Category: Fulton Family Performance Horses

D’Ann Gehlsen from Mission, South Dakota, has been barrel racing since she was ten. “I started riding when I was three and showed horses and switched to the speed events,” said the 54-year-old program technician for Farm Service Agency. D’Ann has a 32 mile commute to work and works nine hour days. She has every other Friday off, and that helps with traveling to barrel racing. “In 2016 I went to Badland Circuit Rodeos and had a futurity horse, plus I went to SDRA and NRCA rodeos; so that put a lot of miles on. I picked the amateur rodeos this year and good added money three day barrel races to save the miles on myself and horses. I had a great summer, I ran Radar at 15 rodeos and he placed at 10 and ran Flyer at 3 rodeos and he placed at all three!
Her biggest win was last year with her favorite horse, nine-year-old Radar (Streaking Sonofagun). “He won every round, the average saddle and the year-end buckle of the Northwest Ranch Cowboys Association,” she said. “2016 was a stand-out year for him – he won that and a couple others – the Black Hills Stock Show Rodeo, the Breeders and the Open Derby/Maturity at the Cornhusker, the 1D average at the 5-States and qualified for the Badlands Circuit Finals. We won the target shoot out at the West Fest barrel race for running the same time in both rounds, the use of a stock combo trailer for a year.” I was invited to run at the Colorado vs World rodeo at the Denver Stock Show in January of 2017.

Radar has lifetime earnings of $83,000; not bad for an unplanned gelding. “I had a full brother to him on the mare (Gunny) at the time and I had taken her to Valentine to have her ultra sounded. The vet told me she needed to be bred within a day or two and Streaker was standing at the vet clinic in Ainsworth, Nebraska. I hadn’t planned on another Streaker colt, but it was the best thing that ever happened. He’s a special horse – he’s one of those horses that I feel very fortunate to have in my lifetime.”
Radar was born on a rainy Memorial Day. “My husband, Speed, imprinted him – he did too good of a job because Radar is very personable and in your space.” When he turned two, Gabe Taylor, a steer wrestler, took him for a month to start him. “He called me within the first two weeks and said I had a really nice horse – he was easy and wanted to do everything. If I could custom order a horse, this was it – the first time I rode him, I liked him.” He got his nickname, Radar, because of his ears and the way he looks around and checks things out. He continued his career as a futurity horse in 2013. “He did good – he was very competitive,” said D’Ann. “The next year, I alternated him and Flyer at the rodeos, and then he got an injury and was out for six months.” At 16.2 hands and weighing in at 1,450, Radar is big for barrel racing. His mother, Gunny was out of Back To Cash and a goes back to Go Man Go on the maternal side. She was the size of Go Man Go and all of her colts are big horses. “He stopped the clock at the 2016 Black Hills Stock Show Rodeo at 12.46, winning it – that was unbelievable for that little arena.”
This year, Radar took her to the average win at the Mid-States Rodeo Assn Finals and the duo has been consistent all year. “He has a lot of heart and arrogance – he knows he’s cool and wants to get the job done – he’s just that type of horse.”
D’Ann met her husband, Speed, at a rodeo. “A week later he called me and we’ve been together for 24 years this January.” He used to team rope and still does for fun. He goes to some of the closer rodeos with D’Ann, but for the most part, it’s D’Ann, dogs Murry and Tink and three horses. “We have a cow/calf operation southeast of Mission, South Dakota.” Along with Radar and Flyer, D’Ann has young colts coming along.
Radar isn’t going anywhere. “He’s a very special horse to me – he makes barrel racing fun, he wants to do his job and do it well. He is also the last of the line. His mother was put down in October of 2016.” Although D’Ann doesn’t have set goals, she sees herself going to the American someday. “I’m going to keep doing what I do – going to my favorite rodeos and the bigger barrel races that pay good. Life is very good in my world.”

