Successful old-time breeders never underestimate the influence of a great mare. Nor does defending and three-time World Champion Heeler Wesley Thorp, who’s just one of a handful of pros starting to reproduce their best gals.
New technology is allowing ropers to create and freeze embryos out of their great rodeo mares in just a week or 10 days off the trailer. The thing is, it’s also giving any of you a way to custom-make your dream rope horse without ever owning a mare or stallionThorp, 29, has been hauling RS Playboys Doc Rea “Rosa” for four years and just bought the bigger Playin Whiskey “Roxy”. On Rosa, Thorp split $63,000 for winning the South Texas Showdown and $45,000 for winning the Clay Logan Open. He split $42,000 this spring on Roxy in the #15.5 during Wrangler BFI Week. RS Playboys Doc Rea’s QData earnings now top $90,000, while Playin Whiskey’s hit $30,000 this spring with just limited time in Thorp’s rig.
“I’ve had my eyes open the past few years for good mares,” said the Throckmorton, Texas, native. “Both of these are very good-minded and a great start to my breeding program—they’re winning, in their prime, and I really like them.”
He plans on keeping both mares while selling some embryos out of them and keeping some for himself. This year, he bred Roxy to The Darkk Side and Rosa to Pride And Joyy. He sold both embryos—but he’s got some in the works to keep for himself, too.
“I’ve learned that quality mares are the answer,” said Thorp, who’s likely to close in on $2 million in PRCA earnings this season at his ninth-straight NFR. “You’ve got to breed to a nice stud for marketability and conformation. But a quality mare that’s willing and talented? That’s huge. We’re not able to get by with an average mare anymore. The market is too competitive.”
Canadian Kolton Schmidt, 30, is doing the same thing. The two-time NFR header now living in Stephenville, Texas, was in the market for a winner. It was an added incentive that “Rhianna” was also a mare. She’s the Flag Ranch-bred futurity superstar registered as Carters Won Time Out that he bought from Rhen Richard last year.
“My dad and I tried having a stud,” Schmidt said. “It was an eye opener—the cost of the stallion incentives and all it takes to run a successful stud program. The mare is just so important in the breeding of rope horses, so that side is more intriguing to us. I always rode mares growing up and feel like the good ones are just a little better than a gelding because they try so hard.”
Schmidt, who just sold an embryo out of Rhianna by One Fine Vintage, keeps her in the trailer to ride at big rodeos. But he also has four bred mares at his house right now that will foal next spring, with one baby on the ground. Those will be for sale.
“I like the idea of selling high-end 2-year-olds,” Schmidt said. “That market is intriguing to me. To sell the dream.”
KALEB DRIGGERS’ MARES
Fine Vintage Cash, 9, (One Fine Vintage x Miss Catty Cash)
Blowin In Time, 5, (One Fabulous Time x Blowing With The Wind)
Sweeet But Pyscho, 6, (Catty Hawk x Gar Bella Lena)
Cerveza Rita, 6, (Corona Cartel x Rey Dual Lena)
Miss Taxi Fare, 4, (BR Golden Leader x Miss Catty Cash)
Next generation
Reigning gold-buckle header Tyler Wade and his barrel-racing wife Jessi eased into the mare business because of six-figure earner RS Rare Timber (who unfortunately died last year). Still, Tyler has a paternal sibling to Junior Nogueira’s Hali and a few other promising mares with Bar WR Farms.
“We want to breed nice horses one day, so we’ll see a good mare and try to buy her,” Wade explained. “We’re real selective. We want mares that perform and are sound enough to take it. In the past, it was the mares who didn’t make it or got injured that got bred. We want mares big and stout enough to head steers or run barrels, with good minds that can take it.”
That’s not unlike gold-buckle heeler Cory Petska, whose wife Sherry Cervi is continuing her late father Mel Potter’s production of roping/barrel prospects. Cory has a few up-and-coming colts out of the late, great bay mare he rode for the past decade.
“We flush embryos from every mare on our place except what we’re riding,” Petska said. “We rope on every colt because these bloodlines can go either way—it’s just about which colts want to go left and which want to go right and left.”
