With all of today’s reasons to raise a rope horse—from the skyrocketing cost of finished ones to the optimal gene pool lately—you might have a mare that you’re considering breeding.
Reliance Ranches’ available stallions each have unique characteristics, so we spoke with Monty McNair of Lazy E Ranch about which mares cross best with their proven sires. For starters, Lazy E has an actual head horse in the sire lineup. Watch The Lane is only 5 years old this spring but has already earned $111,430 roping steers under Rhen Richard—including the championship at the 2025 Old West Heading Pre-Futurity.
“He’s the right size for literally every event, so you could always go any direction with those babies,” said McNair. “All kinds of different mares will work with him. He’s such a neat horse. He’s been good-minded from Day One. In fact, if you watch Rhen ride him around before he’s up at a futurity, you’d think he had no life to him. But when you back him in the box, he’s a whole different horse. And anybody can ride him. Laura Mote won money roping on him in Fort Worth when he was only 4. He stayed in there until she got to the horn, you know?”
Another Reliance stallion that was an excellent rope horse is Bucks Hancock Dude—the calf horse that sired two NFR barrel horses for Emily Beisel. Her big grey gelding, Chongo, looks every bit like he should be turning steers.
“Buck’s Hancock Dude only stands less than 15 hands, but most of his babies are about 15 to 15.2 hands,” said McNair. “The former owner didn’t breed much to this one, except his own mares before we bought the stud. The stud will cross well with any size mare and throws a lot of color. His foals are smart; real good-minded. A kid leads him to the breeding shed to collect him! Most babies have quite a bit of cow and work pretty decent for any level roper.”
If you have a running-bred mare, a great cross to consider is Show Me The Buckles—the first stallion that Trevor Brazile wanted to own before selling the palomino to Reliance Ranches.
“I like the run-cross on that stud,” said McNair. “And that color helps any foal when you go to sell. He puts that big hip and nice hind legs on babies, with some flashy color. They ride around good and get on their butts so easy and drag that left hind leg. Most of his babies move their feet well and stay up underneath themselves, keeping their shoulders elevated. You get a cowhorse feel without it seeming like you’re running downhill.”
Or, if you’re looking for a super-fast stallion to add speed to your cowhorse mare, the genes don’t get faster than Cyber Monday. His 2-year-old babies earned $1.2 million on the racetrack last year.
“That horse is a pretty sucker,” said McNair. “The Relentless Remuda bred to him, and he’s Ruby Buckle and Riata-eligible. He’s from the best cross in racing history, and his full brothers sell at auction for more than a half-million dollars as yearlings. He looks like a rope horse, but could also win a halter class.”
Cyber Monday’s oldest babies are just turning 3. They’re good-minded at the track, McNair added, and the stud is a good choice to add body, bone and run onto your cowhorse mare. Another great cross to add speed onto a cowhorse mare would be Jess Fire Me.
“Some racehorses aren’t made to breed for rope horses because they just want to run down the track and not use their hocks,” said McNair. “But Jess Fire Me is so good-minded and he puts that mind on his babies, which are so easy that anybody can ride them. His oldest foals are 2 this spring, and he’s been selected by a lot of people to produce head horses. You know he’ll put that deep girth and good bone back into foals out of cutting-bred mares.”
Another good choice if you have a cowbred mare on the smaller side is Coronado Cartel. He’s a big horse and stunning, conformation-wise. Finally, one racing-bred Reliance stallion that McNair thinks has huge potential for ropers is Big Lew.
“Trevor [Brazile] and Miles [Baker] have a 4-year-old by him and Miles told me that he thinks he could ride her at the BFI already,” said McNair. “She’s a pretty filly we raised right here at the ranch.”
Big Lew will throw foals growing to stand 15 hands or 15.1, and looks like a head horse, himself.
“They all ride pretty easy,” he said. “The ones I’ve broke are just good-minded and, like Miles was telling me, they score outstanding. They are very focused and won’t try to cheat you any. They are the same way on the track—you don’t see very many go in the starting gates that cause any problems. They go in and stand like a shot dog. And they run really flat; don’t climb at all. They stay on the ground.”
