in urgent care from not eating, drinking or sleeping. “I was anxious, and probably every other emotion that you can imagine too,” says JR.

“I don't talk about this very much, but there was a sense of ‘do I belong there?’” says JR about the three other trainers and their massive fan audience. The three other experienced trainers that JR was going to face off with were Cole Cameron, Mike Majors and Guy McLean. There was this feeling going into it that JR knew what he was capable of with the horse, but still feeling that he didn’t quite belong. At this point, he hadn’t even stepped foot yet on the plane, and these were the emotions that he was intensely battling.

Selecting His Horses

With a few days leading up to selection day, they got to see the colts in the backside. JR thought he was fortunate to catch the horses when they trailered in to see their interactions with each other and how they unloaded. A trusty notepad that never left his side, JR was constantly writing down the details.

Every time that the colts ran out, he would watch to see how horses reacted to the crowd cheering, which all played a part into what he had thought. “I wanted a horse that would be okay with the crowd… I am thinking third round during the rail work when they have to be right up next to the crowd,” says JR.

The red horse, number twelve, reminded JR of one of his saddle horses he had brought named Floyd - a colt that got along with the others and wasn’t bossy, pushy or flighty. A bigger horse, one of JR’s clients said that “if he is what we hope he’ll be, I’m going to buy him at the end of the competition.” A list in the notepad said the no’s, the maybe’s and the yes’s. Interestingly, some of the “no” horses were chosen by the other competitors.

Wanting the number 8 horse, it was the first one that Mike Majors first drew. He settled on the twelve horse and the five horse, a smaller introverted gray horse. Both horses automatically turned to JR and worked with him.

“There was something about number five from that beginning that was pretty special,” says JR.

“It was pretty special to have that moment captured in a picture.”

Different than Fort Worth, where he had gone through all of the bloodlines and trying to figure out how to select out of that. In a timed, three-day event like this, it’s kind of luck of the draw on a horse that can take it, which is why he focused more on how the horse interacted, versus what it’s bloodlines were.

Round I

One of the main rules was that you had to work each horse at least one hour. You couldn’t work one horse for thirty minutes, didn’t like it, put it away, and then work the next one for two and a half hours. The horses had to have breaks in-between. Leading up to it, JR noticed that some people in previous years would work two horses at a time.

“For me, that was too much mentality to keep track of both things, and for my assistant too to keep track of stopwatches,” says JR. “You get docked pretty big points if you go over … the twenty minutes [of assistant help in the arena]… as well as the horses rest time.”

No tie downs, martingales, mechanical devices, electrical devices, spurs, etc. can not be used in the competition. The biggest components were time management and how you interact with a horse to not get docked points. At home, you can take your time and move forward. “These are the milestones you have to accomplish with the colt s you can get points,” says JR.

Callie, JR’s pen wrangler, had a notebook where she would check items off of the milestones. “I don't think I saw anyone else have a notebook, but that is what worked best for us,” says JR.

Working the red horse first was the goal, but it didn’t work out that way. The first thing JR noticed with the gray horse, was that he was curious but he was more flighty. The red horse was a bit more defensive and even a bit stubborn.

“One thing that a lot of people didn’t see in Round 1, that I did talk about a little bit… I was driving the red horse and had the flag in my … hand… and … you could hear the snap when he kicked out at my head,” says JR. “He missed me … by half an inch or an inch… I felt the wind right by my ears… if he had aimed for my body, I wouldn’t have been able to move out of the way fast enough.”

“Automatically, I was like, ‘I have to pick up his feet in round 2 and round 3, I have to be driving him forward and he’ll be kicking out at me,’” says JR. By the end of the Round, he was stretching out really nice and relaxed, but having to make the decision, JR wasn’t sure he wanted to see that come out in a different form later.

“The gray horse was definitely an introvert… every time he did something positive or good, I tried to reassure him that he was good,” says JR. “That was something that was tricky. People thought that he was really quiet, and he was, but it was just a matter of time before all of that started to come out…. both of them were pretty tricky.”

Staying quiet and monotoned, JR found that it worked for both of those horses. “I got pretty far with both of them,” says JR, who referenced a comment on social media where someone said that those horses had to have been green broke because there was “no way” he should have been able to jump on them bareback in 20 minutes.

