It was not in 1988, I want to say it was in the early 1990's. I can't tell you exactly when it was, but I remember the horses I used in it. I put together a group of people to do the project; it was Cam Essick, Butch Morgan, Todd Bergen, John Slack, Teddy Robinson, and myself. There were six of us that put it all together. Cam was the brains behind the format, Butch was the marketing guy. Teddy and I had done a lot of things already, we knew we could feed off each other and had a rapport already established. We added John and Todd as the young guys so that we could bring in everybody as the audience. It worked! It worked 150%!

We did exactly what we wanted to do, and it cost us a lot of money to do it that way, but it paid off. Back then, everyone was grabbing their camcorder and doing videos out in the barn with the wife taking the video, while holding a baby and the dog biting her leg while telling her husband what to do. We did not want that, we wanted ours to be very professional, very Hollywood and that is what we did. We set the industry on their ear with it. We sold a lot of those videos and it was very successful.

That was my first book and Western Horseman published my second book "Be a Smart Horse Buyer".

The World's Greatest is probably my favorite event. It is definitely the most challenging making all 4 events work. I've always approached it with a very methodical mindset. I didn't ever try to win one leg of it, I just tried to stay as high as I could in every event. The most challenging part is not only keeping your mental mindset right, it is keeping your horses healthy and in the right mindset as well. Your horse must be prepared properly when you arrive, over schooling at the event is really not an option.

It's all the above. One of the biggest things is that winners work harder than other people do. They don't let it bother them and they don't go into tomorrow dragging yesterday with them. They can get over making a mistake and keep going. They don't think about like, "Oh my, I made a mistake! What am I going to do?". If you show enough, if you do anything enough, I don't care whatever it is you are going to make mistakes. I don't care who you are, but you have got to learn to get over it. You have to see if you learned by your mistake and then keep going forward. Then you need to be aware of the times changing. You must change with the times.

I have an example, at the Avila Pro Shop. We now laugh about it, but when the square toed boots came out, they did not want to carry them. They did not like square toed boots and were not going to order any. I kept saying, what is selling. You have got to get over it. This went one for couple of years and they fought it. Finally, they gave into it and I saw Joel at a horse show here about a year ago, and when I looked down he had square toed boots on. Originally, he did not want to accept it. But that's just one thing as an example. You have got to accept change, and you need to change with things. Sometimes it is not what you want, but it is a big part of being successful in business. You have to be able to change with the times, while still keeping your authentic style.

I watch things a lot. When I am at a horse show, I may not say anything, but I am always watching what is going on. When I see something that I think is new, I try to learn about what it is. I think that is why, for instance, when I had a mare named Leaguerette she was very low headed and people noticed her and loved the way she carried herself.

Everyone thinks that Boomernic was the first low headed horse that came to the Reining. But Leaguerette was low headed before Boomernic. I have no idea why she was that way, she just was. I won a lot on her, she was a really cool mare, and she was really stiff necked but it made her carry herself very low, she just came that way it wasn't forced on her. She was very low headed, she ran her circles with her neck really low, and people loved her! So, I kept saying to myself, why are they making such a big deal about this mare. It was because it was something they had never seen before. Then as we went on and Doug Carpenter and I bought Boomernic, as a 2 year old we looked for that something extra, that something special. I still look for that in my show horses today. What makes them set apart for everything else? If they are in a group of horses, why do you go and pick them out and not the other ones? Boomernic had that, Leaguerette had that. They have that charisma.

It is something that maybe you cannot describe that make them different than anything else. I am very conscious when I pick out horses, like the one that Dana is riding right now. He has that beautiful look to him, when you look, he has a kindness in his eye. The judges may not get close enough to see the kindness in his eyes, but we do. I think that kindness just comes out of him when you look at him doing his job. Bottomline is I look for something different, I don't want what everyone else has. I never have!

I had no idea what they were going to use in there until I actually saw it when everybody else saw it. Taylor Sheridan called me the night before and he said, "I think you are going to be very happy with this." That is all I knew. So, when it came on, I kinda went WOW! I saw it when everyone else saw it and it was really cool!

Millions of people saw great horses and horsemen, and it was serious horsemanship not acting. I must tell you that of all of the stuff that I have won in my life, I've had more reaction out of the public on that, than anything else! I thought that I had won some pretty cool stuff in my life, but I got more comments from people on Yellowstone, than anything I have ever won in my life. It's crazy!

I don't really think I scored them. I guess in a way I did, but the way I have presented myself and my business in the show ring and out of the show ring. I think that is what has drawn my sponsors to me. No doubt success in the show arena is key. Once it starts, I think it kinds of feeds itself after a while. Like Bex Sunglasses for instance, Dana and I were walking down the hallway at the Western Market and a gal we know said, "I was at Bex and they want to talk to you." So, we went to Bex and they wanted to do a deal together. We jumped on it as they are just fabulous sunglasses. I mean, you kind of went WOW, really!

