A dentist and barrel racer, Jeff Varner shares his story and breeding program success.
Originally from Western Pennsylvania, Jeff Varner’s parents met at a horse show so naturally, he can’t remember a time in his life that didn’t involve horses. From playdays to gymkhanas to 4-H shows, Varner graduated from ponies to horses when his dad gave him his barrel horse. Four years later, he would buy his first barrel horse in Oklahoma.
“I bought my first barrel horse in 1994 at a Triangle Horse Sale in Shawnee, Oklahoma,” Varner said. “I was 17 and bought the mare Check It To Me.”
A daughter of Project Cash, who is by Dash For Cash, out of an Azure Te Grandaughter, the mare started Varner’s interest in futurities.
“I started breeding with Check It To Me just to pay back my dad,” Varner said. “He was generous enough and gave me his barrel horse whenever I was 13 and I told him if I was able to one day, I would repay him for the favor. We bred her to a stallion that my aunt owned at the time, so that I could give him a horse back in repayment for him giving me his horse years before.”
Later, when Varner was in dental school, he would breed Check It To Me to his friend Roger Grow’s stallion, Hesa Sonny Bar, starting Varner’s career in breeding barrel horses for futurities.
“My best friend Roger Grow and I had a kind of a plan that we hatched together, we wanted to go and compete at some of the futurities and things and so I was a student with no money at the time, but my friend Roger had a stallion, a standout barrel horse in our area,” Varner explained. “And I had Check It To Me who was a standout in our area as well and we decided that we would breed those two and that the first baby would be his, and that the second baby would be mine, and we weren’t going to exchange money or anything like that, just horses. It was kind of an adventure, and those two resulting foals ended up being good barrel horses, both 1D horses that we had a lot of fun with and won a good bit on, and it helped deepen our friendship.”
As time went on, Varner’s goals changed from breeding barrel horse prospects for himself to raising barrel horses for other people to compete on. Varner moved to Sedalia, Colorado in the early 2000’s and began a career in dentistry.
“I’m a dentist at Comfort Dental in Aurora, Colorado and that career is what supports this horse habit,” Varner added. “My wife Sunika helps me a lot, she’s very much a part of this program as well and I owe her a lot.”
Though he is not a full-time barrel racer, Varner can be found at barrel races in Colorado on the weekends and often larger aged events like the Barrel Futurities of America World Championships and Pink Buckle.
“I like to run a little bit at a local level, and on occasion I can get out to a futurity or maybe a bigger event,” Varner said. “But we also balance it with using outside trainers, whether that’s training a two-year-old getting ready for a three-year-old year, or whether that’s a three-year-old that’s being trained and getting ready to compete with a trainer. We have one or two babies out each year, and so that’s how we balance that. I may not be in the saddle, but we get our fix by watching the webcast or getting phone calls or somebody videoing and sending it to us of runs that are being made at an event in another state.”
Cornerstone Connections
Progeny from Varner’s cornerstone mare, Honor This Nonstop (Mr Honor Bound x Jet On A Quest x Nonstop Jet) bred by Randy Hulsey of Georgia, brought connections through progeny excelling in the arena.
Honor This Nonstop was bred to Dash Ta Fame when Varner acquired her as a broodmare, resulting in VQ Sucker Punch, her first foal. “Rocco” was the 2015 Panty Raid Futurity Champion, 2015 Indiana Barrel Futurity Champion, 2016 Fort Smith Derby Champion, 2016 Old Fort Days Super Derby Champion, 2016 All American Quarter Horse Congress Sweepstakes Champion, won the 2016 Barrel Futurities of America World Championship Derby and qualified several times to RFD-TV’s The American Semifinals and The American Final Four with Brandon Cullins. He went on to the NFR multiple times with Cheyenne Wimberley where they split the win of round one inside the Thomas and Mack in 2021.
“He had quite a career up to that point, but he was the first baby that we raised to go to a pro rodeo level like that,” Varner said. “I had never been to the NFR prior to him running there. I had always said that if we raise a baby that makes the NFR, then we’ll go and watch and we would go and kind of cheer him on. Fortunately enough, Cheyenne Wimberly ran him the night that we were there. It’s neat to see them have success at every level, and I typically don’t even dream that big, but it’s sure is fun to see it happen.”
Folsom Prisoner, by Blazin Jetolena was Honor This Nonstop’s second foal and the 2017 BFA Futurity World Champion with Cullins. “Sid” earned $95,641 during his futurity year, with nearly $42,000 of that from the BFA.
