Kirby Blankenship places some circles on Sarah Angelone’s mare, Tinkertown. Elizabeth Clymer photograph
There’s nothing fairly like making an excellent rope horse. And contemplating at the very least 5 totally different producers are paying some $5 million collectively at a dozen futurities this 12 months, it’s simple to see why newcomers are leaping in with each toes.
Recreational crew ropers like Phil Hooker are beginning to understand that as an alternative of shopping for a completed horse, they will purchase an excellent prospect that truly makes cash in the course of the seasoning course of. Born in Oklahoma and raised in Wyoming, Hooker now lives in Comfort, Texas. He spent a long time promoting actual property for a residing and heeling steers in his spare time.
“I bought a 5-year-old this spring at the Western Heritage Classic sale in Abilene, consigned by the Stuart Ranch,” Hooker mentioned. “I’m semi-retired and, as I’m getting older, I don’t care as much about the roping. But the horses? That’s fun stuff.”
Watch the 2022 Riata Buckle Futurity Nov. 3-6, 2022 (and the archive anytime after!)
A good friend advisable he ship the gelding to up-and-coming coach Kirby Blankenship, 23, of Dublin, Texas. So he did that and so they entered Fort Worth and the Riata Buckle. Hooker’s prospect, Seven S Cocktail, was a 12 months older than what he wished. But it was a feat simply discovering that one.
“That was my fourth sale,” he admitted. “I’ve put on 2,000 miles. I’ve looked at more than 400 horses; studied videos day and night. I only picked out one or two horses at each sale. It’s crazy what they’re bringing.”
His gelding is by the reining sire Wimpyneedsacocktail and out of the Stuart Ranch mare Seven S Lena Cash—a granddaughter of each Peptoboonsmal and Miss N Cash.
“I’m totally beginner-naïve with this futurity thing,” Hooker mentioned. “I’ve been talking to Kirby, who has some connections, and we’re trying to find more horses for me. The problem with heel horses is there are a lot of good young ones out there, but they’re not big enough to take it once they grow up.”
Hooker mentioned he needs extra futurity-eligible horses.
“The Riata Buckle I’m excited about, especially this first year when they’re guaranteeing $400,000 (per roping) and may not get a ton of teams,” he added. “I’m going to ride this horse in the #10.5 and Kirby will show him in the Open.”
New market
As for Blankenship, he’s a child with a shiny future—a 9.5 heeler who trains horses each day and rodeos on the weekends.
“Dad rode a lot of cutting horses,” mentioned Blankenship, a local of Lampasas. “He never believed in a finished practice horse for me, so he had me in nice colts but they were always greener. He’d say, ‘Hey, figure it out.’ And Clay Logan helped me take it to a whole new level.”
After a few years serving to Logan, Blankenship struck out on his personal and has about 10 heel horses in coaching. He and up-and-coming head-horse coach Kelton Hill rope on the identical facility and assist one another.
“Next year, I’ll try to go to every futurity I can,” Blankenship mentioned. “I have a few colts that are eligible for Royal Crown and Riata Buckle. I’m going to try to get pretty serious.”
Blankenship confirmed 5 horses on the ARHFA occasion in Fort Worth, together with Hooker’s 5-year-old. As a brand new identify up towards the likes of “king of the cowboys” Trevor Brazile, Blankenship is choosing up clues.
“Trevor’s horses are so good in the box,” he mentioned. “I used to run steers and think, ‘They’ll figure it out.’ But now, I take more time in the box. In the field, they need their shoulders picked up and to be driving with their hind end and, when they stop, they need to hurt the earth and not move. It’s hard to beat his horses.”
Importantly, Blankenship discovered from Logan to recollect who he’s coaching for; that the consumer wants to have the ability to trip the horse, too.
“I stuck a novice on Phil’s horse the other day to see what he does,” Blankenship mentioned. “That’s what gets me the most wound up about this—seeing somebody else do good on a product.”
