Two old-timers will be galloping into the sunset after this year's National Western Stock Show.

Snip, 30, and Jubal, 29 - the lead horses of a six-horse stagecoach hitch - will be retiring to a ranch in Texas next week.

"We're going to retire them because of their age," said owner and driver Scott Smith, of Weatherford, Texas.

"They still perform well, but they're at an age where they could have problems."

Most horses live 30 years, but their usability is only 25 years since they develop health problems as they get older.

"I've retired horses at a younger age when they develop a joint problem and become lame," Smith said. "But they (Snip and Jubal) have never been lame. They keep going."

Smith, who drives the National Western Stage Line stagecoach, has been a fixture at the National Western Stock Show for the past 30 years. For the past quarter-century, Snip and Jubal have been Smith's lead horses for the all-black quarter horse team.

The horses' last show is at 2 p.m. Sunday.

"They're two horses that like their job," said Smith, 54. "They're aggressive and they're not afraid of anything. When I point them somewhere, they go. They trust me, and I trust them."

Smith has had both horses since they were 3 years old, with Snip being put to work a year before Jubal. Both had come from the same breeding stable - the Binions Ranch in Jordan, Mont.

The ranch provided the black quarter horses for the stagecoach, which once belonged to the Binions Horseshoe Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Smith, a former stuntman, had started driving the stagecoach for the casino in 1975, when there was a strike in Hollywood.

"I've been around horses all my life and I was doing the same thing in the motion picture industry," he recalled.

Smith worked as a stagecoach driver for Binions Horseshoe Hotel and Casino for 24 years. In 1989, he started to get his own horses and had his own stagecoach built. In 1998, Smith lost the sponsorship from the casino but kept the horses.

"I took them on and kept them going," he said.

It only took two years before both Snip and Jubal worked their way to become the lead horses of the hitch.

"They're just exceptional horses," Smith said. "They outlasted a lot of horses behind them. I really think they like what they're doing. They've found their purpose in life."

Before Smith lost the casino's sponsorship, Jubal and Snip would work every week at a rodeo somewhere in the Western states.

But since then, Smith said he's had problems finding sponsors, so they now only do nine or 10 rodeos a year, with the National Western Stock Show being the biggest. In the past few years, the stock show also has been Smith's sponsor.

During the run of the National Western, the stagecoach makes an appearance at least twice a day during the work week, and three times on Saturday in the Coliseum arena, usually to the theme of "How the West Was Won."

The stagecoach makes an entrance at full gallop and does a couple of figure-eight turns around the arena before stopping under the spotlight at the far end of the arena.

At that point, the names of the dignitaries riding in and on the stagecoach are announced.

Smith said he will miss having Snip and Jubal on the stagecoach hitch.

"It's going to be a lot different," he said. "I've trusted them (Snip and Jubal) over the years. Even when they started, they wouldn't do the things you wanted them to do. But over the years, they would trust you."

Smith is training six other horses back on his ranch to take Snip and Jubal's place, but it will take another year before he picks their successors and puts them to work.

In the meantime, Snip and Jubal can enjoy each other's company in retirement.

"They'll be well cared for," Smith said. "They have served me well. When they finish the stock show, they'll be going home. We've had horses that lived to 40, 45 years, but not that many. We're going to find out and see."

fongt@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5489

Back to Top