Professional futurity horse trainer and many time futurity champion Molli Montgomery campaigned 2013 mare Legsgonewild to a successful futurity career. Now, she’s doing the same thing on Legs progeny with a dream team behind the scenes.
Molli Montgomery successfully campaigned 2013 mare Legsgonewild (Tres Seis x Stoli Bugs Me x Stoli) to nearly $92,000 in EquiStat reported lifetime earnings. Still competing today, Legs’ legacy would also continue as a producer. Her highest earning progeny have made their mark early at 2026 futurities to more than double her progeny earnings in two months with Montgomery at the reins.
Acquiring Legs
Legs’ owner Leslie Newman grew up with barrel horses. Her mom trained futurity horses but Newman never took to the training. She jumped into the futurity industry as an owner around 2013 when she sent her first horse to Montgomery.
“I’ve known Molli pretty much my whole life,” Newman said. “Our parents and grandparents were friends. The friendship goes back a long way; my mother actually started using Molli probably around 2008 to tune on a couple of horses that she had. In 2013 I sent my first futurity horse to her.”
Newman found Legs as a yearling in Mississippi. She turned her out until she was a two year old and then sent her to Montgomery.
“She was so gritty and just give you everything that she had,” Montgomery said about Legs. “That was what’s so cool about her, and she wasn’t hot or nervous or anything. She was just always proud of herself, not cocky, just proud. She’d get done making her run and just walk back to the trailer.”
They kicked off an incredible year with a win at the 2016 Barrel Futurities of America World Championships Juvenile, earning $17,533. They also won the LG Pro Classic Futurity in 2017 for a $33,765 check. Legs would go on to be Montgomery’s fifth highest money earner behind greats like TRheavensilluminated, Feelinthefirewater, A Dash Ta Glamour and Tres The Fire.
After Legs’ futurity year, Newman began a new venture with Legs progeny.
Meanwhile, Legs is living out her days at Hinton Performance Horses and is being ran by 12-year-old Brynn Hinton. Newman met Jennifer Hinton, Brynn’s mom through a mutual friend and connected at the Better Barrel Races World Finals in 2021.
“She’s had her since 2021,” Newman explained. “I was taking my first travel assignment as a nurse and needed someone to keep her in shape and so I sent her over to Jennifer’s because I knew Jennifer took excellent care of horses. It would be fun to watch that little girl ride her. Well, who would have thought that she would have got on and Legs would have loved her so much. She literally had the horse for a month when she went to the Josey Reunion that year and won her very first barrel race ever on her”
Now, not only is Brynn competing on Legs but the Hinton’s also own seven Legs babies, two of which have won more than $150,000 combined at the first futurities of 2026.
Wild Wins
2022 gelding Heavens Gone Wild and 2022 mare Heavens Wild Side, both by JL Dash Ta Heaven out of Legs have made a team of people excited for the futurity year. Not only has Montgomery found success with Legs, but she has repeated wins with JL Dash Ta Heaven progeny competing in the same year.
Her first set of full siblings competing in the same year were also JL Dash Ta Heaven progeny; 2012 mare Feelinthefirewater and 2012 stallion Heavenly Firewater both owned by Mission Ranch. Montgomery won $134,884 on Feelinthefirewater and $59,324 on Heavenly Firewater, both of which now have more than $200,000 in career earnings with the Matthews family.
A genetic combination proven to win in Montgomery’s hands, Heavens Gone Wild, known as “Ferris” and Heavens Wild Side, known as “Chanel” were bred by Newman. Jennifer Hinton purchased them as weanlings. When they were two-year-olds, Jennifer sent them to be broke at Clinton Anderson’s.
“I’m partners with Clinton Anderson on some reining cow horses and I was very adamant about those two being broke by him,” Jennifer said. “He had one of his interns, Serena (Bowman) take them and break them to complete the program curriculum there. She broke both of them and did such a good job with them. She had those two standing on pedestals; she would stand on their back and crack a bull whip. They were just so broke and so good by the time we got them back.”
“I actually ended up hiring Serena and she’s now working here at our place and that’s all she does for me now is break colts,” Jennifer continued. “She worked her butt off on those two and she made some good colts out of them. I don’t think they would have had the success they have had if it wasn’t for Serena.”
