Bucking Horse Retirement Home

• February 6, 2023
• |
• Ruth Nicolaus

Posted in: Featured, Ranch Life, Rodeo, Uncategorized

A special bucking horse went to a special retirement home in January.

When Sammy Andrews from the Andrews Rodeo Co. in Bagwell, Texas, retired saddle bronc horse No. 012, Lock and Load, the 23 year-old gelding went to live with Isaac and Britany Diaz in Desdemona, Texas.

Isaac has a special tie to the sorrel.

Eight times Isaac, a PRCA saddle bronc rider, has drawn the horse, and eight times, Lock and Load has taken him to the pay window.

Isaac won Rodeo Austin on him once and second place another year; he placed third on Lock and Load in the tenth round of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo one year, won two go-rounds at the Texas Circuit Finals Rodeo and placed on the horse at Rodeo Houston.

Bucking horse Lock and Load carried Isaac Diaz to the pay window every time the Texas bronc rider rode him. Photo courtesy Jacel Andrews

Lock and Load has his own list of accolades. He’s been selected to buck at the Wrangler NFR six times and is a four-time Texas Circuit Saddle Bronc Horse of the Year (2011-2014), and twice the reserve Texas Circuit Saddle Bronc of the Year.

Isaac estimates he’s won over $35,000 on the horse. “It’s the most I’ve ever won on a bronc,” he said.

Lock and Load was born and raised on the Andrews Ranch. Sammy and son James started him out as a bareback horse, but moved him to the saddle bronc riding.

The horse was known for his rare out, Sammy said, and Isaac said the same.

“He was a TV pen (horse),” Isaac said “There weren’t any tricks to him. He would have a massive rare out every time. That was his trademark. He was hard to mark out because of his big rare. He’d be pretty bucky for a few seconds, then he’d be good to ride.”

As he got older, he began to stall in the chute, so Sammy switched him from a left-hand chute delivery to a right-hand delivery, which helped.

Several years ago, Isaac talked to Sammy and his wife Jacel about taking the horse when they retired him.

“I nonchalantly told them, when you’re ready to retire him, give him to me and I’ll retire him at my house.”

So last June at the Ponca City, Okla. rodeo, Lock and Load made his final bronc trip -and it was with Isaac aboard. The duo won fourth place with a score of 83.5 points.

Sammy was pleased that the horse went to a good home.

“It tickles me that a contestant thinks that much of an animal that he’d let him retire” at the Diaz home, Sammy said.

Lock and Load is in the pen with Isaac and Britany’s kids’ horse, a 28-year-old gelding.

The horse will let Isaac scratch him. “He’ll come up and let me scratch his nose,” he said. “You can’t get beside him; he’s snorty like that. But he’ll walk up to you. He’s real curious.”

Lock and Load gets a bite of alfalfa in his retirement with Isaac and Britany Diaz. Isaac drew the horse eight times; each time, he won a check on the saddle bronc. Photo courtesy Britany Diaz.

He’s getting special treatment. “He stands at the gate and gets his alfalfa, morning and night,” Isaac said.

“He’ll have a good retirement here. Stress- free.”

Bucking horse Lock and Load is retiring in style at the Diaz ranch near Desdemona, Texas. Photo courtesy Britany Diaz.

Posted in: Featured, Ranch Life, Rodeo, Uncategorized

About Ruth Nicolaus

Ruth is a rodeo publicist who loves the Great Plains and its people. She can be found behind the chutes at a rodeo, working in her flower garden, or cooking, some of her favorite things to do....

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