Trula Churchill and Worm just won $3,900 at the Bonus Race Finals in Lincoln, Nebraska. “I’m not usually home in June, so this just happened to work out. I won third out of 1,200 runs.” Worm is 12, and was raised by the Churchill’s. Born late at night, Worm was long, skinny, wrinkly and dirt brown. Streak of Fling is his dad, his mom is NFR Qualifying Steer Wrestling horse Jetta Rita. “When my husband, Linn, wasn’t using her, we decided to raise some colts out of her. It was a fate deal when we took her over to the Clinic and Brian and Lisa’s horse happened to be out there and we bred her to him. He was the first colt crop that Streak of Fling produced.”
Trula admits that he’s a character, but quick to add that he loves his job. “He’s one of those kind that wants to please and do what you ask of him. He’s very willing. He’s still winning, so as long as he is, we’ll keep going. He doesn’t owe me anything – he has a home for life.” Worm has taken Trula to the WNFR three times, the Canadian Finals three times (once as the champion), the RAM Circuit Finals twice and made three or four trips to the California Circuit Finals. He’s known as the streak of blue as he makes his way around the cloverleaf.
“To me, the highest compliment a horse owner can get is to have everybody from the pickup men to the team ropers complimenting your horse. The announcer will call his name – and that’s pretty cool to me that they always call his name – here comes Worm.”
This summer finds Trula staying close to her home in Valentine, Nebraska. She made the WNFR in 2014 and decided after the winter that she was going to stick closer to home this year. “I have some young horses that need to be ridden,” she said. “Linn and I will hit the closer rodeos and some of the amateur ones around home. The three years I made the finals I was home maybe 40 days, and not consecutively, so this will be a nice change.”
She has no intention of quitting the rodeo road. “I’m going to keep rodeoing and do what I enjoy and stay active in the horse industry. Worm was the first colt we raised and we’ve raised one or two every year. I’ve got a full sister to Worm and she’s now having some colts. The riding age colts they have are by Fulton Ranches other stallion CS Flashlight, and others such as Jesse James JR, Slick By Design, and Prime Talent.”Linn is still riding horses and training a few and helps on his folks’ ranch.

Justin Briggs and Streakin Disco were champion headers in the #15 at the World Series of Team Roping at the Circle T Arena in Hamilton, Texas, in March. He is headed to the Finale in Las Vegas in December thanks to the mare from Fulton Family Performance Horses. “Streakin Disco has been my main horse since January – she’s all I’ve got – and it’s been good. She’s got a lot of speed and it makes things easy for me,” said the farrier and horse trainer from Chilton, Texas, 20 minutes south of Waco.
Justin grew up in Florida, roping his way through the junior rodeo rank. He continued roping in Texas and went to college at Clarendon for two years, and Tarleton for 2 years. He met and married his wife thanks to college rodeo. Jordan Peterson, daughter of 4x WNFR barrel racer, Kristie Peterson, married Justin in 2010 and the couple spends every day, all day together.
Streakin Disco started out as a barrel racing futurity mare, and came to the Briggs place and switched jobs. “I ranched on her for a while and then started heeling on her and then went to heading on her, and started hauling her and I’ve won some great money on her. She has a full sister that the McClouds are running – there are only two of them.”
Jordan and Justin spend their days riding any one of their 15 horses. Justin switched from shoeing horses for the public to shoeing their horses and training. “We raise about three colts a year, and have three or four of every age up to five years old. Everything is ours.”
Streakin Disco is seven, and the oldest one on the place. The couple’s routine is simple – they get up, feed, ride, and ride some more. “We switch off jobs for the horses – they all need something else to do, so I rope on the barrel horses and she barrel races on the rope horses.”
“We sell the futurity horses; the four and five year olds. After they are five, we market them and most of the people that buy them are for junior girls. They like our horses because we do more than one thing on them.”Jordan was a 2009 WNFR qualifier and that experience helped shape the program they have today. “I was the support for her run for Vegas; I hung out and supported what she was doing. I traveled with her that year. It was the last year I was in college and when we left the college finals, we left for the summer rodeos and never went home. I went with her and helped her. I’d never gone to a lot of those places in the northwest and that was my first time in Vegas,” said Justin of the year. “I am looking forward to going back this year and roping on Streakin Disco.”