After they were broke, they went to Montgomery’s for barrel training and their futurity year.
“I knew Molli had really good success with JL Dash Ta Heavens, and she had won the Juvenile on Legs, so I thought it’s got to work, and it’s working,” Jennifer said.
Ferris swept The Grand Prix barrel race in Stephenville, Texas and has more than $108,000 in lifetime earnings after the Put Up Or Shut Up Futurity, Jingle Bell Classic and The Grand Prix. Chanel has just under $55,000 in LTE from the same events.
Montgomery has a third Legs baby on her trailer this year by Eddie Stinson, Longleglouise bred and owned by DK Potter.
“Jennifer wanted to make sure that she gave Molli the opportunity to train a horse out of Legs,” Newman said. “Who would have thought that we would have sent two and then she would have got the third one, the Eddie Stinson, so she has three Legs babies this year that she’s training.”
After training and competing on Legs, Montgomery said Ferris and Chanel are a taller version of her with added lot of athletic ability.
“She’s a Tres Seis and was always fast, but when you add that Dash Ta Heaven in there, that just adds another level of athletic ability,” Montgomery said. “So you mix that with Legs and you’re just going to have a superior athlete.”
Now entering the arena on Ferris and Chanel after training their dam and training several JL Dash Ta Heaven’s, Montgomery has added confidence in their ability to win and her ability to jockey them.
“It’s a surreal moment,” Montgomery added. “I just feel like I’m stacking every chip in my corner to possibly win. It just makes it nice because there are similarities between Ferris and Chanel and Legs. I mean, they both do the same thing that she did, like she always kind of wanted to kick her hip out at the first [barrel] and I kind of know what I did on her to help her not do that and to help train her.”
Jennifer said Hinton Performance Horses is focused on raising and riding outstanding mares, and that has started with Legs and Legs’ progeny. Of the seven babies out of Legs at Hinton Performance Horses, Ferris is the only gelding.
“My goal is to be able to raise and basically have a lineup of great mares here that I can sell those embryos to the public for and watch them go on and do great things,” Jennifer said. “I don’t play the stud game, but I do love a great mare. I am obsessed with it. In my whole process of doing this for years so much has changed. Now we have an actual facility. We have the colt breaker that lives here and we’re up to 53 head now. I’m hoping one day I’ll get to watch other people go and win and compete on stuff that we raised here.”
Team Behind the Dream
Having people in your corner that support you and trust in your ability is half the battle to winning on a futurity horse. For Montgomery, having people like Newman and Jennifer has made the success of Ferris and Chanel possible.
“That’s everything, having a team behind you that has faith in you that you know what to do,” Montgomery said. “There’s always points when you’re a trainer that you start to question whether or not you even know what you’re doing. Whenever you have owners like Jennifer that just tell you, ‘keep going, I believe in you and them, end of story,’ there’s no question about if they are fast enough or if they should go home.”
“Leslie and I discussed at length about who she should breed her to and of course, I’m voting Dash Ta Heaven because I can win on them,” Montgomery continued. “It’s amazing to have people that have helped me get there. We’re the ones that get the stories written about, but we’re just a piece in the puzzle. I wouldn’t be where I am without Leslie sending me Legs to begin with.”
Another factor that Montgomery said about the team behind the futurity horses is being able to ride them after a trainer does. Brynn and Legs have won nearly $50,000 together so they knew she could ride behind Montgomery.
“I contemplated selling the gelding because I don’t really have any use for gelding,” Jennifer said. “I don’t think at this point she’s going to let me get away with that, though. There’sbeen multiple people asked to buy him, and Molli is very adamant about Brynn running him. She’ll tell you all the time, ‘I didn’t train these for someone else. I trained these for her.”
Montgomery adds that every person from the breeder and owners to her interns to the veterinarians and farriers, all are part of the team keeping a horse competing at a high level like Ferris and Chanel are.
“I would be nothing without the people around me that believe in me and trust me,” Montgomery continued. “That’s including everybody from the people that stay here at the barn, to my interns that are taking care of my horses, whenever I get off of them, to my owners, to Leslie that has been my biggest supporter for years. I couldn’t do it without Sierra (Sosa) keeping me straight because good grief I’ve got so many horses. They’re remembering the things that you forget. It’s just so important that you have people around you like that.”
