Mixing well-known cow horse bloodlines and speed horses has been a winning combination for many in the barrel industry.
There are at least 500 stallions in the EquiStat database that have both working cow horse and barrel racing money-earning offspring. For some stallions, like $52 million sire Metallic Cat, it surprise readers to learn that he has 57 money-earning barrel racing performers, with nearly $87,000 in earnings. Others, like Dual Rey, by Dual Pep, may be better known in the industry, with 53 earners of more than $200,000. There is something special about mixing cow and running lines.
When Kelly Yates decided to breed her great mare Firewater Fiesta, she first looked at cow-bred horses.
“The first one I bred to is Popular Resort Figure, by Dual Pep, and we did good on [that foal] in the futurities and went ahead and roped on him,” Yates recalled. “ I wanted to breed ‘Fiesta’ to some of those studs in the cow horse notoriety in a different event, and it worked. I have always bred with that in mind, and the fact I like cow-bred stallions.”
For Yates, the cow horse bloodline mixed in with a running line meant more options for that foal. If it didn’t make it as a barrel horse, it could go to the roping arena. Or, it could have two jobs.
“I love cow-bred because they want to focus. We need a little run, but we can’t have all run and no turn,” she says. “When I have running blood and cow blood, that is great. I’ve always liked the cow and running because if the horse didn’t like barrel racing, we had another event we could go to, like roping. My brother, JD Yates, team ropes, so that is how we bred and worked the colts.”
Yates has had several prominent cow horse lines in her trailer, including the Dual Rey out of Firewater Fiesta, Fiesta Del Rey, a 2006 gelding that has $97,35.83 in EquiStat recorded barrel earnings. While Dual Rey has 159 money earners in working cow horse, averaging $22,113.87 for a total of more than $3.5 million in EquiStat earnings, his barrel offspring are not slacking.
In fact, the third-highest earning Dual Rey barrel racing offspring is out of a Miss N Cash-sire mare, Petty Cash. Miss N Cash is one of the top dual-earning sires, with almost equal cow and barrel earnings — $241,120.36 from 56 barrel horses, and $135,468.30 from 19 cow horses per EquiStat.
California trainer Jake Gorrell has had success in the cow horse with Smooth N Cash, by Miss N Cash and out of a Doc Bar-bred mare. His wife, Sonia, trains and runs barrel horses.
“Every horse I’ve had here out of a Miss N Cash mare was a winner,” Gorrell says. “The Miss N Cash’s I’ve been around, they have the run in them, because he is by Dash For Cash, and there are a lot of great Dash For Cash in old time cow horse and in barrel lines. They could do what the Quarter Horse was made for, run, have strength and maneuver. In cow horse, you have to cut, run and stop hard, sprint fast down the wall, and turn back. The Miss N Cash horses run easy; it’s easy to run smooth and fast, which makes it easier to go to the ground and turn quickly, which is a barrel horse trait, also.”
Though Gorrell says Sonia prefers running-bred horses, this year they have some with cow lines, like a Woody Be Tuff. In his mind, that means the horse won’t just run, but will think about what its job is with more focus.
“When you put speed to a horse, a lot of times, it takes away from their ability to logically think through things,” Gorrell said. “They think sprint and go, in an adrenaline rush. When you have an adrenaline rush, like us, it is hard for your mind to slow back down and do analytical things. I think that the good barrel horses today can run and slow their minds down to concentrate. It’s no different than people in sports that are great athletes but can’t think through a play, or their personal life is a mess. The really good horses are great athletes that can perform at high speeds with strong maneuvers — stop, getting the ground — and mentally slow their brains to think about what they are doing.”
Yates agrees, which is why she has enjoyed the Firewater Fiesta offspring bred to cow horses. She started Fiestas Gotta Gun, out of Firewater Fiesta and by Playgun, the $9 million dollar sire that has 24 offspring earning $153,656.78 in Equi-Stat-recorded earnings.
“A lot of people only look at the bloodline; they say they only want one bred this way,” Yates says. “I prefer to look at a horse’s back, at their conformation, instead of only the breeding. Right now, I have a 3-year-old out of Fiestas Gotta Gun. He is a good boy with a short back and very quiet. I have another little horse that is Paddys Irish Whiskey and Dash For Cash on top. I want a horse that is a good horse, not just one that is bred one way.”
With many sires that are know for producing cow horses, like Miss N Cash, going back to the same running Quarter Horse stallions, like Dash For Cash, as many barrel lines, there is sure to be crossover in success. For breeders like Yates, that means more marketability for horses to have multiple careers.
The cow-barrel cross can also go back the other way, with EquiStat $34 million sire Dash Ta Fame having on money-earning offspring in working cow horse, Fame N Red Hot, out of Had A Kanita, that earned $1,970. Frenchmans Guy, a stallion that also earned money as a competitor in cow horse, has sired four EquiStat-earning working cow horse offspring to the tune of $3,340.78.
Younger stallions, like National Cutting Horse Association champion stallions Hottish and Sannman, now have offspring earning money in cow horse, cutting and barrel racing. It goes back to a point Gorrell made, about the athleticism of a Quarter Horse.
“The Quarter Horse excels at short sprints, then getting down in the ground; plus, it’s the mind,” he said. “There is a balance between the running horses that are all speed and the ones that can turn. The running horses, they think speed and not slow, where they are listening to you or, for us, learning to read a cow. The speed, strength and mental capacity is what makes Miss N Cash and his offspring good at whatever they do.”
Some prominent cow-bred stallions that also have EquiStat barrel racing money-earners are listed below.
| Sire | Barrel Performers | Earnings |
| Bet Hesa Cat | 48 | $73,260.05 |
| Cats Merada | 31 | $164,488.32 |
| Chic Please | 28 | $55,777.88 |
| Dual Rey | 53 | $200,316.74 |
| Metallic Cat | 57 | $86,456.89 |
| Miss N Cash | 56 | $ 241,120.36 |
| Nic It In The Bud | 22 | $169,679.95 |
| Playgun | 24 | $153,656.78 |
| Royal Fletch | 19 | $105,523.39 |
| Shining Spark | 17 | $47,880.09 |
| Smooth As A Cat | 30 | $57,530.30 |
| Teninas First | 11 | $113,846.77 |
| WR This Cats Smart | 36 | $47,896.10 |
