Page 95 - September 2019

LBroodmare Bliss Randy & Sandy Coleman Built a Band of Proven Producers
ots of years, factors and decisions go THEIR BEGINNINGS daughter Kyla started school. Then Sandy took a into building a successful breeding Although Randy was born in Lubbock, he banking job in ag lending, and about 10 years ago, program: goals, bloodlines, purchases, grew up about 60 miles west in Morton, Texas. they moved to Lubbock, closer to her work. “At first,
by Diane Rice
care and feeding regimens, trainers, health care professionals — the list goes on.
Each one can have far-reaching downstream effects.
Lubbock, Texas breeders Randy and Sandy Coleman have carefully considered each factor as they’ve built their operation, resulting in a band of 10 proven broodmares that they consistently evaluate and upgrade to produce babies that are not only well-bred, but that perform on the racetrack.
“Part of our goal when we first started having babies out of our mares was keeping and racing the babies ourselves, trying to prove our mares,” says Randy.
“Now we’re at the point where we can sell our babies (based on the performance of their dams and siblings),” adds Sandy.
His parents, Ronald and Judy Coleman, farmed. Randy followed the traditional farm-kid path
of 4-H and high school rodeo, then team roped and roped calves on the Texas Tech rodeo team.
Sandy was born in Denver, Colorado, to the
late Mel and Gwen Mandel. Mel bred and trained cutting horses, which led to Sandy and her sister Lori showing in AQHA including the AQHA Youth World Championships. At Texas Tech, she competed on the horse judging and horse show .
Randy and Sandy knew of each other, but they didn’t officially meet until Sandy drafted Randy
as her “boyfriend” to divert an older gentleman’s attentions at a bar. “The rest is history,” Sandy says. They started dating in February 1981, and married in September that same year.
The couple started their married life in Morton, then moved to Levelland when son Ryan and
we lived across the road (from where they live now), then one day while driving to work, I saw this land for sale and we grabbed it,” Sandy says. “Since then, we’ve added the 10 acres east of us and 16 acres west of us to the 16 original acres. It’s just perfect for our horse operation.” With drip irrigation, they’re able to keep grass growing pretty much year round.
Randy continued to rope, riding horses provided by Sandy’s dad. “After I got those great horses, my roping soared,” Randy says. “I was good enough to go professional, but I was just good enough to starve to death!” So he roped on weekends, and to pay
the bills, he farmed in Morton, where he still grows 4,300 acres of mainly cotton and some peanuts, and has a large custom peanut harvest business. “That money first went to educating our kids, for college, and after that, we decided we wanted to play with the racehorses,” he says.
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