Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2016 and does not reflect current statistical leaders, offspring earnings or performance earnings.

A glance at the Top 50 stallions on the 5-Year Leading Barrel Racing Sires’ chart shows 21 stallions were barrel horses themselves. In fact, all have an Equi-Stat record with the exception of one—due to age; Equi-Stat didn’t exist when he ran.

An additional four were bred for the barrel arena, but never competed or compiled an Equi-Stat record due to injury or the circumstances of life. Those four were by proven barrel horses themselves or by racing sires.

That’s a vast change from when Equi-Stat first started keeping barrel racing records. Leading sires were largely racehorses whose offspring were purchased off the track to gamble on the cloverleaf. A little record keeping and promotion of bloodlines throughout the years has changed everything.

Of the 25 leading sires who never barrel raced, 22 were racehorses and three were all-around performance sires with offspring excelling in a variety of events, from cutting and reining to roping.

Breaking it down further, six of the top 10 sires were barrel racing money earners, three were racehorses and one was a reining horse who went to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo as a backup calf horse.

Here, Barrel Horse News takes a brief look at the careers of the top-siring barrel racing stallions. As owners will attest, it’s no easy feat proving a stallion in the barrel racing arena. You risk injury and poor performance, and just sometimes, the testosterone gets in the way of even the best athletes.

0115 FrenchmansGuy LarsonFrenchmans Guy is Equi-Stat’s All-Time Leading Living Barrel Horse Sire with progeny earnings in excess of $10 million. Photo by Larry Larson.

Frenchmans Guy

While Kristie Peterson’s French Flash Hawk (“Bozo”) was the Cinderella story of the aged-event circuit in the early 1990s, another horse of the same lineage was starting to make his mark in the northern plains—Frenchmans Guy.

Bred by James and Francis Loiseau of Flandreau, South Dakota, the 1987 palomino was sired by all-around performance sire Sun Frost and out of Frenchmans Lady, a daughter of Laughing Boy and out of Caseys Ladylove. Bill and Deb Myers of Saint Onge, South Dakota, had great success in the arena with Frenchmans Guy’s versatile half-brother Lord Alamitos and owned and sold two others before the palomino stud colt was added to their barn.

Although a stall-cleaning accident robbed the stallion of his right eye, Frenchmans Guy proved himself as a barrel and rope horse despite the disability. Equi-Stat—still in its infancy at the time—has Frenchmans Guy drawing checks at the Dakota West, Bad River and Fizz Bomb futurities. The stallion won much more with Deb at the rodeos and with Bill at the ropings before entering the breeding shed. Yet nothing he did himself can compare to what he’s done as a sire. As Equi-Stat’s All-Time Leading Living Barrel Horse Sire, Frenchmans Guy’s legacy is well assured.

0115 DrNickBar SpringerA young Fallon Taylor with her mount, Dr Nick Bar, at Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo in July 1992. Photo by Kenneth Springer.

Dr Nick Bar

The legendary Flit Bar was already a world champion barrel horse sire when his son Dr Nick Bar hit the ground in 1979. Bred by Michael and Susie Davidoff of Plano, Texas, Dr Nick Bar was out of a point-earning Leo Tag mare,  Este Tag.

Although a very successful futurity and derby horse with Larry Stevens, much of Dr Nick Bar’s win record remains in dusty filing cabinets housed in results archives at Cowboy Publishing Group. Going on recollection, Stevens and Dr Nick Bar had the fastest qualifying time at the 1983 Old Fort Days Futurity.

Equi-Stat picked the stallion up in 1991, the year Stevens brokered a deal to sell the stallion to the Taylors for their young daughter, Fallon. That year, Stevens and Dr Nick Bar were finalists in the sweepstakes at The Texas Barrel Race and BFA World Championships, where Fallon finished reserve champion in the tough youth division.

Fallon won her first professional rodeo and filled her Women’s Professional Rodeo Association permit aboard the stallion. Later, he served as a backup horse for her first trip to the NFR.

Dr Nick Bar’s last recorded check was at age 21 at the 1998 BFA World Championships, where he finished fifth in the Youth with Kacee Bacon. With just four events—three in 1991 and one in 1998—Dr Nick Bar earned $6,699 according to Equi-Stat, and it’s a safe bet that the true amount is over six figures.

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