Who shot Thumper? Professional cowboy perplexed over death of calf-roping horse

ABILENE, Texas -- McCook cowboy Garrett Nokes can't believe his calf-roping horse is dead. And he's hoping he wasn't killed by someone taking pot-shots at just any passing horse trailer.

"It's one of those things that never happens, but it did," Garrett said this morning, still trying to pick up the pieces and figure out how and why his 10-year-old sorrel Quarter horse, Thumper, died.

Garrett and traveling buddies Todd Graff and Tyler Fagerhaug left McCook Monday (Feb. 4) en route to a rodeo in San Antonio, Texas. They made a pit stop about 40 miles north of Abilene, Texas, at about 7:30 a.m., Tuesday, and checked on the horses. They were fine.

About an hour later, when they stopped for breakfast and to let the horses out to walk around at a convenience store in Abilene, Thumper was slumped over, motionless.

There was no sign of struggle, so, thinking the horse may have had an aneurism, they took him at a veterinary hospital in Anson, Texas, for an autopsy. The ropers continued on to San Antonio, and Garrett called back for the autopsy results.

Garrett said he was totally shocked to learn that Thumper had a bullet in his brain.

"You hear about things like this and say, 'Ah, that can't be real,' but it is: it happened to me," Garrett said.

The vet believes the bullet was a small caliber, but, because it fragmented so badly, he can only guess that it may have been a 22 cal., a high-power 17 cal. or maybe a 223. "In that area of Texas," Garrett said, "there's lots of varmint shooting, and we think maybe we caught a stray bullet from someone out shooting varmints."

Garrett is hoping that's the scenario. "I hope it wasn't someone just out shooting at passing trailers," he said. "They couldn't have wanted to hit the horses. You couldn't have seen them through the slats and the Plexiglas, with the trailer all enclosed for winter."

"It's against all odds," he said. "We're just lucky we weren't driving just a little slower. The bullet may have hit the truck."

Garrett said Thumper was really coming into his own as a calf-roping horse. He'd had him for about 21⁄2 years, having bought him to take some of the pressure off of Pete, the roping horse he got from his uncle, the late Wayne Boyer. "Pete had gotten sore on me 21⁄2 years ago," Garrett said. "So I bought Thumper to take some of the heat."

Garrett was working with a vet in Texas to get Pete sound again, and has been very impressed with his progress. "I used him maybe 15 places last year, and was building him back up," he said. "I was concentrating on having two really good, sound horses."

Now, Garrett will use Pete at some events in March, but borrow horses too, from friends. "It's good to have good friends," Garrett said.

Garrett plans to stay home through April, when his and his wife, Laura, are expecting their second child. Son Trevor is 3 years old.

Garrett told a San Antonio newspaper reporter that the last memories that Laura has of Thumper are of him pulling Trevor around on a snow sled a week before Thumper died. "It's not often you get a rodeo horse gentle enough that your wife and son can ride," Garrett said. "He was a family pet."