DT Horses
Scottsdale, Arizona
480-471-4348

DT Horses—managed by Dean and Leslie Tuftin—had a banner year in 2024, with their sire Hickory Holly Time’s foals hitting $3.2 million in earnings and winning an AQHA Senior Heeling World Title, plus qualifying three horses for the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Finals. 

The DT Horses program, though, is about much more than just LTEs and checks at the country’s largest events. 

DT Horses’ mission is to instill excellence at every step of the process: crossing the best bloodlines to create premium prospects, fostering the growth of young trainers into exceptional horsemen and horsewomen, and educating team ropers who come to DT Horses for advice or a new horse. Ultimately, these three pillars of the DT program are advancing the industry like few others have done before.

The program did even more to fulfill that mission this year, with 2016 PRCA World Champion Jeremy Buhler jumping on board, bringing his humble attitude and exceptional horsemanship to the team. Tuftin also added in fellow Canadian, header Stran Pollitt, to round out his team.

“We’re all on the same page,” Tuftin said. “We just want to have a good horse, and if they’re good enough to compete on at the futurities, great. If they’re great for a 4 or 5, we put just as much value in that, too, because our goal is to make a horse anyone can ride. We want you to be able to put your hand down and have fun.” 

Tuftin wants to reward ropers who believe in his program, and pay out $50,000 extra to ropers in his Hickory Holly Time Incentive at the Riata Championships. 

“We want to pay the owners for supporting Hickory Holly Time,” Tuftin said. “They’re the ones breeding and raising these horses, and we’ll continue to pay out extra money and give back to them.”

Tuftin’s doors are always open to horsemen and horsewomen looking for their next mount or just wanting to learn how the DT Horses program works. 

“An impressionist artist said, ‘Perfection is not in the eye of the beholder. Perfection is in the eye of the creator.’ Anyone can slap paint on a canvas, but a great artist puts perfection in every stroke of the brush. For me, I’ve built that in the same way. A great artist holds themselves accountable for every stroke of the brush. People say they’re trainers, but great trainers hold themselves accountable for every move that a horse takes and every feel. For me, that’s a big piece of it. My mission statement is to build champion horses with solid training techniques while developing the mind of a horse positively. It’s not just, ‘let’s go win at the futurities.’ And I want to pass that all on to the horse industry as a whole. So, our doors are open to those who want to learn.”