A letter from Mr. John and The Beginning of The BAR J
โJesse, Iโve always loved horses for some unknown reason. I had an old hunting horse for years before I started team roping in 1997. I bought several heel horses most of which were just okay but then I had the opportunity to buy one that went down the road on Clay OโBrien Cooperโs trailer. Shorty was a dream come true for me in that I wanted to train horses and here was the perfect example. If I could get all my trainees to work like him what an accomplishment that would be. So, I started off buying a few geldings to train and I made the mistake of buying a beautiful unbroke red roan c**t I called Magnum. He came off the Pitzer Ranch well known for their Two Eyed Jack ranch/rope horse family. In fact, his Grandad was Two Id Bartender who was the 1983 AQHA World Champion Head Horse and placed in the Top Ten in heeling also. The seed was planted. He had not been at the barn too long when my farrier Mike Harper said I bet I can get on him without anything on him. I laughed but sure enough a few minutes later Mike was sitting on the c**t in his stall. He was so easy to be around I never cut him and back then we very seldom had any mares around. Like his Grandpa he can head and heel. I owned him for ten years before he greeted the love of his life and the next love, etc. So, when I started the breeding program, I knew I wanted to eventually end up with some of his daughters to breed to outside studs or some outside bloodline mares to breed to him. Magnum throws well rounded babies with good minds and beautiful color with no shortage of mane and tail. The group of mares we have now include foundation, ranch, cutting and barrel.
Iโm excited about our young 5 year- old stallion, Haydays Frenchman. His dad is PC Frenchmans Hayday aka Dinero from the Potter Ranch. Dinero is a full brother to the famous Bozo and the sire of Stingray. Dinero has won over $600,000 in rodeo himself with Cory Petska or Sherry Cervi aboard. His mom is a Dashing Guy mare(son of Frenchmans Guy). We call him Hayday and he has been trained in Working Cow Horse, started in Team Roping and plans to run some Barrels too. We bred him to two mares this spring and canโt wait for the babies to arrive in 2021.
I preferred to train my babies so they knew how to do something and make a living as well as be good companions for their owners so generally I kept them around 4-5 years. Kinda like my kids. Never was about making money it was always about making a horse. Iโm excited to see the enthusiasm Jesse and Callie bring to the program and I intend to be around just enough to aggravate Jesse. Good Luck Bar J!!โ
P.S. More to come about the breeding program.
