story by Lindsay King
At five years old, Terry Hash purchased his very first pony. “My family didn’t have much interest in horses, but for as long as I can remember I always wanted a horse,” the Hillsboro, Texas, roper said. Terry’s dad eventually grew fond of cutting. By ten years old, Terry was riding everything from cutters and reiners to pleasure horses. “A buddy of mine told me about a roping going on in Oak Hill, Texas. I fell in love with calf roping that day. I came home and told my dad I wanted to rope calves and that is where it all started.” His roping career lasted through high school, but life took a couple of interesting turns from there.
When parimutuel horse racing came back to Texas, Terry was right there for it. High school sweethearts Terry and his wife Karen found jobs at Manor Downs. “I was the clerk of scales. My duties were to weigh in the jockey for each race and monitor all aspects that involved the jockey.” After falling in love with the sport, the couple decided they wanted to be on the other side of the glass. “It was just something that we really enjoy and met a lot of people through it [horse racing]. I got my license to train race horses and built a track at home.” As the story goes, it took off from there. “We learned a lot about this business just by watching other trainers and jockeys.”
A man naturally drawn to travel, Terry took horses to races all over the country. “We ran all over Texas, in Ruidoso, New Mexico, at the All-American and the Kansas Derby.” This calf roper turned race horse trainer had his fair share of the winner’s circle during his 20 years on the track. “We won the Lost Star Derby, some big-time allowance races at the Sam Houston Raceway, and we won Horse of the Meet at Fredericksburg twice.” Though Terry and Karen took a break from rodeo, it’s easy to draw similarities between the vastly different sports. “You have to take care of your animals, they are number one. They always eat before I do, morning and night. If you take care of their health, they can perform their best for you.”
“It’s hard to describe the rush you get from winning a race with a horse you trained. It’s addicting and becomes what drives you to continue in this very competitive business.” Tying one down in the calf roping is about the only comparable feeling Terry has come across. “I have just always loved the sport [rodeo]. It’s fun and we had a lot of friends still doing it,” he said of the decision made to crack his calf rope back out in the early 2000s. Back when Terry first started in the senior pro rodeos, both the national and Texas association, Karen was his ribbon roping partner. “We won the ribbon roping in the National Old Timer’s Association in 2004 and in 2006 we were third in the world in the NSPRA.”
Some competitors despise the miles on the road, but Terry enjoys getting to see the country. “We like to get out of the Texas heat during July and August. We go to Colorado where it is beautiful that time of year. We went up there with a few couples this year and we had a lot of fun. We camped out and went to some rodeos and did some sight-seeing.” Terry is what he calls “semi-retired,” but spends a majority of his days with the one he grew up with: his wife. “We started going to the NSPRA events a long time ago and started up again about two years ago. They have a really good finals and a lot of added money. The competition is great, and I like competition.”
