Honoring Slick By Design

Leading barrel racing stallion Slick By Design dies at age 18.

Highpoint Performance Horses announced on their social media channels of the passing of their legendary sire Slick By Design. According to their post, “Slick” was humanely euthanized October 2, 2025, due to complications from laminitis.

Slick By Design was the kind of horse that fills the dreams of young horse-crazy girls — a striking black stallion, built for speed with the drive to win, and a kind and gentle heart beneath it all. In a 2017 interview with Barrel Horse News, National Finals Rodeo qualifier Michelle McLeod shared the special bond she held with Slick.

“He’s very, very kind. He wants to know that everything is right,” McLeod said. “He’s got a really good work ethic, he wants to do his job right, and he likes to be involved. At home, if he can get tied up in the arena, he likes to watch other horses work or I have a round pen I turn him out in so he can look over the arena and watch us ride.”

Slick By Design made his first NFR appearance with Michelle McLeod in 2013. Photo by Kenneth Springer

Slick was not only a leading sire, but was a leading performance horse prior to his career as a sire. With McLeod, Slick qualified for the NFR three times (2013, 2015-1016) and then once with Stevi Hillman (2018). He garnered more than $618,639 in EquiStat reported lifetime earnings — $291,566 of that coming from NFR earnings alone.

Owned by Jason Martin and Charlie Cole of Highpoint Performance Horses, and bred byAllene Tatom of Conroe, Texas, Slick By Design was a striking black 2007 stallion by Designer Red out of Dreams Of Blue by Dream On Dancer. His progeny have gone on to earned more than $8 million in EquiStat reported earnings.

“Slick changed our lives and the lives of so many that he touched,” Highpoint wrote in a social media post announcing Slick’s passing. “Slick put us on the map in the barrel horse world and allowed us to travel places and meet amazing people that we would never have met.”