Speed plus thoughts
While new trainers watch the champs to know which buttons to put in, beginner crew ropers are additionally watching, in surprise.
“I look at some of these runs these guys are getting out of colts and think, ‘How did they get that much out of that horse?’” Hooker mentioned. “It doesn’t just take conformation and ability; it takes the right mind.”
To that finish, one other roping couple nabbed a promising stud out of the racing world. Rick Montera of Greeley, Colorado, had been buddies with Larry Rice for years when Rice advised he and his spouse, phenom-at-both-ends Jimmi Jo, purchase his then-8-year-old stallion, First Prize Diver, that the Flag Ranch consigned to the 2020 Triangle Sale.
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“As it turned out, the stud already had quite a few colts around that were winning for Cole Davison, Rhen Richard and others,” mentioned Rick, a 6 header whose profession has been spent within the feedlot trade. “Diver” is by the late PYC Paint Your Wagon—a ridiculously quick stallion whose progeny have earned greater than $35.4 million—and out of a Mr Jess Perry daughter. His son, Smooth Diver out of a High Brown Cat mare, owned by Nick and Lora Nichols, already gained a Royal Crown heeling futurity in Rock Springs, Wyoming.
“He’s passing his great mind on to his colts along with the speed,” Montera mentioned. “Ropers want racing blood for the speed, but they can’t always get the mind with it. And how else do you have a 4-year-old with crazy speed that will mentally take these tough setups at these futurities?”
Last spring, Montera turned Brazile down when he referred to as about buying Diver.
“Everyone’s seeing what Rhen has done with these racebred horses,” he mentioned. “Diver really is a freak of nature; he’s so quiet. And I’ve ridden a lot of horses—there’s a difference between rope-horse speed and race-horse speed. ”
The Monteras have a few coming-2-year-olds by Diver which can be futurity-bound, since he’s on the roster of Royal Crown stallions.
“I’ll probably send my colts to Tavis Walters out of Oklahoma to train,” Montera mentioned. “He doesn’t have notoriety, but is really starting to establish himself. He’s got a couple of Larry’s 3-year-olds right now.”
Walters—a Michigan native—really helped make Chics Magic Corona, the 6-year-old by racing stallion Furyofthewind, on which Richard gained a Royal Crown heading futurity in February in Buckeye, Arizona, plus the world title on the ARHFA in October.
Rhen Richard makes a successful run on Hankies Version by racing sire Winners Version out of his high-school calf horse, MS Hankie Goldseeker. Lexi Smith Media
Drool-worthy studs
Diver isn’t the one athletic stallion from one other self-discipline whose infants are excelling out of the roping bins. The Schiller Ranch’s Riata Buckle-enrolled dapple grey barrel racing stallion, Epic Leader, has the deep girth and good hip ropers need. His personal dam’s brother was an NFR heel horse.
“I’m not very adept in team roping, but Epic Leader has demonstrated that he passes his talent, attitude, elegance, soundness and will to win to his offspring,” mentioned Kristi Schiller, who acquired “Epic” from his breeder and coach, NFR barrel racer Kassie Mowry, after their standout barrel futurity season.
He’s by race-bred Confederate Leader and out of Kelly Yates’ NFR barrel racing mare, Firewater Fiesta. Just just like the mare’s brother—J.D. Yates’ 1989 AQHA/PRCA Heel Horse of the Year Flits Friend (Pac Man)—Fiesta was by a Flit Bar son out of the Yates household’s nice Grey Badger II mare, Mighty Mindy. They roped on Fiesta (the two-time WPRA/AQHA Barrel Horse of the Year) identical to they ran barrels on Pac Man.
Epic Leader, the youngest-ever million-dollar barrel racing sire, is out of the sister of an NFR heel horse. | Bee Silver photograph
The late Dr. Woody Bartlett’s mare Reys Desire—a daughter of Dual Rey that banked $453,713 as a reducing famous person—was bred to Epic. Also just lately, World Series of Team Roping founder Denny Gentry and his spouse, Connie, bred their Woody Be Tuff daughter to Epic in their very own first foray into breeding, and are delighted with the end result.
