The rise in rope horse futurity popularity leads the PRCA’s winningest cowboy into the breeding business.
Trevor Brazile and Miles Baker, co-owners of the Relentless Remuda, are men on a mission: to make the best rope horses in the business. Brazile, a 26-time Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world champion, and his business partner, Oklahoma horse trainer Miles Baker, have spent the last few years seeking out prospects they can train to be solid head and heel horses.
Brazile and Baker are focused on finding sound-minded, well-bred, athletic and good-looking, equine athletes to add to their herd. They are so focused, in fact, that they have decided to start a breeding program to raise horses specifically bred to their tastes.
Like many rope horse trainers, Brazile and Baker were routinely taking “rejects” (horses who didn’t make the cut in reining, cutting or cow horse events) into their rope horse program. They liked that those horses had good starts and usually considerable amounts of training, even though they didn’t “make it” in their intended disciplines. But through time the two realized that maybe there was a better approach.
“Sometimes there’s a lot of baggage that comes along with those horses. Once they get finished in their discipline, there are certain things that are really hard to unteach. So we went from 5-year-olds, to 4-year-olds, to now we don’t like to buy anything other than 3-year-olds, and now we’re to the point where we bought a stallion and are going to breed our own,” says Brazile. “It’s just been a natural progression because there are certain things in these horses that we want to feel.”
They chose the stallion Show Me The Buckles, aka “Buckles,” by Wimpys Little Step out of Sunset Whiz by Topsail Whiz. The 2008 palomino boasts $162,000 in National Reining Horse Association earnings. Brazile and Baker have been high on his offspring for awhile and believe he will be the perfect stallion for their program.
Relentless Remuda horses are currently being trained on Baker’s ranch in Mountain Park, Oklahoma, and at Brazile’s facility in Decatur, Texas. Horses are shown in rope horse futurities, jackpots and rodeos across the United States and when the men consider them ready, are offered for sale to the public. Follow the Relentless Remuda through their Facebook page.
It’s an exciting time for team roping as the rise in rope horse futurity popularity is providing a new set of opportunities for horses, horse trainers and horse owners.