“My brain is just wired to be passionate about what I do,” says 33-year-old horse trainer and breeder Ryann Pedone. “I’m very fortunate – I don’t think everybody gets the opportunity to do what they love so much that they eat, sleep, and drink it. Even though I’ve been knocked down, I’m the type to pin my ears back and say, ‘I’ve got this.’”
Ryann, who is currently training six horses by A Streak Of Fling – including one straight from Fulton Family Performance Horses – started out not on a horse farm, but a dairy in Florida owned and operated by her dad. She was the first of her family to enter the horse world, but her dad, Lee Pedone, jumped in to support her. “My dad took me to my first barrel race when I was almost four, and I just loved it!” says Ryann. She rodeoed in high school, but her passion has always been futurities and derbies, recently winning the long-go at the 2017 Diamonds and Dirt Barrel Horse Classic on Streakin Queenie. “My dad was really great. Anything we had a passion for, he would bust his butt to help us with, or take us to someone who knew more about it. When I was little, we got help from Alan and Wendy Parker. They gave me my very first barrel horse, Idget, and really helped with my horsemanship. They were a huge stepping stone to breeding and training horses.”
Another stepping stone was the broodmare Ryann’s dad gave to her when she was 18. Originally a barrel horse, Kiss Kiss This hadn’t passed vet checks because of her knees, but proved an excellent broodmare, and eventually, the cornerstone of Ryann’s R Barrel Horses breeding program. “She’s been in the top twenty-five of barrel racing broodmares of the decade, and she’s a phenomenal mare. I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s where it all started.”
Ryann finished her finance degree from University of Southern Florida while working on her family’s dairy and running a firewood business, then moved to Texas in 2006 for the horse opportunities. She returned to school, this time in human acupuncture. “I was driving back and forth between Weatherford and Austin. I’d leave Weatherford at five in the morning and go to school until five or six in the evening. I’d go back to Weatherford and ride colts until one in the morning, then do it all over again. I don’t sleep much – I have so much I need and want to do. Some of that might be because I was raised on a dairy where we had no concept of time. We milked cows around the clock.”
While Ryann was living in Weatherford, she met a longtime horse breeder, Eddie Henderson. “I would spend hours talking bloodlines with him, and he did so much for me in that area. I bought some great mares from Eddie, and one of the mares, Barbi Bugs, produced Nastee Leader, the horse that Charly Crawford rides in the heading. I’d also talk to horse trainers like Kassie Mowry, Kelly Conrado, and Pete Oen. I’m always reading and researching, and living here, I’m around very smart and successful people. I keep paying attention to the breeding and bloodlines of successful horses.”
Ryann’s relationship with the Fultons started in 2013 when she went up to look at several of their colts for clients. “I liked their bloodlines, and I met Brian and Lisa and rode some colts. I bought Streakin Lena Whiskey for Shoppa Ranch, and the next year I bought Streakin Queenie for Shoppa Ranch, and my dad and I bought Streakin Ms Wink. In January of 2015, Brian called me and asked if I would take A Dash Ta Streak. I was so excited they would ask me, and I started running him that September. A Dash Ta Streak is how I got to know the family, and I love how honest they are in their sales and how tough Lisa is and Brian was.
“My career as a trainer is coming around. It took a while, and I still have so much more to accomplish. About six years ago, I started getting those better colts I raised and everything started coming together.” Ryann calls 2011 a pivotal year in her career and confidence. The year before, she went to the BFA World Championship on her mare, Cause For A Kiss, having qualified with the second fastest time. They tipped the first-go and were second in the second-go, but when Ryann got to the short-go, her nerves got the best of her. “My weakest thing was my brain, but I was gritty and I kept going. A good friend bought me the book Mind Gym, and I really came on in the fall of 2011, winning rodeos on TCS Runaway Susie. I won the Consolation at Fort Smith on Cause For A Kiss, and futurities on Kiss This Guy, who was voted Futurity Gelding of the Year via Barrel Horse Report.”
Ryann runs her ranch and 80 head of horses, which includes broodmares, babies, yearlings, two-year-olds to five-year-olds, and outside horses. She does it with the help of her dad, and her intern from South Dakota, Shae Volk. “Jax Johnson comes out for one or two months and then goes home for school, and I think he’ll make a great trainer. Lisa Downs is my main girl and she does everything. Sierra Emmett helps me feed on weekends, and my boyfriend, Don Lee, is a vet and a lot of help, and so is Sid Meyers, my farrier.
“I want to end up being a top trainer, competitor, and breeder, raising colts from my program,” she finishes. “I want to be remembered, and I want to help the people that come into my life just like all the people who helped me.”
Ryann also extends her thanks to her sponsors and friends/family: Jeye Johnson and Classic Equine, Equibrand, Martin Saddlery, Platinum Performance, Oxy-Gen, Shefit, the Fulton family, the Ashley family, Janie and Jimmy Shoppa, Kimmi Byler, Lisa McCool, Martha Reeves, Kim Landry, Alan Staley, Shawna Turner, Ronny and Sandi Dickinson, and all of her clients.

Josey Butler, husband, Rance, and three year old daughter, Harper are making a name for themselves in the rodeo world. “She goes a lot with me,” said Josey about Harper. “She’s a trooper. My husband rodeos, so from the moment I started riding, she was going. She falls asleep to the sound of a diesel truck so it’s pretty easy.” Josey was born and raised in southwest Missouri. She grew up on the back of a horse thanks to her mom, Patty Batchelor.
Born and raised in southwest Missouri, Josey rode anything from a pony to her mom’s barrel horses. She also rode various horses for individuals including one who went on the be the 2006 Buckskin World Junior Barrel Racing Champion. Josey competed in junior rodeo and jackpots. She went on to college rodeo at Northeastern Oklahoma. A & M and went back to Ft. Scott Community College for another year. She took Ag communications and she uses it for her graphic design and illustrations. Josey also does abstract horse watercolor art. “I’ve been drawing since I could hold a pencil. I was that little kid that was out in the country and if I wasn’t riding a horse I was drawing it. My grandparents had cattle, and we lived on their property. My mom runs barrels and still does. She’s 65 going on 25.”
In 2006 she went to work for an AQHA facility in Sperry Oklahoma. Here she was exposed to the methods of both the Cow Horse Industry and the English world. Taking something from everyone she’s worked with Josey continues to use these foundations in her program today.