“Every place an Epic baby is entered, it performs,” mentioned Schiller, who produced the Diamonds & Dirt Barrel Horse Classic futurity for nearly a decade. “Kassie said it was boring training him, because whatever you showed him, he would just do. You never hear about one having a nasty disposition. They’re not hot, they’re easy to train, they’re easy haulers—they’re basically unicorns. They have the conformation of those great foundation horses, too.”
Schiller stands Epic on the Lazy E Ranch in Guthrie.
“He became a million-dollar barrel sire faster than any other stallion,” she mentioned. “I cannot wait to see what his future crops accomplish.”
Other good roping prospects are coming from a stallion as profitable on the racetrack as Epic was on the barrel sample. Winners Version sired latest ARHFA Sun Circuit heading futurity champ Hankies Version, ridden by Richard—whose household offered the stallion to Highpoint Performance Horses.
“We bought him three years ago when we realized he had almost $1 million in barrel racing earners out of no barrel racing mares, just mares off the track,” mentioned Highpoint co-owner Jason Martin.
Winners Version is each Riata Buckle and Royal Crown-enrolled—really he’s in 16 totally different racing, roping and barrel racing incentives. And Highpoint has a handful of different Riata Buckle-enrolled stallions by which they’re placing 20 to 30 colts on the bottom every season. They threw much more weight into rope-horse breeding this summer season once they purchased Paul Eaves’ world champion mare, Docs Gunslinger Chic (Jade).
For Martin, it’s not nearly mailbox cash from colt incentives. He and co-owner Charlie Cole just like the advertising and marketing of big-time horses and watching their very own compete. They’re pulling embryos out of Jade, crossing her on Slick By Design and Show Me The Buckles for a 2023 foal.
The Monteras of Colorado have discovered a producer in First Prize Diver. | Courtesy Rick Montera
More crossover
“We don’t have the connections, probably, or the understanding yet of the roping side, but we’re learning more and more about it,” Martin mentioned. “We’re getting our feet wet and educating ourselves.”
Highpoint has a weanling by Winners Version out of Sherry Cervi’s world champion barrel racing mare MP Meter My Hay (Stingray). That’s along with their equally well-known stallion Slick By Design. The black stud that ran barrels at 4 NFRs has already sired the J.D. Yates-trained heading stallion Probably By Design. Phil Tearney gained an AQHA world heading title on him and Yates positioned him on the Royal Crown in Rock Springs as a 4-year-old, plus Tearney gained the 2022 Select World Show on him. Martin mentioned he thinks AQHA world champ Bobby Lewis has bred mares to “Slick” and NFR heeler Billie Jack Saebens received a Slick colt at a sale.
“We’ve always wanted to have Slick geared toward more than just the barrels,” mentioned Martin. “Just seeing what the Pink Buckle has done for the barrel racing industry, if the Riata Buckle does half of that for team roping, it’s definitely a nice investment to own some of those stallion spots and try to produce some rope horses.”
Slick By Design stood the stress and hauling {of professional} rodeo. Impulse images
Since Highpoint in Pilot Point, Texas, stands Brazile’s stallion, Show Me The Buckles, Martin reckons he’ll ship their colts to the Relentless camp for coaching. In the meantime, they deliberate to have a stallion sales space at Fort Worth’s ARHFA occasion in October and one on the Ariat WSTR Finale within the South Point this December. This 12 months, they loved going to Calgary to observe Wenda Johnson run barrels on her two geldings they just lately bought, and so they watched Eaves earn over $80,000 on Jade simply in ProRodeo competitors, too.
“That’s why we do all this; we love to go to the NFR and the big rodeos; it’s our vacation,” Martin mentioned. “It’s kind of fun for us to dabble in all that. Now we’re breeding for rope horses instead of roping on cow horses that didn’t make it. I just see the potential, and now the futurities are taking off. Everything is set up for it to be really successful.”
