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she got started,” he added. “When she started winning on the higher end of that, Sarah wanted to go on to other things.
“We didn’t think it was possible for us to get her bought at a reasonable price, but it would have been a reasonable price at $40,000. She came on to be Sarah’s right hand and carried her a long way in a short time with a lot of fame. We made a lot of money and we were able to go places and do things that we couldn’t have done without her. She was heaven sent for us. Losing
her was the worst thing that could have happened to us, as far as animals go.” Steve continued about the progeny of the mare, “We have her offspring in a couple of colts and a couple of fillies that we are trying to finish. Hopefully, they will be like her and carry on the line.”
PUTTING IT TOGETHER – THE PEDIGREE
The pedigree of Fame Fling N Bling highlights two of the great racing bloodlines that have crossed over into two very important barrel racing bloodlines. Her sire, A Streak Of Fling, is a son of a leading sire of race money earners Streakin Six, and she is out of Short Penny, by Dash Ta Fame, who is by the all-time leading race sire First Down Dash.
Our look at the pedigree of Fame Fling N Bling will begin with her dam Short Penny, a lightly raced mare that scored a second and a third from four starts. The mare was bred by H. L. & Ethelann Clark of Tremonton, Utah, and raced under
the partnership of H. L. Clark and R. L. Pierson. Short Penny was purchased in 2003 by Shannon Akerstrom from Tom and Joanne Glatter of Garland, Utah, who had bought her in 2000 from the racing partnership of Clark and Pierson.
Shannon Akerstrom is quick to tell you her breeding program is built on mares. “Dash Ta Fame was beginning to be
more and more sought after and with my program mainly based on good broodmares and how I concentrate on what the broodmare can offer in the breeding, I wanted to see how that would work.” said Akerstrom about Short Penny and how Bling came to be.
“I felt like Short Penny was not your typical type of Dash Ta Fame mare,” she explained as to why she picked Short Penny for her breeding program, “She was real easy going and not fractious or hot like some
of them can be. Even though Bling was a handful in the beginning, it was something I wanted to try.”
Fame Fling N Bling as a yearling at the 2007 Fulton Ranch Sale in South Dakota, where she was purchased by Steve McDonald and Larry Ammons.
A Streak Of Fling is the sire of Fame Fling N Bling.
kidney failure. The sudden loss of this mare may have brought an end to her life, but not to her greatness as an individual. Her status as a performer is legendary and has left us with the memory of what a special individual she was.
The story of Bling starts at the 2007 Fulton Ranch Sale in South Dakota. The Fulton Ranch is the home of A Streak Of Fling, the sire of Bling. She was purchased by Steve McDonald and Larry Ammons of Brunswick, Georgia, and was consigned to the sale by her breeder, Shannon Akerstrom.
Steve McDonald recently told me how the purchase came about. “My friend Larry Ammons and I went to the Fulton Sale in 2007. The horse was consigned by Shannon Akerstrom’s Western 37 Quarter Horses. We bought two or three horses and Bling was one of them. We wanted two year olds, but she was a yearling.”
While they were looking at the sale horses, Larry Ammons kept going back
to look at Bling. When Larry asked Steve, “Which one is the best horse in the sale?” Steve responded, “The filly you keep going back to look at.” So, when she came in
the sale ring, they bid on her and, to their surprise, were able to buy her.
McDonald believes that when they found Bling, they found what he calls the “perfect horse.” As he put it, “She was just what you wanted in a barrel horse.”
He continued, “We brought the horses we purchased home. I trained Bling, then Sarah started riding her. She was a little hot to start out, so we turned her out for a while. She came back and went to work, then went on to make a fantastic horse, carrying Sarah to a lot of places.
“When we got her, we were competing in shows here in the South and that is where
Short Penny, who was lightly raced on the track, is the dam of
Fame Fling N Bling.
Dash Ta Fame, the #20 all-time leading sire of racing money earners and the #1 all-time leading sire of barrel racing money earners, is the sire of Short Penny.
SPEEDHORSE, May 2017 31
SPEEDLINES
© Kelly Gorrel Photo © Barrel Horse News
courtesy Fulton Quien Sabe Ranch