This morning World Champion barrel racer Mary Walker announced some heartbreaking news on her facebook fan page here. All of us know that her horse Latte has been injured but we did not know the entire story of everything that was going on with her best friend and traveling partner behind the scenes.
Below is Mary’s post from earlier this morning stating everything that is happening and why there is a very good chance you will never see this team inside an arena running the pattern again. Mary Walker and Latte at the 2012 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo winning the World Title
Photo credit: Tammy Scheffler / T. Scheffler Photography
Mary Walker made the following statement on her facebook fan page earlier today. “To all my FB friends and family, my heart is saddened for two reasons. I would like to first say that Latte will not be at Rodeo Houston for the Semi-finals. Latte sustained an injury at Ft. Worth on my second run when he had a horrible slip. Dr. Honnas and I have worked very hard getting him well so I could get through the winter buildings. We sustained a fall Thursday night at Mercedes, Tx which brought back flashes of my fall 2 yrs.ago. Latte injured himself again. The prognosis will be at least 12 wks of rest, with therapy everyday. Luckily, with having great friends ,I will be riding Spider,who belongs to Teresa Turberville. I am also saddened by being forced by Cheri Cogburn, who retained 10% and we bought 90%,to sell him under court order. Her reason for retaining 10% ownership was so he would never be sold and remain with me forever. Byron bought him for me as a Mothers day present after the loss of Reagon in April of 2011. We formed an LLC to protect both parties interest. She has chose to sue for partition of sale and since he is the only asset of the LLC I am forced to auction him off. I have tried to keep quiet because I felt I shouldn’t worry everyone with what’s going on in my personal life, we thought that we would be able to work this out with Cheri, however her last settlement offer for us to pay her 250,000 for her 10%, left us no choice. This is my statement, with all this being said, no one will ever take away what Latte and I have. They will never take my love for him. They can never take my Gold Buckle. I put my heart and soul into making him a Champion and he returned the favor to me. My heart is very heavy at this time. The next week will be a very upsetting time in my life, not knowing what will happen. Please keep us in your thought and prayers.”
In order to be as unbiased as I can in my reporting I have put a request into Cheri Cogburn for a statement or interview to get her side of this issue. As everyone knows there are two sides to every story and I do my best to report on what I know and give each of you the official statements that I receive so you can draw your own conclusions.
As soon as I get a response from Cheri, if I do, I will post that on The Rodeo Round Up as well so you can hear everything that is going on with this issue. This whole announcement is horrific for the sport of Professional Rodeo but all we can do is wish the best for both parties and pray that this will resolve in a peaceful manner that will not result in splitting up a tremendous team that has done so much for the sport we love. We all need to come together to see what each of us can do as individuals and as one big team to make sure this does not happen to one of the most memorable teams in pro rodeo barrel racing.
I know that this is a horrible and sad time for both Mary and Byron and I just want to say that the entire Rodeo Round Up team has them in our thoughts and prayers and will work day and night to find anything that we can do to make sure some way some how that this tragedy does not happen!
I ask each and everyone of you that follow The Rodeo Round Up to please do the same and get on board with us to find a way. The first thing you can do is post this story as well as any other article you come across on your social media pages and ask your friends and family to do the same. Together we may be able to help Mary, Byron and Latte remain a family and a TEAM!!
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