Page 53 - Speedhorse November, 2018

The mare Mulberry Canyon Moon, who qualified to two National Finals Rodeos with rider Angie Meadors, became the foundation mare for Dunn Ranch.
PLANTING THE SEED
Born in Farmington, Missouri, and
raised on a cattle and horse farm in Bismarck about 75 miles southwest of St. Louis, Bendi Grisham competed on Missouri Valley College’s rodeo team for the four years she was there. She graduated in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in business, then moved from Marshall back to Bismarck and went to work for her family’s real estate business, where she has been an active broker since 2002.
Meanwhile, in 1996, Matt, who was born in St. Louis, established Cabinet Masters, Inc. (CMI), a commercial cabinet and woodworking business that now occupies a 150,000-square-foot building and employs around 40 people in Ironton, Missouri, about 14 miles south of Bismarck.
He and Bendi met when he hired her
as his real estate agent. “That was the first house she listed,” he says. “And the first time I met her there to show it, I asked her out — and it worked!”
The couple married in 2004 and now have two children, a boy and a girl: 18-year- old Logan, who’s heavily into sports at school and has played in two baseball world series; and 12-year-old Madison, who’s into sports as well but also inherited the horse passion. “She has barrel horses and knows
all the breeding, and stays right on top of things,” says Matt.
The “horse bug” rubbed off on Matt as well. “If I’m working in my normal job, when I’m having a bad day and someone calls to talk about the horses, it changes my whole mood,” he says. “It excites me. It just takes all the nega- tivity away. It’s my passion; it’s what I love.”
NURTURING THE SEEDLINGS
While Matt continued to build CMI, he and Bendi slowly increased their herd of one, growing their operation by putting their new horses into barrel training to learn the ropes.
“The more we grew, the more we started getting into the breeding side,” Matt says. “We had some success winning barrel futurities and rodeoing, and as that went, it carried over to the racehorse side.”
“We had a few nice horses early on, but I’d say things got really serious when we bought Mulberry Canyon Moon [foaled in 2003 by Marthas Six Moons and out of De Streaker by Osage Streaker],” Bendi says. “That was the best decision we ever made.”
They sold embryos out of the gray mare and then decided to try her as a rodeo horse. Multiple National Finals
Rodeo qualifier Angie Meadors
“One of the most important things I’ve discussed with my team is customer service.”
- Matt Dunn
Dunn Ranch manager Shawn Lindsey.
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