Josey met her husband while working in Oklahoma. He was roping with her boss and they met at Judd Little’s sale and they ended up on a date. “After that we were inseparable,” she said. “We feed off each other very well – he starts a lot of horses and does it the way I like it done.” The couple has been married for ten years. Rance is a firefighter/paramedic for the city of Longview Texas . His schedule of one 24 hour duty and off duty 48 hours makes it great for starting colts. “It gives them one day to defragment and then gets on for two days in a row. I’m very fortunate; my husband is a great father. He’ll ride his colts in the morning, and I’ll stay with Harper. From the day she was born, we can go back and forth getting our stuff done.”
The couple has six outside horses; Rance takes four two year olds at a time, keeping them for 60 days. “He does everything slow and easy. He follows how the old cow horse was started – real simple and basic.”
They were able to start and ride Frosted Fling, bred and raised by Paris Wixon. “We rode his mom (Sun Frosted Moon) and maternal grandmother Zan to the Moon, so we knew how talented he should be, but we knew pretty quick we had something awesome. He belongs to Paris and we get to train him and ride him. She won the AQHA on his grand sire Zan Par Deck.” The owner and the jockey split everything after the entry fees are paid back. “He’s already qualified for the World Show in November.”
Josey took Frosted Fling to the Semi Finals of the AMERICAN. “He’s only five, and he ran a little bit green in the Semi Finals, but we will try again this year. I’ve been pretty fortunate to ride him at some rodeos and will go on and derby him these next couple of months.” She was impressed with the AMERCAN and the Semi Finals. “Running at the Semi Finals was the biggest stage I’ve been on – I was proud of my colt, it was so professionally run. Same with the Patriiot – they are trying to do something for those of us that can’t travel up and down the road all the time.”
Josey plans to fill her permit with one of the three horses she can run and after she does that she will set her next goal. The March born 37 year old has dreams to raise a happy, healthy little girl. “Everything else is a bonus.”

by Holly Wilson

A humble cowboy from Sulphur, Oklahoma, Blake Hughes splits his time between the roping pen and the family dairy farm.
“My dad owns a dairy farm, and he ropes. He’s the reason I started roping, and then I got into it with my uncle. He doesn’t go to any rodeos, but he still likes to ride,” Blake said.
“My mom is a physical therapist. She didn’t grow up around horses but she’ll ride a little bit. The dairy keeps my dad pretty tied up.”
Blake helps his father around the dairy by feeding and checking calves, and taking care of their milking cows.
In his spare time, Blake enjoys fishing and, of course, roping.
After taking up horseback riding at a young age, Blake was swinging a rope by age 12.  “I was probably roping every day by that point. I was into it pretty heavy and practicing every time I got a chance,” Blake said, “As long as the weather would permit and we weren’t too busy on the dairy, we would try to rope.”
He and his uncle live closeby, and rope together nearly every day.
“My uncle still ropes, and he goes quite a bit. He goes to a lot of the World Series ropings,” Blake said, “He still lives close, and we still rope together about every day. It’s convenient.”
This tight knit family dynamic has helped Blake to be successful in his roping career. “My dad’s got me good horses, that’s a big part of it. He bought [Streakin King Dandy] and he’s bought some other ones,” Blake said, “He’s always given me good horses to ride, I’m pretty thankful for that.”
Streakin King Dandy, a 2006 gelding, is Blake’s partner in crime.
Because of his innate ability to rate calves with precision and speed, Blake doesn’t fuss with his horse at home.
“To prepare for an upcoming rodeo, I work on scoring. When I go to practice, I want him to score good and leave flat,” Blake said, “He knows what to do in the arena, so I just try to keep him calm and quiet, and comfortable in the box.”
This type of training works well with Blake’s busy schedule, and allows him to be asset on the family farm. Blake gathers cattle on Streakin King Dandy, and uses him as a ranch horse at the house in-between ropings.
Being a humble man, Blake insists that his success is all due in part to his little rope horse.
“I don’t know if I’d be where I am without him, that’s for sure. I’ve had good horses in the past, but he’s the best one I’ve had,” Blake said, “I like to think that I’d be close to where I’m at, but he’s played a big part in my success.”
This past year, Streakin King Dandy and Blake placed and attended several notable rodeos including; the Bob Fiest Invitational, the George Strait, the ERA finals and RFD TV’s The American.
The duo placed second in The American qualifier, and placed third in the open. They also finished 14th overall on the ERA leaderboard with a fifth place finish in the first round of the three part championship.
Their most notable accomplishment, was a first place finish at the USTRC US Open Champions, where they spun five steers for 31.02 with partner Brady Norman.
The bay gelding still has a lot of life left in him though, and Blake has several goals for the next five years.
“He’s the only good horse I have right now that I feel like I can go win on,” Blake said, “A year from now, we’re gonna try to go a lot more and try to make the national finals.”
“If we could make the national finals two or three times over the next five years, I’d say we’d be doing pretty good,” Blake said.
He has high hopes for his bay horse, whom he affectionately calls “Snake”.
“He’s got a lot of personality. I named him Snake right when we got him,” Blake said, “He was hard to catch; and then after you did get him caught he was always watching and was always trying to get away from stuff.”
“Once you get him caught, he’s pretty good,” Blake said. “I don’t know what it is, but he’s kinda funny like that.”
Although Snake has outgrown some of his old habits, the nickname is here to stay.
“He hasn’t outgrown that one yet, it still fits,” Blake said with a laugh.

