The Future

These two mares are near and dear to my heart. They are half sisters by the same sire. They share the same sire as my barrel horse, Moon.

Beauty(the recently injured mare)...

And Chunk(the poor mare is incapable of growing a tail)...

Phenotypically, none of the foals sired by their daddy look very much alike. They don't even share much similarity in the disposition department. Each and every one of them take after their mothers, which confirms my belief that if you are going to raise a baby, you better like the mare! That being said, their sire passed on to each of them a couple of qualities that I really, really like. They are all fast. And they all have a tremendous capacity to break in the loin and stick their hinney's in the dirt. Yep-that Lady Bug's Moon and Otoe blood shows up in them loud and clear. "Cow" isn't a problem either. They inherited that from both their sire and their respective dams. The one disposition characteristic that their sire did throw-they are all very confident horses. I like confident horses.

The resulting foals are going to get a good dose of speed and cow from our Oklahoma Star-bred stallion too...


This guy can fly!! I love watching him in the pasture because he can just be loping along, drop, push off and he is gone. I can just see him leaving a barrel and being at the next one in about three strides-Whew. However, I have absolutely no desire to haul a stallion. I don't care how wonderful they are...it is a PITA!! So his foals are going to have to do it for him. I think I can safely say that he is capable of passing on his speed from watching Shooter. Now, that is a fast colt.

I was a little hesitant about the Oklahoma Star bloodline at first. I know they have an incredible reputation in the roping department, but you don't hear much about them in the barrel racing circles. But I have been doing my research and found this article about NFR barrel racing's leading sires...NFR Stallions. Finding out that Oklahoma Star has produced three horses that not only made to the NFR as barrel horses, but served double duty as calf horses and steer wrestling horses while competing makes me happy. Add in that Lady Bug's Moon's son Shawnee Bug sent two horses and also Cruizer(Charmayne Jame's sorrel horse) was Lady Bugs Moon on his dam's side and Bugs Alive in 75 sent two(he is FL Lady Bugs on the dam's side. FL Lady Bugs is the dam of Lady Bugs Moon). Confused yet? Well, what it adds up to is...raising an NFR quality horse is luck of the draw and getting them into the right hands to get them there...but if you start with the right bloodlines, you sure have a better chance of being successful. And the most important part-all of these bloodlines are well rounded individuals, with good reputations in the rodeo world, their options won't be limited.