Sankey Colts Give a Preview of Their Bucking Abilities
PRCA stock contractor Sankey Pro Rodeo recorded a video in mid-April titled “Meet the next generation of Sankey Pro Rodeo and Phenom Genetics’ Bucking horses,” where future equine ProRodeo stars gave a preview of things to come once they’re ready for competition.
In the latest edition of ProRodeo Sports News Wade Sankey talked about the colts, the video and what it’s like to be a PRCA stock contractor during the COVID-19 pandemic:
Words With Wade
The video shows some of our crop of 29 colts that were born in 2017. It was a great way to spend a day and realize how all of our hard work is coming together.
PSN: See what others are doing in downtime
We’re in a transition year for stallions, so we’re using different blood this year than we’ve relied on in the past, and we’re extremely happy with how everything turned out. They’re a good-minded set of colts, and that’s a big part of what we want to produce.
We dummy all the horses as 3-year-olds and buck them a few times at our house for an event we call The Pitching. Then we’ll do some college rodeos and college practices, and when they’re 4 years old they’ll start to go to rodeos. Cowboys have won money on them at that age in Pendleton (Ore.).
One of the colts that really impressed me is 775, we call him Friendly. Shane and Haley Proctor came here after they were married and were in a 3,000-acre pasture with the colts, and Friendly walked right up to Haley and let her pet him. He’s constantly in your way and always wanting to be petted.
They don’t need to be mean to buck, but it’s strange for one that gentle to be that good. You can see him in the video, he’s the bay horse that gets it going on, and that was surprising. I thought he would lope over to me, but it was game time.
Something else that was really cool in the video is we had one that was phenomenal, named Four Star, that is the first colt out of Marquee. She’s been to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo about five times now. They’ve been 90 points on that horse a few times, and she is a superstar. It’s neat to see the next generation out of those superstars be successful.
As for COVID-19, we’re in Wyoming and Montana so it’s going better for us than it is for a lot of people. But what’s concerning is making a living, since this is our only source of income. It costs money to maintain everything, and without going to rodeos, that’s just paying to keep the livestock alive and the insurance, too. If you owe that much money and don’t have an income, that’s scary.
Courtesy of PRCA