BAR BAR 2 said:
They are coming. Actually I just walked in the door a few minutes ago. There was a lot going on today so I wasn't able to go and pick them up until late afternoon and then I had about a 1 1/2 hour drive back to the ranch. The Hostile Native is still thinking we lost our mind. I had no inclination to buy a bunch of mares or babies when we went over there. I did get the one I was after though. I'm just wondering why I bought her dam and full brother and the others. Oh well. I'm glad we did it. Now I'm going to be racking my brain trying to figure out what kind of stud to breed them to. The gray mare is double bred Leo and also has Rocket Bar on her papers. A good friend of ours who is a barrel racer and also owns and runs "TURN" Barrel Horse Magazine has a Streakin Six son that I think will cross nice on her. I'm still thinking on a stud for the Orphan Drift mare and also the Hollywood Dun It mare. I've got till next spring after they foal to come up with some answers, but I need to start saving up for stud fees now. Any ideas ?
Oh, wow, you're asking us about stallions we like? You've opened up a great, big tub of worms with that invitation :shock:
A lot of the decision will obviously depend on exactly how your mares are bred, how they're built, their temperaments, how and what they've produced over the years, what you're hoping to produce from the cross, and any number of other factors. Not knowing what you're breeding for, and not knowing much about your mares other than some generalities about their pedigrees, a couple of thoughts for you (which may or may not be helpful, but the hallucinating is sure fun

):
There are quite a few Driftwood bred stallions out there that might cross well with the Orphan Drift mare (and probably with the other two mares) if you want to continue with the line breeding and are looking to produce higher-level rodeo competition horses. Mel Potter in Marana, AZ, (you can see his site at
http://www.potterranch.com/stallions.html) has a couple of good ones, and there are a lot more of them in the ND/Montana area than we can list here.
For the Leo/Rocket Bar bred mare (and maybe the Orphan Drift mare, too), if you are looking to breed to a horse that adds some flat-out speed and can find something with the right temperament and physiology for you, I'd be inclined to look for something with a Beduino/Dash For Cash cross. If you can find the right Corona Cartel horse that hasn't had the "short" speed bred out of it on the bottom side of its pedigree, they can flat out scoot and are pretty tractable.
If you want to cross for more of a working cow horse type of prospect, there are plenty of Playgun sons out there (more on that in a second), as well as a really nice buckskin standing at the 6666 ranch (Playboys Buck Fever) that could be nice options for all three of your mares with the breeding you've described. And for a middle of the road type of horse that can do a lot of stuff, there are still some stallions out there with a Jackie Bee / Goldfingers cross that make for some really nice ranch and roping horses, the Pitzers have some horses that could be good options for you, and Bill Smith has a nice lineup of all-around ranch type horses, too.
With the broodmare band we have, and with what we're trying to produce with them, we're looking very seriously at a Playgun bred horse for an outcross next year. There's a stud I found that I really like, his name is Chics Playgun (this colt here
http://www.playgun-oak.com/chicsplaygun.htm); he's by Playgun and out of a daughter of Smart Chic Olena. Second dam is by Peppy San Badger (which, for attitude reasons, usually makes me cringe, but this colt seems to have gotten the Smart Chic and Playgun attitudes, not the Little Peppy attitude). He's a good sized colt, stout, and really well built with good bone, a nice set to his hocks, a good hip and heart girth, nice neck, and a better-than-average head. The dark steel gray color doesn't hurt much, either. He's throwing some nice babies, and is still fairly reasonably priced with a breeding fee of $750 (or $900 if you chose to pay the breeding fee when the baby is born).
Anyway, there are a lot of really nice Playgun sons out there that I've checked out and to which I wouldn't mind breeding: Real Gun, a couple out of daughters of Doc O Lena, a couple out of daughters of Colonel Freckles, and I think Circle Bar Pistol is pretty slick, too; and, of course, old Playgun himself is still breeding. But I haven't seen a lot of Playgun sons that are crossed on Smart Chic Olena, who I kind of like since he has some size, a good attitude, and was pretty versatile as a competitor. And, of course, a lot of them have gotten popular enough to where their breeding fees are outside our budget. Chics Playgun appears to be of comparable genetic quality, but still available at a lower fee.
And if you really want to go outside the box and experiment, there are a couple of alternatives with bloodlines that have worked well for us in the past for what we're producing. They're usually not thought of as options for producing ranch horses, but I´ll be the first to tell you, crossed on the right types of mares, they definitely fit the bill. It's riskier if you want to sell prospects since the unconventional bloodlines make for babies that are less marketable, but if you're going to keep your horses for your own use and won't sell them until they have some years under saddle, they might work for you. For example, a good son of Skipping Duino (with the right dam), will produce some really good all-around horses with size, and all the athleticism and endurance you will need for rodeo or ranch use. Again, if you like size, athleticism, and a pretty look, the right Impressive bred stallion could work well, also, particularly on the Leo/Rocket Bar mare, and maybe with the Hollywood Dunnit mare, too.