Page 219 - Speedhorse November, 2018

SPEEDHORSE, November 2018 217
Letter to the Editor
SUN FROST
I’m looking forward to the Speedhorse “Sun Frost” issue. And I’ll pass one on to my graphics artist Lezlie Moore. She played a significant role in our efforts as a marketing team to promote and “brand” Sun Frost and the Cowan Bros. T4 Quarter Horses program.
Stanley was a highly-respected rancher, stockman and horseman who understood the principles of animal breeding and genetics. Every new prospective stallion
was studied carefully, then introduced for
a specific purpose. He had specific goals
and selected and bred horses to get him there. Every mating was made with the same diligence. Building great, predictable maternal lines was the strength of his breeding plan. He did not specifically pursue line breeding...nor did he avoid it. He bred outstanding stallions to selected mares with an exact genetic, phenotypic and performance goal. The neighboring Cowan family paid close attention and followed suit. The Stanley Johnston breeding principles have been their guide.
Palomino and ask him how he was doin.’ A highlight would be to watch him exercise and blow the sand out of the round pen! He absolutely knew when there were visitors and when show time was on!
Thanks to you for your effort on behalf of this great stallion. I only saw him for the first time when he was 18 years old! He’d established, by then, a powerful foundation upon which his legend was built over the next 9 years before he died at 27.
It’s truly an amazing story. I know the Cowan family is honored to have Speedhorse, a highly respected, recognized media and resource leader in the running horse/barrel horse industry, feature Sun Frost. He has impacted the whole spectrum of the barrel horse, PRCA, WPRA, USTRC and AQHA performance horse world. And bottom line...they are truly great, versatile, “do-it- all” ranch horses. That’s where the initial foundation was laid. Bill Meyers, who knows the Sun Frost story well through his own legendary son Frenchmans Guy, told me 17 years ago, “Don’t ever apologize for just raising great ranch horses. A big-league ranch horse has to do everything well. That’s really the greatest recognition and compliment as a performance horse!”
For Stanley Johnston and the Pat Cowan Family, it was each year’s new foal crop and “one rodeo at a time” ...then Bozo and the NFR! It took off from there...and the story continues today. The personnel behind this horse are grassroots ranching people whose families’ livelihood was running cows, living in the saddle on top notch horses, working hard and rodeoing on the weekend if you could get away. They didn’t have the extensive financial resources to “make” and promote a great horse. The Sun Frost legend was built through his bloodline foundation to his breeding career, the generation of his progeny in competition, and now, to the impact of his sons and daughters as breeding horses with grand progeny in competition. That’s over 50 years!!
Tigh Cowan stated, “Stanley, and
then Dad, were always in search of that elite outcross stallion that could fine tune the effort toward their breeding goals. Confident in the strength of their maternal foundation, they could maximize and,
yet, control the benefit of that outcross
in their gene pool.” Today, with both T4 and outcross stallions represented, the Cowan foal crop sire groups are strikingly similar, the product of a dedicated effort
to consistently breed performance athletes with the predictable minds, movement and talent to excel. Their phenotype is the product of their function. The common denominator...Sun Frost and his Doc’s Jack Frost x Driftwood foundation.
You inspired me once again! I didn’t initially intend for my response to your brief email to turn into an energized dissertation!
Pretty amazing for a northern performance stallion that started out in South Dakota ranch horse country. But it started with the profound rodeo/ranch horse program established by AQHA Hall of Fame breeder Stanley Johnston...and continued with the efforts of Pat Cowan and his family.
Jay George
Stanley Johnston was inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame in 2016...and he had passed in 1982, over 30 years earlier. That’s a statement to the depth of his program having influenced the performance/rodeo horse world with competitors and breeding program genetics for over 3 generations.
On every visit to the Cowan Bros. T4 Ranch, we’d make the tour evaluating the new foal crop, developing yearlings and training prospects...Sun Frost colts and fillies and his grand progeny that were establishing the foundation for the next generation. The last stop would always be at the stallion barn to visit the standup, charismatic, sleek, golden
Jay George is the photographer who
took the picture of Sun Frost that was used
on the cover of the 2019 Barrel Stallion Register. He was recently inducted into the American Hereford Association 2018 Hall of
Fame with their Merit Award,
recognizing his contribution to
the promotion of the breed.
Sun Frost and
Jay George, 2003 © Tigh Cowan
Thank you very much. We’ll look forward to staying in contact.
United Livestock Brokers Lebo, KS