BREEDING SHED Three Bars By Shawne & KG Azure Winnin Chex By Bonnie Wheatley T wo lifelong barrel racers,Amber Bruce of AQHA registered foals, but the West’s are seeing all the traits that first drew them to take the gamble on him in their first personal foal crop out of their barrel bred mares.
West recently sold the Three Bars By Shawne filly out of the Jess Vegas mare to Lisa Novak and looks forward to seeing what that partnership will produce. Three Bars By Shawne is complementing the West’s small but solid broodmare program, which has been their end goal all along. “Our first crop from him came in 2019,” said Amber. “They’re gray, they have very good conformation, they’re straight legged, correct, smart and kind like he is, they’ve all got black feet and so far have been just extremely user-friendly, confident horses. They are very confident horses.” Amber is pleased to have all fillies born so far and hopes that Three Bars By Shawne proves to ultimately be a mare sire for their program since his years of standing at stud are limited. With Three Bars By Shawne’s prolific genetics, including Hall Of Fame grandsire Three Bars who was inducted in 1989, odds are in their favor. As for Shawne Bug, his grand-get have earned over $12 million in race earnings and over $67,000 in futurities, and countless thousands more in barrel racing at every level. As to why they chose to enroll Three Bars By Shawne in the WPRA Pro Elite Sire Incentive program, Amber says she likes the fact that progeny are eligible to earn PESI bonus money throughout the course of their entire career. “It’s money well-spent,” she said. “And the foals are eligible for their whole life for that bonus money, not just their futurity or derby years, it’s everything from the futurities on up to the rodeos. It’s hard for a stallion owner to keep up with all the incentive programs out there because it becomes very costly, so I had to look at what would make the best sense in our area especially. We have several races in our region where you can win a good bonus check by having an eligible horse.” Amber adds that her allegiance to the WPRA comes in part from how closely tied she has been to the association as a third generation barrel racer. Her grandmother Ardith Bruce was the 1964 world champion barrel racer. “I’ve been a WPRA member since I was a
West and Kathy Grimes, are looking to make their mark in the barrel racing genetics with their WPRA PESI stallions. Join us in taking a closer look at these two stallions in the program. Three Bars By Shawne
“I stumbled upon him on a Facebook page,” said Amber, adding that she forwarded Three Bars By Shawne’s information to her friend Dena (Driggers) Milner for her opinion. “She told me, ‘You’ll never find another like him.’ We took a leap of faith basically. Three Bars
Zach andAmber West of New Underwood, South Dakota, offer the only grandson of both the immortal Three Bars (TB) and Shawne Bug (SI 101) available and standing to the public. His name is Three Bars By Shawne and the 1997 gray son of Sports Bars by Three Bars, and out of the mare Miss Shawne Rocket by Shawne Bug is the West’s idea of the perfect outcross on today’s modern barrel racing bloodlines. In the course of their personal search for outcross bloodlines, the West’s stumbled upon the unraced stallion several years ago. He is the last living son grandson of Three Bars. “We purchased him in the fall of 2017 and bred our first mares to him in the spring of 2018,” said Amber, a lifelong barrel racer and former Badlands Circuit director for the WPRA. Three Bars By Shawne has just a handful
is the greatest sire ever, so to find a grandson out of a Shawne Bug mare no less was just amazing. He’s easy to breed, and we’ve ridden him a little, he’s very kind and easy to handle and I just love the way he moves. He’s got good bone and the kind of structure you just don’t find much anymore.” The West’s broodmare band consists of the contemporary bloodlines of Frenchmans Guy, Treis Seis, First Down Dash and A Streak Of Fling, which they are finding cross extremely well on Three Bars By Shawne. “We try to keep four to five nice, proven mares,” said Amber. “We’ve got a First Down Dash mare that I purchased from Bendi Dunn that’s out of a daughter of Corona Cartel. We’ve got a daughter of Jess Vegas, by Mr Jess Perry, that’s out of Isa French Girl. Isa French Girl’s grand-dam is PCFrenchmanslisbet, who is a full sister to Bozo (French Flash Hawk).”
22 WPRA NEWS APRIL 2020
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