Remembering leading breeder and barrel racing benefactor Alan Woodbury. Alan (“Woody”) Woodbury, the longtime owner and operator of Woody’s Feed & Grain in Dickinson, North Dakota, passed away on June 6 at 81.
His feeds powered Kentucky Derby winners and National Finals Rodeo champions. His horses made dreams come true for high school rodeo athletes to Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and Women’s Professional Rodeo Association champions. It was his generosity, though, that knew no boundaries.
“Alan impacted the horse industry with a very wide path — an exceptional breeding program, a feed business, an electronic timer and just undeniable devotion to ‘always make it the best it could be’ no matter what adventure he was involved with,” said three-time NFR Champion Lisa Lockhart. I’m truly honored to have been entrusted by Alan to ride Rosas Cantina CC (“Rosa”) for so many years. More importantly, what started out as a business acquaintance quickly blossomed into a wonderful friendship, which I am forever grateful for.
“His wheels never stopped turning. He has so many little side gigs and he would go all out,” she continued. “He was quite a character and will be missed.”
WPRA President Heidi Schmidt was a lifelong friend as well.
“He was a great guy, especially if he liked you,” Schmidt said with a chuckle. “He loved rodeo. He loved barrel racing, he loved horses and anything he could do to make it all better.”
His oldest daughter Bobby Maher said her father had a very colorful mind and personality.
“He was beloved for being so unique,” Maher said. “He lived and breathed horses his entire life, and he’s fortunate to have that kind of career and love it so much. I wonder how many of us can truthfully say that?”
Breeder & Owner
Woodbury didn’t just feed champions. He raised them and owned them as well. As of December 31, 2025, horses raised in his name won more than $2.233 million in barrel racing.
In the early 2000s, Woodbury jumped into the national barrel racing scene with two mares that would be the cornerstones of his breeding program — Dash Ta Vanila and Tell Em Belle.
Dash Ta Vanila (“Nila”), a daughter of Dash Ta Fame, was purchased as an embryo from Carisa Shearer, who had ridden her dam SX Frenchmans Vanila to five futurity championships and 2001 EquiStat Leading Futurity Horse honors. The year before Nila hit the ground in 2005, SX Frenchmans Vanila helped Amanda Clayman qualify for the 2004 NFR.
Tell Em Belle, a 2005 daughter of Tres Seis out of Teller Corona, by Corona Cartel, was purchased in 2009. The mare had seven starts on the track and lit the board six times, including two wins, before she started her barrel racing career.
In 2012, Nila and Belle carried Nikki (Steffes) Hansen to the National Finals Rodeo. Belle later carried Bobbi (Grann) Olson to the 2014 Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo Championship before becoming the main mount of Woody’s granddaughter Sydney Maher.
“I won a lot on her, from the time I was 16 up until we retired her when I was in college. She won everything I took her to at all different levels,” said Maher, who later rode Pure Vanila and Wicked Felina CL, Rosa’s full sister.
“I’ve been, for sure, lucky and blessed, to get to swing a leg over his horses,” she added.
Woodbury built his breeding program around those two mares using the “depth of pedigree” philosophy. He analyzed the three-to-five generational history of successful pairings within a pedigree and would often duplicate it as closely as possible in the hopes of bringing the most desirable traits forwards.
“He had everything down to a science,” Barlow said. “I called him the mad horse scientist. He had a feel for horses.”
Woodbury was still planning pairings up to his death.
“All he did was eat, sleep and think about breeding horses,” Maher said. “He had notes upon notes around his house with different crossings scribbled out or crossed out with a different pairing. They were all over the place.”
Barlow said the hospital even sent some of his horse notes home after his passing.
Maher added, “He was still in touch with Vista Equine, Noble and Genetech, where he did a lot of his breeding up until the day he passed. He was making decisions that I didn’t even know about. He told me had three coming for next year, and after he passed, I called down there and they said, ‘No. We got seven. He OK’d it a few days ago.’”
Dash Ta Vanila became one of the all-time leading broodmares with offspring earnings of nearly $900,000. She produced Woody’s richest barrel horse, Rosas Cantina CC (“Rosa”), by Corona Cartel. Rosa, who has carried Lockhart to multiple NFR qualifications, was a prominent figure in his breeding program until she sold to Tyson and Del Bieleny’s Mill Iron Livestock in December 2025.
With Rosa, Woodbury created futurity champion and up-and-coming sire Monsterr, by Tres Seis; Bucky Wonder Horse, by First Down Dash, who helped Shelley Morgan qualify for the 2024 NFR; Britta Strain’s 2025 Breeders Challenge Finale Open 1D Champion Golden Cloud, by Dash Ta Fame; and rising leading sire Lucky Wonder Horse, by First Down Dash.
Belle, the family said, was his favorite.
“She was the No. 1 horse in his breeding program,” Maher said. “She produced the most babies.”
A lot of those babies went to the track first, like Telle Em PYC (“Banker”), by PYC Paint Your Wagon. Although Banker didn’t win $1,000 on the track, he’s crossed the $1 million mark in earnings as a steer wrestling horse. Now owned by Justin Schaffer, Banker is the 2025 American Quarter Horse Association/PRCA Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year and carried Tucker Allen to the 2025 Steer Wrestling World Championship.
With Megan McLeod-Sprague qualifying for the 2025 NFR on Seis Corona (“Jag”), Tell Em Belle’s gelding by Dash Ta Fame, Woodbury had the rare feat of raising multiple event NFR horses out of the same mare in the same year.
Legacy
Woodbury will be remembered for his generosity, his intellect and drive to make everything better. The horses he cultivated will influence the rodeo world for decades to come.
McLeod-Sprague likened conversations with Woodbury to being “a kid in a candy store.”
“There aren’t many people that you can just incessantly talk about horses with and not get tired of it,” she said. “He just had so much knowledge between the breeding and feed and how you bring them up and finish them. He knew so much about everything.
“He’s kind of like Scamper. He’s a legend,” she continued. “There will be more great horseman, but there will never be another Alan.”
Read more about Woodbury in the August 2026 issue of Barrel Horse News.
