Everything Horses and Livestock® Magazine August 2020 Vol 5 Issue 3

Everything Horses and Livestock Magazine ®

How did you get started in the horse business? I’ve been around horses all my life. My family owned a cattle farm outside Brady, NE and I was on a horse before I could walk. When things got tough in the late 1970’s early 1980’s, my dad had to sell the farm and we moved to town. We were able to board my horse for a few years, but then got too expensive, so we had to sell. From that point on…I think I was 12, I knew as soon as I could get back into horses on my own, I would. After high school, college, family and a beginning of a military career, I was finally in a position to get back into horses. In 1998, I started out with a couple riding horses, a mare and a gelding. Several years later I bought a few more, which included a couple nice mares that would be great for breeding. I bred those mares to some outside stallions, then got a few more mares, and decided if we were to continue breeding; it was more cost effective to have our own stallion. Circle M Acres was ‘officially’ started

as a horse business when we bought our cornerstone stallion Dallas Alley in 2010. Who would have thought it’s now 2020, and we have a herd of 30, with 4 stallions and 12 mares for our breeding operation. What has changed in the operation since you started? Since we started we have added an additional stallions, Mr Lineage (2013-current); Dash for Tobiano (2016- 2019); Vibrant Cherokee (2016-2019) Lonestar Legend (2020-current), and RB Bully InASmallTown (2020-current). We have also raised a son of Dallas Alley, TheresFireNDallas to

be added in the breeding program in 2021. We have also added several more well bred, proven mares. What accomplishments are you most proud of? The accomplishment I think I’m most proud of at this point is the establishment of the Paint Barrel Racing Incentive Program (PBRIP). Several years ago, my friend Melanie Bearden, who owns APHA RC Indian Bullion in Texas, and I were discussing the lack of incentive programs available to APHA barrel horses. In many cases, there were paints running that were just as good as the AQHA, but not getting the credit they deserved. Because of that,

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