horses so he took him to Albert Left Hand to herd sheep with him. When summer came, they sheared the sheep and went to Bayfield to sell the skins. Then, while Thomas was browsing in a town, a man came to him and offered him a quarter if he could ride his horse. He rode the horse and this made the man mad. The man got on the horse after that and the horse bucked him off. This attraction drew a crowd of people. Then, the man said he would offer him a dollar if he rode the horse again.Thomas rode the horse and the angry man gave him his dollar. A man named Red Dillon saw Thomas ride this horse and was impressed. He asked Tom if he would like to come and live with him and learn how to ride broncs. Thomas agreed to this and so did Albert Left Hand. Red called Thomas Black Bull Tom Black and that was the name that stayed with him. Then, Red got the permit to take Tom and they were on their way to Reds home in New Mexico. Tom liked it here and lived with Red and a man named Meo. Within the next month, Tom learned how to ride broncs and was ready for his first rodeo in Aztec. Red used Tom to bet on and make Tom lose sometimes to get more money by tricking the people he betted with. In other words, he would make Tom ride in the first two go-rounds and buck off in the final round to make big money. Red would always go off and get drunk when he did this and go home. When he got home, Meo would rob Red of most of the money he won and leaves only a little left. Then, in a rodeo at Carrizzo, Tom broke his arm and called it quits for rodeo that season. The next spring they worked the early rodeos in Eastern New Mexico and Oklahoma and in the fall worked in little Colorado towns. It was the same thing over and over for Tom. In the winter of that season, Tom broke his leg. Then, Red bought a pickup truck and horse trailer from the winnings they had that season. The following years were pretty much the same old thing of rodeoing fr...
