time it was by far the greatest
display of horsemanship he’d ever
seen, and he knew he had a lot more
to learn.
When Rob was 24, he and his wife
Lee decided to head over to the US,
where he spent the next two years
training horses for the Twissleman
family in central California. During
this time he had the opportunity to
start colts with master horsemen
such as, Martin Black and Ed
Robertson and was also introduced
to the sport of Team Roping and
Cutting.
The Twisslemans held an annual
production sale in the coastal
town of San Luis Obispo, where
they would sell 60 odd ranch-bred
horses each year. Rob’s job was to
help co-ordinate the training and
preparation of the two and three
year olds. He started them all on
cattle and got them working a rope
etc. They had some great genetics,
including two own sons of "Doc
O Lena”, a son of “Little Peppy”
a “Playgun” colt and an own son
of “Dry Doc”. There was a little
“line bred” chestnut filly in the
sale by the name of "Pep N
Coda Lena” that Rob had his
eye on from the day he first
started her. He scratched up all
the spare change he could
find and purchased her in
the auction for $3,000.
Little did he know how
significant a purchase
that would turn out to
be.
After Jake’s, Rob and Lee leased
a training complex in Exeter,
California, for two years. During
that time he got to train some really
nice Cowhorses and successfully
made the finals at the Futurity with
Tangys Classy Chic, Gay Bar Rooster
and won the SRCHA Intermediate
Open Futurity on Docs Working
Lady. He also had other notable
horses, such as Plain Dual, a horse
that he showed successfully in the
bridle and placed at the top level in
events such as the World’s Richest
Stockhorse and the Magnificent
Seven. One of the advantages of
working for himself was the ability
to go to different trainer’s places
and learn what he could from
greats such as, Doug Williamson,
Jon Roeser and David Costello
to name a few.
'Desires Blue Trinity’ (DBT) in his
string and still regards DBT as one of
the best horses he’s ridden.
While at Chris’s he got offered a job
running the two-year-old program
at the Marvine Ranch under fellow
Australian, Roger Wagner. Rob
jumped at the chance to
learn from one of
When the Global Financial
Crisis hit California, things
got tough so they decided to
move to Texas where
With a thirst for knowledge
and experience Rob ended up at
NRCHA Hall of Fame rider, Jake
Gorrell’s place in Hanford, CA. For
the next year Jake rented Rob
some stalls and he rode his two
year olds as well as some older
outside horses. Jake is one of
the fiercest showmen and can
make a great bridled horse.
He really helped Rob get
his little chestnut mare
trained and he learnt
so much about
showing and
training Reined
Cowhorses
from him.
That
year
Rob
won the
NRCHA Limited
Open Futurity in Reno on his little
mare, “Pumpkin” (Pep N Coda
Lena), that he had paid three grand
for. Pumpkin went on to final in
all her aged events through three
and four years old, including the
famous Hackamore Classic at
the “Cowpalace” in San
Francisco.
he got a job riding two
year olds for his friend and threetime "Road to the Horse” winner,
Chris Cox. Lee had a strong
marketing background and she also
got a job working for Chris. Chris was
on the road a lot doing Horsemanship
Clinics and filming his Cable TV
Show. While at Chris’ Rob had the
stallions ‘Tapt Dancin Cat’ and
the greatest cutting horse trainers
in the world and stayed with him
through two Ft Worth Futurities.
Roger really imprinted on him the
importance of a solid foundation,
discipline and consistency in all
horses' training. He also learnt the
importance of keeping things “cowrelated”, while building that
foundation. One of the standouts
November • December • 2016 • The Australian Quarter Horse Magazine • Page 23