Another three-time world champ, 34-year-old Junior Nogueira, is keeping 8-year-old Xtra Ruby Slippers (she was in the top 10 at the 2022 American Rope Horse Futurity Association Finals), but is most excited about his Slick By Design and Hashtags babies out of Apache R Hali. On the big gray mare trained by Kollin VonAhn, he won his first-ever NFR go-round and an AQHA world championship. Hali, now 18, has racked up $750,000 in earnings and helped Nogueira to some of his 11 NFR qualifications.
“I don’t think there’s been another horse that won at the shows and rodeos what Hali has, especially a mare,” said Nogueira, who sold Hali’s first two embryos by Shining Spark and Hickory Holly Time to Brazilians. “My 4-year-old Slick colt by her is a talented rope horse. I’ve roped both ends; done a little of everything on him and he’s showing really good talent.”
Nogueira has seen Hali stamp her babies with her style of traveling and her big hip, so he expects them to be fast and powerful, like her. He sold Hali babies by One Time Pepto and Woody Be Tuff, and owns a 2-month-old colt by Stevie Rey Von. He’s very pumped about her foal that will hit the ground in 2026 by his partner Kaleb Driggers’ stud, Metallic Payday.
“I feel so behind,” Nogueira said. “We heard if you breed your mare, you mess her up, so I never bred her. Now I’m catching up.”
TYLER WADE’S MARES
Apache R Biscuit, 12, (Apache Blue Boy x Rooster For Chris)
SCT Carolina Fame, 7, (Lion’s Share Of Fame x See F OK Sunny Ronda)
WW Breezes Leader, 5, (BR Golden Leader x Breezin Flit Bar)
TJR Fancy Like, 3, (Eddie Stinson x WK BlessedToBeABully)
ND Jesse’s Girl, 3, (Jesse’s Topaz x Fletch’s Moon Wood)
New technology
Today, cowboys can potentially get multiple embryos from still-competing mares by dropping them off at a breeding station for a week or two for Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). Here’s how it works: roughly six to a dozen eggs are aspirated from a mare’s ovaries, then in a lab, each is micro-injected with a single sperm cell from a stallion. Multiple fertilized eggs result, which potentially develop into embryos. Around 10 days after an embryo develops, it can be transferred into a recipient mare or frozen for later use.
“I never had time to get Hali flushed and even when I did, it was just one embryo a year,” Nogueira said. “With ICSI, you can possibly get three or four embryos right away. I think that helps you know how to cross your mare—instead of having to wait so long to see how a foal turns out. I think it helps the industry.”
Success rates vary. Generally, only a few embryos result out of some 10-15 fertilized eggs. Then, roughly 60-70 percent of implants in recipient mares result in pregnancy. Still, it’s making maternal genetics almost as accessible as semen.
A Texas company jumped out three years ago to handle the entire ICSI process for customers. From Select Genes, you can either buy an entire aspiration from a top-tier mare, which comes with a viable-embryo guarantee, or put a deposit on a pre-made frozen embryo and pay the balance on confirmation of a 55-day pregnancy.
“Rope horse mares have been the most popular for us, I think because far fewer of them are proven,” founder Melanie Smith said. “Instead of having to buy a six-figure mare, now a breeder can buy an embryo out of her. It’s a game changer.”
You can choose any of Solo Select’s mares or haul your own to Gainesville, where they perform ICSI aspirations on-site. Afterward, your embryo can be implanted in the readiest of their 2,000 recipient mares or be frozen up to five years.
“I want people to have access to what I consider the very best in genetics to create their dream foal,” Smith said.
Select Genes mares include Trevor Brazile’s former futurity superstars Big Time Movie Star and Relentless Glory, early futurity standout J Lows Glo, DT Hickory Blue Steel (out of NFR mare DT Sugar Chex Whiz) and Chars Gun, the dam of Relentless futurity superstar Relentless PYC.
“These mares won’t ever be for sale,” Smith said. “But now you have access and can insure embryos.”
KOLTON SCHMIDT’S MARES
Lotta Peppy Going On, 19, (Mr Peppys Freckles x Pretty Smart Peppy)
Carters Won Time Out, 7, (One Time Honor x Carter’s Time)
WL Jimmie Rockette, 4, (RBar Mr Rock x JL Redoil Zan)
AcesAndEights, 9, (King Of Heart x Reba Speed)
Competing vs breeding
Keep in mind, ICSI doesn’t work on every mare. And although Nogueira said Hali worked great after the process, Paul Eaves thinks it’s hard on a mare.
