Billadeau Quarter Horses
Ryder, North Dakota & Wickenburg, Arizona
billadeauquarterhorses.com
701-898-1448
INCENTIVES, Shiners Suduko: Riata Buckle, Royal Crown, Homegrown Classic, 5 States, Nexus, Platinum Medal Rope Horse Futurity and Sale
INCENTIVES, Ima Hired Gun: Riata Buckle, Royal Crown, 5 States, Homegrown Classic, Platinum Medal Rope Horse Futurity and Sale
INCENTIVES, Exagereyt: Royal Crown, 5 States, Homegrown Classic, Platinum Medal Rope Horse Futurity and Sale
INCENTIVES, Smart Shinin Spook: Royal Crown, Homegrown Classic, 5 States, Platinum Medal Rope Horse Futurity and Sale
Billadeau Quarter Horses may have begun three decades ago with an eye strictly on racing bloodlines but, today, the family-owned and -operated business is striving for the “universal” horse: A performance horse that could cross from the team roping, barrel racing or working cow horse arenas.
“My dad, Wade Billadeau, has always had a love for speed, which has drawn him to the race horses, and I love the old foundation cow horse,” Layne Billadeau said. “So why not blend both worlds and see what happens?”
A sheer love of the horse is the foundation upon which the Billadeau family has built their program.
“We can come up with what we think might be a magical cross and do all the right things from feeding correctly, placing them in the right hands, paying them into all the incentives, showing up to all the events, but at the end of the day, you have to have a love, respect and admiration for the horse and the sport that we put our life efforts into,” Billadeau added. “My wife, Codi, reminds us every day: We need to do what’s best for the horses.”
Billadeau stands four stallions—two of them junior stallions—all relying heavily on the genetics of Shining Spark, the $4 million National Reined Cow Horse Association sire, for the cow side of their program.
“We really love the Shining Spark horses,” Billadeau said. “They are very trainable. They put substance and a mind on our foals.”
Shiners Suduko, an own son of Shining Spark, is their senior sire, along with Ima Hired Gun, a son of Play Gun. Their junior stallions are the Metallic Cat son Exagereyt and Smart Shinin Spook, whose dam is a daughter of Shining Spark. Each stallion offers the benefit of enrollment into various incentives, with Shiner Suduko’s early crops already finding success in the Royal Crown and Riata Buckle.
Along with the outstanding attributes of their stallions, the Billadeau program relies upon proven broodmares that mostly enjoying first careers in racing, roping or barrels.
The Billadeaus now spend summers in central North Dakota and pack up the entire herd to winter in Arizona and marvel that the effort to mount themselves on good roping and barrel racing horses has evolved into something much more than intended with their stallions now offered to the public for just the second year.
“It was what we’d always done, but more as a hobby for ourselves,” Billadeau said. “It seemed a little selfish. We wanted to share these horses with the industries that we so enjoy.”
Today they are looking forward to participating in the rapidly growing rope horse futurity world with horses they are producing.
