Five Big Bend/Flying Five Horses Killed in Road Accident
by ProRodeo.com | Sep 11, 2014
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Five horses from the Big Bend and Flying Five Rodeo companies – including past Wrangler NFR selections Holly Blues and Spy – were killed late on Sept. 7 when they got out of the companies’ summer corrals near Dusty, Wash., and were struck by a car on nearby State Route 127.
Three of the horses died at the scene and the other two had to be euthanized. The driver of the car was taken to Pullman Regional Hospital for treatment, but was not seriously injured.
Spy, purchased by Flying 5 as a foal more than 20 years ago from Bobby Morrison in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, was selected to compete as a saddle bronc horse at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo from 1998-2002. He took his riders to paychecks in four of his seven outs, including a pair of second-place results for Derek Clark and Bret Frank.
In recent years, Spy had been shifted to bareback riding competition and had excelled in that discipline as well. Three-time World Champion Kaycee Feild rode Spy for 84 points to finish second in the first round at the Reno (Nev.) Rodeo this year on his way to the average title and Spy had taken his riders to a share of the championship at the Horse Heaven Roundup in Kennewick, Wash., in each of the last two years. He was to be retired this year.
Holly Blues, sired by WNFR saddle bronc horse Spring Break, made his National Finals debut last December as a six-year-old and carried Jacobs Crawley to an 80.5-point ride in Round 10. Chad Ferley won the final go of the Ellensburg (Wash.) Rodeo on Sept. 1 with an 88-point ride on the Big Bend Rodeo Company horse.
“He was an up and coming superstar,” said Lindsey Harder of the Flying 5 Rodeo Company. “He craved the diesel smoke (of the transport trucks) and the adrenaline.”
The other horses killed in the accident were bareback horse Diaper Dandy, purchased by Big Bend from Randy Beard at the first Ellensburg futurity, and two horses who had not yet been named, but who nonetheless had great bloodlines. No. 58 was a bareback horse sired by Spring Break and No. 115 was the last colt produced by Iron Mountain and Hot Toddy.
Courtesy of PRCA