When I got Cinch, I was with a different clothing company that I really was not happy with. Cinch came to me and they were brand new, and they gave me a pair of pants before I had the endorsement or knew the brand. I tried them and just loved them! They revolutionized Western apparel in many ways. Let me give you an example, my son would not wear Western jeans to school when he was little. When I got Cinch, he would wear Cinch to school. Cinch was cool!

The Avila name is Portuguese. My Grandparents were Dairy farmers and my Grandfather was a horseman. My Dad was a Rodeo cowboy and horse trainer. My Dad owned Docs Dee Bar, which was one of the first great sons of Doc Bar. That Horse did ten events! When was the last time you saw a horse that did ten events? My Mother was very involved in the show horse side of things. Training horses was just a natural progression for me. I was born just south of San Francisco and grew up in Northern California.

One of the things that pointed me to the Reiner/Cowhorse type horses, was that my Dad was a Rope horse trainer. He was a Roper and a Rodeo cowboy. My Mother, when they got together was into show horses, and she kind of talked him into going into show horses. But he brought his rope horses into the show arena as well. I hated riding his rope horses. They were great to rope on, but I hated just riding them because it took the whole arena to turn them around and get them back to the box. They were not fun horses to ride unless you were roping.

I had the opportunity to hang around Tony Amaral when I was a very little kid, and I loved his horses. I used to get to walk them out at the horse shows. I loved his horses because you could see that they were trained to do something. The horses we rode in those days, I'm talking 50 years ago, we would not even have them in the barn today. The horses we are riding today are very highly bred athletes. We rode horses that were just horses. They were the best horses we had they were not bred to do anything well. They were bred to be as good a horse as they could be at that time. Now we have horses that are bred to be superstars in the Cutting, Reining. Now we have horses bred just for Halter. When I first started, we showed everything in halter. Now people don't even think about showing horses unless they are in the event they are bred to do. But that is why they are so good at what they do!

In 2003 preparing for the Snaffle Bit Futurity I had great horses; Chics Magic Potion and Mister Dual Rey. All Year well making the Finals. Well in the finals in the reined work and I go to back him up and he kneeled down. So, I am a zero, I am out. Go home, bye, bye. I got over it and said, I am going to take him back next year and win it. I did and I won it! I won it in 2000 on him.

I had an idea about 15 years ago when he was still alive, at that time I had already been with them for over 20 years already and we had a great relationship. I had an idea, I wanted to come up with a bit line that was very high quality but still something people could afford. Bits can be very expensive, and I wanted to build a bit that people could afford that had the quality and availability for everyone. I own over 200 bits myself, that is how important I feel they are.

Your horse likes, your horse have to have the prettiest bit in the pen, you need to have a bit that your horse likes. I may have over 200 bits in the line now. In my opinion one of the most important things about training and showing a horse, and the sixth one does that he likes. In my opinion one of the most important things about training and showing a horse is bits. Your horse likes, your horse have to have the prettiest bit in the pen, you need to have a bit that your horse likes. A horse has to accept a bit and like it or be comfortable in it to perform well. A horse cannot sit there and say "Hey Bob, I like that bit". But you know when they accept it and are good about it. I know when they want to spit it out of their mouth, they are saying them on it, I say it.

The most important thing that you can do in this business is to not have an ego and ask for help. Today's guys just do not ask for help. I learned more from the kids that have worked for me. Like John Slack, Todd Bergen, Brent Naylor, all of them. I learned so much from them because I would just sit there watch them all day long. You want to make sure they are doing it right, then all of a sudden you have a John Slack who does something, and you say what did he just do? It's cool looking and it works, what did he just do? You can learn something from anybody. When you think you can't, about the time you are finished in this business.

Who you have as a partner is a very important part of being successful. This Hall of Fame is a really big deal, but I could not have done this by myself. It's Dana, and the Sponsors we have, the customers that let me do what I want to do. To buy the horses I want to buy, to show them where I want to show them. And I can't say I got here without all the great people that have worked for me in the past along the way.

When you got here, Ken Banks was on the phone with me. He is on the Executive Committee of the AQHA, and one of our customers for over 20 years. Ken has had me make decisions, and some of them I did not want to make. He says, "Here, it's your deal, you take care of it." That is a big deal and a lot of responsibility to carry.

I am really proud of my son BJ, he is a horse trainer now. He bought himself a place two years ago in Texas. He struggles like any other young horse trainer, but he is very talented and has great work ethic. He is working hard to find his own way through it. As a youth competitor he was a superstar, and when that was over with I said, "It's over with, now you go to college, or you get a job. One or the other." That is when he told me that he wanted to be a horse trainer. I told him, "It's a hard life, are you sure?" BJ wanted no part of college so he jumped in with both feet.