Colby Gilbert has one more year of school at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada to become an Registered Nurse. She picked the field because of the flexibility. “You can go anywhere and do anything and there are also so many fields that intrigued me. I really enjoy kids, so I like maternity and pediatrics.”  Although she loves the nursing world,  the 21-year-old loves barrel racing more, and has secured a spot in the Canadian Finals Rodeo coming in November.

She grew up rodeoing through her mom and dad, competing in the amateur ranks and the semipro association, making the finals five times. “Mom is a futurity trainer, and my dad was a steer wrestler, he pro rodeoed, but it was mostly my mom that got me into it.” Andrea Udal raised Colby as a single parent and to keep things financially together, she carefully picked horses, trained them, and sold them to continue to improve on the bloodlines.

“I sold all of our horses so we could buy more and reinvest,” said Andrea. “She made the Finals on three different horses and won the amateur Finals on a six year old futurity horse. There’s not a day goes by that I’m not proud of her.” Andrea has since remarried and now has two young sons. ““They are the funniest things ever,” said Colby, of her two little brothers, Parker and Haye. “They keep me entertained.”

Colby is grateful for her mom’s investments of time and training with the horses. “I fell in love with every single one of them, but my mom has been good for me in that every time we gave one up, we got a better one. It made me more versatile getting on so many. I don’t think I’ve made any Finals on the same horse. I enjoy being successful on different horses – for me that’s a huge accomplishment. She does the great job of training the futurity horses and I’m the jockey that takes them from there. We are great team and hopefully will be for a long time.”

This is Colby’s first year competing on the pro level and thanks to her equine partners, she made it to the Finals. She is riding two different horses from Fulton Performance Horses. “They are outstanding. Their natural ability is like nothing I’ve ever experienced.”  She started the year on a 6-year-old mare, Streakin Ta Corona, and finished the year on a stud, French Streaktorodeo.  “When I got him, they had roped on him, and I derbied him as a six year old. He went to his first rodeo last year.  He makes is so easy. He’s so easy minded and easy going. He loves his job and so gritty. I think he’s one in a million.” Both horses are owned by Corny and Maria Wiebe, and Colby’s mom trained the mare and won high point at the Canadian futurity on her. “We’ve become family,” said Colby of the relationship between her and the Wiebes.

She managed to get to 45 rodeos in spite of her work towards her nursing degree. “It’s been really time consuming, I guess I’m good at prioritizing,” she said. The Canadian Finals Rodeo falls during a week in November that school is out. She will finish her degree in December, work on her practicum until April then she is done. “I’ll come down south with my WPRA card. So look out, here comes Colby and French Streaktorodeo.” She loves nursing and the people that she can help and be around, but her first true love is barrel racing. “I always wanted to be a barrel racer.” And now, thanks to two great horses, she gets to go to her first Canadian Finals Rodeo, as the Resistol Barrel Racing Rookie of the Year.

Cutline for the family photo

It was 2014 CCA Finals. I won rookie of the year and the CCA Finals Ladies Barrel Racing championship and my sister Hallie Anderson (half sister) won Junior Girls Season Leader, Horse of the Year as well as the Finals Championship as well! Very exciting and memorable year for all of us!