A full brother to Rocco, and third foal out of Honor This Nonstop was VQ Im Buzzed who found success with Ryann Pedone, winning the 2019 Better Barrel Races OKC Sweepstakes, running at the 2020 National Finals Rodeo with Pedone and now is on 2024 NFR Qualifier Abby Phillips’s trailer.
Rocco, Sid and Big P are all owned or previously owned by Robin Weaver.
—->>>> Read more about Robin Weaver’s program
“It was through Robin’s guidance that Brandon got the first two, and that Ryann got the third one,” Varner said. “Those horses kind of put our little program on the map.”
The fourth foal out of Honor This Nonstop was VQ Nonstop Stinson, by Eddie Stinson. Trained by two-time NFR qualifier Carley Cervi and futuritied with Kelsey Lutjen-Treharne, “Valentina” also spent time competing with four-time World Champion Hailey Kinsel.
The youngest money earner out of Honor This Nonstop is 2020 stallion, Good Things Comin by The Goodbye Lane and owned by Brandon Cullins.
“I felt like after Brandon had done such a nice job with the first two and putting Honor This Nonstop on the map that I owed him a thank you for doing such a great job with those babies and so we sold him a recipient mare in foal to The Goodbye Lane,” Varner said. “That resulted in his stallion, Good Things Comin. His Futurity year, he has earned more than $172,000 and he’s going to stand him as a stallion now.”
Varner now has nearly $415,000 in breeder earnings, with a majority coming from Honor This Nonstop progeny.
“Each horse has broadened our circle, whether it’s with trainers, people that notice the horses, friendships that have been made through someone maybe liking one of the babies that we’ve raised or if we sell a particular prospect,” Varner added. “We continue to follow up with whoever buys the horse, and it inevitably creates more connections and more relationships and more friendships.”
People In The Proccess
Varner breeds two or three mares each year and keeps a frozen embryo bank for the future. Most of their embryo work is done at Royal Vista Southwest in Purcell, Oklahoma and mares spend the winter at Kathy James’s place in Ada, Oklahoma. Doing embryo transfer and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) work in February using recipient mares, Varner said every three to four years they will let a mare carry own foal to keep her reproductive tract in good shape.
“We try to stick to what’s proven,” Varner said when discussing stallion decisions. “It’s never a guarantee, but we do try to stack the odds in our favor. By breeding to a stallion that’s a high percentage producer, you give yourself a better chance at success, kind of stacking the odds in your favor as best you can because they’re all individuals. There’s never a guarantee but I would rather breed to a stallion that has multiple winners. We try to keep current so that we’re always raising a baby that we would want to run ourselves or is something that someone else would be interested in owning and competing on themselves.”
Recipient mares are then brought to Colorado and foaled out at Littleton Large Animal Clinic, just up the road from Varner. Mares carrying their own foal stay in Oklahoma to be rebred at Royal Vista Southwest.
“I watch as they grow and develop, I just kind of decide if we’re going to keep one,” Varner added. “We do most of the groundwork here. From birth we teach them to lead and do the groundwork, as far as saddling goes and trimming their feet. I even get on and ride the first five to 10 times whenever they’re a late yearling or an early two-year-old.”
After putting a good foundation on each foal, he sends them to a colt starter to get broke.
“Typically, they go to Jill Hinze who is wonderful, but I found that if we want to keep a good colt starter, you don’t send them something that’s going to try and kill them in the process,” Varner said with a laugh. “That’s something that we make sure that whenever we send a horse to Jill or someone else that’s going to start a baby for us, that they’ve got a good foundation on them, and they’re not dealing with a rank Mustang.”
Dreams Do Come True
Varner said it is important to be a student forever and keep an open mind.
“I think that’s important in the barrel racing world, and to keep learning and to keep current on what’s going on out there because it’s an evolving sport,” he said. “My friends and I talk about how this is the most exciting time to ever be involved in barrel racing. There’s just so many events with so much money, the level of competition is higher than it’s ever been, and the number of events that are out there and the conditions are set up for it so much better now than they’ve ever been before.”
With more refined and specialized genetic decisions, the horsepower is equally as incredible, and Varner credits the trainers capable of working with athletes this great.
“I’d like to give the praise and glory to God for allowing me to be around horses every day, for the wonderful sport of barrel racing and for the for the community of barrel racers that are out there,” he said. “It’s just such a wonderful circle to be a part of and I couldn’t be more grateful to be part of it. It’s basically living my all-time dream.”
