Page 35 - Barrel Stallion Register 2016

F i r e W a t e r F l i t i s t h e s i r e o f F i r e w a t e r o n t h e r o c k s . F
influential sires in modern barrel racing.
Fl
li
it
t B
Ba
ar
r,
, w
wh
ho
o i
is
s t
th
he
e s
si
ir
re
e o
of
f F
Fi
ir
re
e W
Wa
at
te
er
r F
Fl
li
it
t,
, i
is
s o
on
ne
e o
of
f t
th
he
e m
mo
os
st
t
owner. “I finally made the decision to actually breed for the sport and that is when I bred Rock N Roll Rona to Fire Water Flit. In 2002, we got a palomino stud colt named Firewaterontherocks.”
Firewaterontherocks has Equi-Stat barrel racing earnings of $249,410. His barrel futurity titles include the 2005 BFA World Championship Futurity Four-Year-Old & Under Open 2 D Championship and the 2006 Old Fort Days Barrel Racing Four Year Old & Under 1 D Championship. He is a seasoned WPRA barrel horse and in 2014
he was RFD TV’s American Rodeo Reserve Champion in barrel racing.
When you talk with Robyn, you get the feeling that her goal with Firewaterontherocks was to get a good barrel racer. When asked why she never gelded him, she responded,
“I really have to give that credit to LaTricia Duke. I started him on the barrels and, when I would go to an exhibition, he would be cat callin’ the whole pattern. He would still be
a second off in the exhibition and he wasn’t aggressive or mean, but he liked to talk a lot.
“So, I didn’t know how he would do in the futurity world,” she continued. “I was looking for somebody I could ride behind. I had watched LaTricia Duke and her training style for a while. I knew I was going to have to work full time and, to give a horse the best
opportunity, I needed someone to ride him.
I knew futurity trainers are set up to work horses while those of us who work would have only a few days off a week to work them.”
Robyn traveled to see LaTricia in action, “I went to DeRidder, Louisiana, to a futurity down there and watched her run an On The Money Red horse, and they won the first round. So, I contacted her about riding him. She said she would and when I dropped
him off I said, ‘I don’t know if he is going to mentally be able to run barrels and still be a stud. I am going to leave that up to you.’
“Thankfully, he came around to be serious about his job and put his instinct on the back burner, and he did very well with her. I think they won the first round of the Starkville Futurity when they had a futurity in January. That is when she said he had earned his right to stay a stud. So I left it in her hands.
“A lot of people ask me how I knew to keep him a stud, and I never knew. But, I
did know that there was something special about him. Not so much the stud part, but he was so light in the face and it seemed like the horses I was getting off the track were not so bad in the mouth but kind of dull. He was like nothing I had ever seen. I just thought there was something to that part, and that
is why I left him a stud, but ultimately that rested in LaTricia’s hands.”
The Pedigree
The ability to be a barrel horse has a number of factors that have to be present to get the kind of horse that excels in this event. They have to have the speed and ability to move around the barrels with agility and then the power to propel them to the finish line. We get these factors by incorporating different bloodlines that represent the versatility of the American Quarter Horse and this includes the mixing of Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred bloodlines. With this in mind, we will look at the pedigree
of Firewaterontherocks. We will summarize the pedigree information on his sire as we covered him in last years’ Speedhorse Barrel Stallion Register. You can access this issue through the archives at www.speedhorse.com.
Firewaterontherocks is sired by Fire Water Flit, who earned an 86 speed
index on the track. He would prove his performance ability in a limited show
career with wins in events like the WTBRA Derby Championship and the TBRA Derby Champion of Champions. He was a WPRA money earner that included wins at rodeos like the Texas State Fair Rodeo.
Fire Water Flit has sired World Champions in the WPRA, AQHA, PHBA and the IBHA. His foals have earned in excess of $5,000,000 in the arena. Some of
SPEEDHORSE 33
SPEEDLINES