“When the mare I won the world on was getting flushed or aspirated, I was roping on her,” Eaves said. “The top breeders will tell you it doesn’t stress them, but me being on her back, I can feel where it takes a lot out of them.”
Eaves got an embryo out of Doc’s Gunslinger Chic “Jade” when he sold her in 2022 to Highpoint Performance Horses. But the embryo by Woody Be Tuff was worth so much that he sold it right away. Jade was the 2023 NFR heeling average champ under Colter Todd and has earnings topping $650,000.
Thorp plans to get around the stress on his mares by keeping them home the first month or two of each summer for egg harvesting. He hopes to have two frozen embryos out of each mare by this fall. Meanwhile, Schmidt left Rhianna at Valley Equine in early May just long enough to breed, and they were also swimming her every day to keep her in shape before she stepped back on his trailer within a week.
Schmidt and others have realized the new technology helps justify the staggering cost of their good horse. Meanwhile, J.C. Flake is hoping his new mare will make his dreams come true like Hali did for Nogueira. In May, he bought 10-year-old PlayinMetallicaFuel “Eleanor” from Eaves after the world champ rode her all winter at the rodeos.
“She’s a really special mare,” said Eaves of the mare Kirby Blankenship started. “My plan was to keep her and pull embryos and rope on her, but J.C. had to have her. Still, it’s in the contract that I get the first embryo out of her.”
WESLEY THORP’S MARES
RS Playboys Doc Rea, 9, (RS Timber Olena Boy x RS Jigga Sassy Rea)
Playin Whiskey, 10, (PlayItAgainLittleJoe x Whiskey Roo)
Proven maternal genes
The legacy of Cody Snow’s 2021 PRCA/AQHA Head Horse of the Year will also continue. Buckskin NFR mare Ima Fresnos Dee “Annie”, 16, already produced a foal by Woody Be Tuff that was killed by lightning. But this year, Snow bred Annie to cutting Hall-of-Famer Metallic Rebel.
“I’ve been around a bunch of them at futurities and bought one,” Snow said. “Hunter [Koch] has three Metallic Rebels and they’re all big enough to head on. I’ll try to get one every year. If it doesn’t take, I’ll start heading on her again.”
As for gold-buckle collector Driggers, he has a few personal mares of his own, plus he partnered with Jeremy Barwick on Kingpin Genetics—a program “built around an elite selection of champion mares, each proven in both pedigree and performance.”
They have nine mares, half of which they intend to prove at futurities, then open ropings and rodeos. Their star is 9-year-old Fine Vintage Cash “Crystal”, who long held the distinction as the futurity industry’s all-time winningest mare.
“I’ve tried to make sure our mares have done something on their own and also produce well,” Driggers said. “You’ve got to have a great mare that has won money to try to make these great colts. In the past couple of years, the mare deal has really taken off. We used to hardly ever ride fillies at futurities. Now I’m starting to ride a lot more, and I enjoy doing it.”
Nogueira will tell you a good mare can change your life. In fact, dams generally have big impacts on foals—just look at blue hens like Look At Her Glo. Still, he’s quick to add that genetics ain’t everything. A good start on cattle by the likes of a VonAhn or a Richard has a whole lot to do with today’s best roping mares, too.
The bottom line? The value of proven roping mares is about to skyrocket. And stallion owners will benefit, too, with another avenue of promotion. The future of fine-tuning the perfect rope-horse cross has never been brighter.
JUNIOR NOGUEIRA’S MARES
Apache R Hali, 18, (Apache Blue Boy x RA Soft Smoken)
Xtra Ruby Slippers, 8, (Wimpys Little Step x Ruby Chic Olena)
SELECT GENES ROPING MARES
DT Hickory Blue Steel, 7, (Hickory Holly Time x DT Sugar Chex Whiz)
Gunna Wanna, 5, (Gunnatrashya x Chics Vintage Flair)
J Lows Glo, 12, (Dual Spark x Look At Her Glo)
Relentless Glory, 8, (Metallic Cat x Z Oh Six)
Big Time Movie Star, 7, (Shady Lil Starlight x A Masters Hobby)
Chars Gun, 16, (Playgun x CCS Char Olena)
—TRJ—
