Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2002 | 9:48 a.m.
Tammy Key enjoys reading trashy romance novels as she drives her big pickup truck, with the horse trailer hitched to the back, to rodeos in Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming and Nevada, then back home to Ledbetter, Texas.
The pro barrel racer aims her eyes on the prose on the steering wheel for a couple seconds, then up on the road for a couple seconds, then back to the book, and on, and on, and on ... for hours.
"I read to stay awake while driving," Key said. "That's one of those things that most people don't like to know. I can drive all day and all night, with a good book."
Headaches and nausea would only develop, she insisted, from the rickety motion of a moving vehicle if she were to read as a passenger, without the diversion of needing to concentrate on the road.
If anyone thinks that is dangerous, take a glance at Key's horse. And don't eyeball Roundpen. He will quickly return a menacing glare at what he no doubt perceives as an outsider's intrusion into his own space.
That was his salty demeanor at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo holding pen outside the Thomas & Mack Center early Tuesday night.
Hey, fall out of a trailer that's moving about 65 mph and anyone would question the company he's keeping or if he'll ever get another meal.
"As you can see, he really doesn't like people," Key said. "He's not unfriendly. His best thing is to be left alone. He's just really timid and shy. He doesn't bite or kick, he'd just rather not be petted. He's not one of those who wants you to rub him all over or loves attention."
Attention is warranted, because Roundpen and Key have been spectacular in winning $52,771.60, the top figure through the first half of the NFR. All of it was earned in the first four rounds, too, because Roundpen knocked over the third and final barrel Tuesday.
Key won the first three go-rounds, then broke the 14-second barrier (in 13.94 seconds) Monday. Melanie Southard-White concluded that fourth go-round with a blistering 13.83.
"I'm so proud of her," Kelly Kaminski, who won $13,923 by taking Tuesday's round in 13.94 seconds, said of Key. "She's determined. And (Roundpen), now look at him. What a neat story."
Key's parents, Jack and Peggy Dube, train race horses in Giddings, Texas, just east of Austin. Jack was appalled when he discovered how another trainer had been poorly treating a batch of one of his client's horses, so Jack arranged other homes for those animals.
The grateful client gave Jack a malnoursihed colt as a token of his appreciation, and the Easy Dash Oak spent most of his first eight months behind the Giddings ranch. The family was thankful that one of its roundpens was covered and walled, so nobody could see the hideous-looking creature inside.
Thus, the family started calling the horse that eventually became Tammy's "Roundpen."
Tammy and her sister Jackie trained Futurity horses for their parents, and Tammy was not disappointed when it was Jackie's turn to receive one when Roundpen became healthy.
The family was horrified, though, that day in June 1998, when Roundpen slipped out of a trailer whose gate had become unfastened, unbeknownst to Jack, by kids who had been playing back there.
Jack had steered the rig over a hill on a two-lane highway near Giddings when he saw the drama unfold in his rear-view mirrors.
"Roundpen skidded down the highway, jumped up and then ran through some fences before they could catch him," Tammy said. "But once they did catch him, they loaded him back up and went home."
The horse's front right quarter had sustained third-degree burns in the skidding, and a scar now covers a hole on the right side of his head that allowed viewing of his brain. A cut from his right front knee to his ankle exposed sinewy joints.
A veterinarian predicted that the horse would not survive. During his twice-a-day feedings, Peggy Dube sprayed his wounds with a mixture of distilled water, Clorox and salt.
"One of those old, home-remedy deals," Tammy Key said. "Within eight weeks, they were riding him again. Everything had healed up. He was sound."
After he turned four, Jackie rode Roundpen to sixth- and seventh-place Futurity finishes before he flipped over backward on her, crushing her pelvis, in a training session in March 1999.
Jackie didn't walk for six months. Roundpen had been entered in more Futurities, so Tammy took over and immediately found success. In a fabulous Futurity (four-year-old) career, Roundpen earned $120,000.
When Jackie became sound, she didn't last long on Roundpen.
"She had a bad taste in her mouth," Tammy said. "She's like, 'No. There are bad, hard feelings between the two of us.' So, I've had him since he was four."
Tammy has been to the NFR before, too, but not as a competitor. She recently divorced team roper David Key, who participated in the last two world championships here. However, Tammy, who is keeping her last name in deference to her 11-year-old son Riley, did not enjoy being a spectator.
A late start to the 2001 season, in which she missed an NFR-qualifying top-15 money finish by three spots, told her that she and Roundpen had talent.
Convinced that a full season on the circuit would earn her a December place on the Thomas & Mack roster, Key did not let herself down. Her season winnings of $78,279 were the third-highest among the barrel racers.
The NFR money she makes might surpass that figure, all on a horse that would just as soon spit on anyone who looks at him.
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