From there, JR continued to set history in his unprecedented Wild Card Round by winning the first Round.

Then he repeated that in Round 2.

With two back to back round wins and an UNDEFEATED round winner in Road to the Horse Competitions, JR wasn’t feeling the heat of the competition but deep in his gut, something didn’t feel right. Even heading into the event, he didn’t want to admit to his assistants that he wasn’t sure he was capable of pulling the win off in Kentucky and it wasn’t about his skill or capabilities, he felt that he was being called to a stronger mission.

Saying one last prayer with his team before heading in to the coliseum on his own for Round 3, he found the gray colt working it’s way beautifully through the round pen and rail work. Knowing that he was sitting comfortably in the lead, JR didn’t know that his higher mission was about to be called upon in the most unexpected way: the Obstacle Course.

Heading through the obstacle course which is unlike any trail competition or challenge course you have ever seen, JR felt Number Five’s introverted personality start to kick in.

“In that moment, I didn’t care about the money, I didn’t care about the title… in that moment, I cared that that horse had given me above and beyond what he was probably capable of giving… for me, I was like, ‘shoot, you have given me everything you could physically and mentally, so I am going to repay that favor and call it here for you,’” says JR. “The horse didn’t know there was still an obstacle course left to do, that was just me. I felt that that was unfair. For me, mentally, that horse if you look at it at the end of the third round - he wasn’t drenched in sweat, he wasn’t mad. He had just mentally reached a point where he couldn’t process or perform anything more.”

“I know in my heart and gut that I made the right decision when he told me that.. I had spoke for him - I was just relaying that message to everyone else. The money, the buckle, the title - that didn’t come into my head until after everything was over. For me, that horse had given me everything, and that that was that horse giving me everything leading up to that moment.”

And with one acknowledgement to the crowd before collapsing with emotion and adrenaline in tears, JR announced that he was stepping out of the competition.

And then the judges took off their hats. Tears in their eyes, if you watch the video, the colt stood there the whole time for every single judge to take off their hats and shake JR’s hand to say a few words - he knew what that moment was. “I have never been a part of something that emotional,” says JR. “It was the right thing to do.”

“There’s a moment, when my assistant Callie comes running into the arena and hugs me and I lost it! Round 1, Round 2, she was right there by my side talking to me and encouraging me. In Round 3, she was outside of the arena and I couldn’t talk to her,” says JR. “Nobody knows this, I whispered in her ear, ‘I am so sorry, I hope I didn’t let you guys down!’”

Callie told JR that it was the opposite and that they were so proud of him! “Put your head up, be proud of yourself,” said Callie and that was the moment that JR thought he was dreaming.

“I was walking out of the arena, and the side gates open, and there is a long hallway that leads all the way into the pens, and I remember looking up and the Cowboys to the 6666 [ranch]. These are old cowboys that have seen a lot… they take off their hats, shake my hand and congratulate me and I lost it. It almost felt like an out-of-body experience and I felt like I was at my own funeral…. In the moment you don’t know how big that moment is until afterwards.”

“The crowd, people in the audience, crying, taking off their hats,” says JR still in disbelief. “I don’t know if I could ever, in my career or just in life, have a moment that could top that. It was unreal and for me, that was my purpose to being here, to spread a different message. It’s not about the money, it’s not about the title… people know how competitive I am … I want to win! But at the end of the day, for me, I wanted to do what’s right.”

“I make mistakes in life and in training, that’s the thing with what happened is that there is a different way to train horses. I am not saying my way is right… you saw four different ways of training horses… and that works for their program. I don’t know anybody that could be in this industry that long and be doing something that doesn’t work… they have a fan base for a reason… it was cool to compete against guys that I used to watch videos doing amazing things with horses.”

When he made the decision, JR said, “If I did anything different today, I feel as if I would be lying to you guys, because this isn’t what we would have done at home.” At home, JR would have told his assistant to put the horse in the stall for 10-15 minutes before trying to ease back into what they were doing.

Everything done in the arena, was no different had what would have happened at home. “That moment was completely unreal.”

JR didn’t win the Road to the Horse, after being the front runner and winning the first two rounds, but he won so much more. A whole new fanbase that wants to learn from him. The Jack Brainard Horsemanship Award given to the best horsemanship exhibited at the competition.