MARCH 31, 2020 -- Volume 14: Issue 13 IN THIS ISSUE: • Rundown Recap - Shoeing Rodeo Horses • Barrel Racing Industry Icon, Jud Little passes, pg 11 • BFA World Champions History - with pedigrees, pg 16 • WPRA World Champions History - Margaret Owens & Amy McGilvray, pg 27 • *NEW* Barrel Horses For Sale, pg 29 Published Weekly, online at www.BarrelRacingReport.com - Since 2007 Rundown Recap – Shoeing Rodeo Horses By Tanya Randall shoes on yet with the exceptions of the ones that she has to share Barrel Racing Report visited with a few professional barrel racers with her husband – if they’re going to get roped on, they’re going about their shoeing, or non-shoeing, preferences for their horses. to get hind shoes, he says. Here, Ivy Saebens, Jennifer Sharp, Michelle Alley and Tiany Schus- She also waits as long as she can to have to put front shoes on ter share their shoeing preferences and talk about how they came up one. Like with her 3-year-olds, they won’t get front shoes until she with the set up for their current stars and main mounts. speeds them up. Ivy Saebens “I just put shoes on her recently because we’ve just started to A lot of people are surprised to learn that Ivy Saebens won the go fast,” she added. “My other one, I haven’t put any shoes on yet, 2019 National Final Rodeo on KN Fabs Gift Of Fame (“J-Lo”) because we’re not going that fast yet.” with aluminum shoes up front but barefoot behind. Although improvements have been made to the ground at Las Vegas, it’s still a pretty mixed bag. When other horses were hopping, skipping and falling down the hind end, J-Lo made her same little bunny trail every night and never missed a step. “I’ve always done that,” she said. “I’m not a farrier, but that’s just what I do. I ran Tibbie without hind shoes. Tibbie ran the first half of her futurity year barefoot all the way around. We ended up putting front shoes on her halfway through.” She also pulled the hind shoes on Fames To Blame (“Famey”) when the mare helped her qualify in 2018. Famey, who now belongs Jennifer Sharp to Brooke Wills, won the Canadian Barrel Racing Championship and Maple Leaf Circuit Finals running with the same setup in 2019. When Jennifer Sharp started her march to the 2019 National Her derby horse Positively Streakin, that won the first go of the Finals Rodeo, Six French Smooches (“Smooch”), owned by Terri recent Elite Derby, is also barefoot behind. Lamp, was barefoot. She won the bulk of her winter run money by “I feel that the ground is so different everywhere that one shoe winning Denver and taking second at Fort Worth sans iron. isn’t going to help them handle it all the time,” she said of running Sharp, a trainer and professional barrel racer from Richards, barefoot behind. “If they can actually feel (the ground), it might Texas, never had an issue with traction without the shoes. help. It’s also a lot cheaper!” “That was the most surefooted horse that I ever rode,” she said, Saebens also said it’s kind of mare thing “other than Spirit, my roan horse that I rode way back when (to the “Mares are so funny about their hind feet,” she said. “I think a National High School Pole Bending Championship).” mare’s fighting the shoer they can get little bit impatient and hurry It wasn’t until mid-summer that Smooch got her first set of shoes. trying to get through it, it’s easier to get by them if it’s just a trim.” “We put shoes on her at Red Lodge, Montana,” said Sharp. Saebens said she hasn’t had a horse that she’s had to put hind “She just got foot sore,” said Sharp. “We took x-rays. It wasn’t Shoeing Continued on Page 2 Shoeing Continued From Page 1 bad. We knew she was getting sore and we did what we could to stop it. I think it was because of it was so rocky up there. Other- THE RUNDOWN RECAP - SHOEING 1 wise, I don’t think she would have needed shoes. Her feet never chip or anything, ever. It was amazing.” Tamara Reinhardt / Yessir Imareddie (“Remilee”) / Grand Island NE Sharp said at the time she wasn’t running the mare a bunch, just 2020; St. Croix Lite Rims on front, regular St. Croix on back trying to get her ready for the Calgary Stampede. They made one Stevi Hillman / Cuatro Fame (“Truck”) / The American 2020: Concave run together with shoes before heading to the Calgary, where they steel rims on all four threw down with World Champion Hailey Lockwood and DM Sissy Hayday for arena record pace-runs. Randee Prindle / Red Man Jones (“Scooby”) / American Semifinals On her Dash Ta Fame stallion KR Famous Tequilla, Sharp had 2020; Steel shoes on front only, barefoot behind aluminum wedges on front and regular steel shoes on rear through- out the rodeo season. Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi / Babe On The Chase (“Birdie”) / WCRA Kansas His only mishap shoeing-wise was a hot nail and sole depth prob- City / San Antonio: Kerckhaert aluminum on front, steel rims on the back lem after being shod at a rodeo in the Northwest. Thankfully, it Stevi Hillman / MCM ImaSharpGuy (“Sharpie”) / Tucson; resolved quickly with a little growing time and she was back on him Concave steel rims on all four in time to win a check in Canada that gave her the cushion to come home with both the NFR and Canadian Finals Rodeo made. Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi / Ima Famous Babe (“Katniss”) / San Angelo; Michelle Alley Kerckhaert aluminum on front, steel rims on the back Michelle Alley’s mare Seis Caress (“Saucy”) is a BIG girl—16.2 Hailey Lockwood / DM Sissy Hayday (“Sis”) / Fort Worth; hands and at least 1,300 pounds. While she didn’t have a lot of trouble Aluminum on all four standing up in her turns, she would slip pushing away from barrel. “Right from the beginning on crappy ground she would always Bobbi Grann / CD Trix (“Delfinion”) / Rapid City; Eventers on all four slip leaving the turns,” said Alley, a trainer, broker and professional Carly Taylor / Diva Deniro (“Diva”) / Denver; Rims on front, regular on barrel racer from Madisonville, Texas. “She never fell or anything back with me. She was pretty sure footed, but she just slipped pushing off away from the barrel.” Wendy Chestnut / Sun Frost Merridoc (“Lucky”) / First Frontier Circuit Alley tried several different shoes, from rims to eventers, but didn’t Finals; Hand-forged rims by Mark Schneider of MJS Farrier Service stumble on the right shoe until she happened to catch a video that Lee Olsen had posted on Facebook. Olsen was setting one of Stevi Jill Wilson / Lean Mean Blue Dean (“Blue Dean”) Texas Circuit Finals; Steel Hillman’s NFR mounts and the shoe he used was a Kahn Forge Con- rims cave. After visiting with Olsen, she decided to give them a try. “The first time after I had them put on I could tell a difference right Ivy Conrado-Saebens / KN Fabs Gift Of Fame (“J Lo”) / National Finals away just doing slow work,” she said. “My first runs in them were at Rodeo; Aluminum on front, barefoot on rear the Texas circuit finals a few days before she won Colorado Versus The World running in some less than perfect ground. I was sold.” “They’re no more expensive than a regular shoe, maybe a $1 or She thinks the difference is the height of the shoe as it gives flat- $2 more,” she said. “Some of those shoes are crazy expensive.” soled Saucy more cup for traction. “They’re a thicker shoe—not wider, but taller shoe, so it gives Tiany Schuster you more cup and that’s what gives her more traction,” she ex- Tiany Schuster has taken one of 2019’s exceptional futurity colts plained. “Her feet are pretty flat. When you just trim her foot, her and turned him into a serious rodeo horse in 2020. One of the things sole is pretty flat. That was part of it too. These shoes being thicker Famous Mic Guy Ver had to overcome was the tendency to slip in got her up off the ground a little more to where she has more cup the hind end, even on the good ground at futurities on occasion. to her foot, which helps give her traction.” “When we bought him, he was actually barefoot in back and I’m While some of her jackpot horses are still barefoot behind because not an advocate of barefoot barrel racing,” she explained. “The risk the ground is usually better, Alley has tried the Kahn Forge Concaves versus reward of stepping on that one rock and getting an abscess is on several horses with different turning styles and they’ve worked. just not there for me. Barefoot or not, we noticed that he would slip “I’ve actually put them on several other horses and they love sometimes in the back.” them,” she said. “I have one horse that is a butt dragger and he’s The 2018 NFR qualifier found her answer after taking x-rays. still able to slide the amount he needs to. The other horse really “I guess from all the mistakes I’ve made over the years, I’ve dumps on his front end so he handles them really good too.