Page 89 - June 2016

Horses and Hard Work
by Diane Rice
Along with her family, Oklahoma native Weetona Stanley has spent her lifetime building Ladybug Stallion Station
Frequently, the mention of racehorse breeders conjures up mental images of luxurious lifestyles and the proverbial silver spoon. But often — espe- cially in the Quarter Horse industry — that image falls far from reality. Thus it is with Weetona Stanley, who with her late husband, A.F. “Sonny” Stanley and their three sons, Stan, now 69, Steve, 63, and Fred, 60, took the reins at Ladybug Stallion Station from Stanley’s sister, Lela, and Lela’s husband, Marvin Barnes, in the late 1970s.
“We were our own work force and needed very little outside labor,” Weetona says. “I don’t know how we would’ve survived the ups and downs of the horse business any other way because we had very little money. Everything we own today we owe to our horses and hard work.”
a couple of friends, they began buying land in North and South Dakota, which
at that time was priced at one-third to one- half the price of Oklahoma ranch land.
In 1966, Weetona and Sonny started
running a few horses. Lela and Marvin had
already had some success at the tracks, and
in the fall of that year, Sonny talked a friend
into loaning him money to buy half-interest
in one of Lela and Marvin’s yearlings,
Barne’s Ladybug (Mr Bar None – FL Lady
Bug, Sergeant). “That investment paid off
when she ran second in the Oklahoma
Futurity and third in the All American
Futurity in 1967,” Weetona says. That
year and the next, the mare achieved
multiple stakes placed status with six wins, five seconds and three thirds, and earnings of $112,786. “We were hooked on racing then!” she adds.
In October 1969, Marvin approached Sonny about standing his hot young stallion, Lady Bug’s Moon — a half-brother to Barne’s Ladybug — by Moon Deck son Top Moon. “That was the beginning of Ladybug Stallion Station,” says Weetona of the ranch founded by Lela and Marvin in 1970 and which she and Sonny bought and the family has worked (until Sonny’s death in 1993) ever since.
The state-of-the-art facility featured more than 150 stalls and individual paddocks for mare care and was a pioneer in regulating breeding cycles by putting mares under lights. In 1972, Lady Bug’s Moon bred an AQHA record of 304 mares. While Sonny and the boys ran the breeding operation, Weetona spent 40 years as Ladybug Stallion Station’s bookkeeper.
Marvin Barnes asked Sonny to stand his young stallion Lady Bug’s Moon, shown here with Barnes and rider Jerry Whittle, and that was the beginning of Ladybug Stallion Station.
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Weetona and Sonny in 1966 bought half- interest in Lela and Marvin Barnes’ yearling Barne’s Ladybug, who hooked them on racing.
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SPEEDHORSE, June 2016 87