Page 77 - Barrel Stallion Register 2016

DEVELOPING A NETWORK
Since then, the Burts have sent Dale several youngsters for training. The first, 2010 Dash Ta Fame son DTF The Flag Man, aka Simon, out
of Avenue Of Flags daughter Bright Flags (TB), had been used as a pony horse on the track. “He was kind of a trouble maker,” Dale says. “The Burts weren’t expecting much and I wanted to prove myself to them. I trained him for a year. That horse made me cry and at times I lost faith in myself. But, he became phenomenal. Molly Powell liked him so much that we picked her to ride him at the 2014 BFA World Show.” Tragically, Simon died in August 2015 of West Nile Virus. But overcoming Simon’s challenges allowed Dale to prove himself — to himself and to the Burts.
Bob and Darian also sent Dale their 2011 Dash Ta Fame son DTF Shawne Song, aka Phillip, out of Shawne Bug daughter Her Night Song. “I called Phillip ‘The Nintendo Horse,’” Dale says. “He was lazy, laid-back, clumsy and not paying attention to what he was doing — like a kid playing Nintendo.” After a year with Dale, Phillip was probably his best pattern horse ever. “But running wasn’t his thing,” Dale says. “I admit, I didn’t know if he was going to ‘show up.’
“Here in Quebec, the futurities start in May,
and every two weekends in March we do time-only [where horses can run without being entered]. This year in March, his first time on the timer, he made the fastest time and held it ’til the end of April against all the other 4 year olds that came. But then, for the next several weekends, something always came up: he was limping, I was working, he lost a shoe ...
“Then in May at my show, I looked at his time and it was good. I compared it to all the
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A MATCH GAME
Another challenge Dale faces is his size. “He’s a big guy,” says Darian. “He’s 6 feet 2 [inches] and almost 200 pounds.” To even the playing field for his horses, he turned to his sister Cindy and other female riders.
“He’s always looking for the right rider for the horse,” Darian says. After she sent him DTF Firefox, aka Noella, in June 2014, Dale fixed the 6-year-old mare’s tendency to hit the barrels. By that fall, she finished seventh out of 100.
In the spring, Dale asked Darian if Cindy could ride the mare. “In Blainville in their first show together ever, they finished 11th of 243 horses,” Dale says. “The next day, they finished 10th or 11th out of about 200, and then at my show in Drummondville, they placed fourth in the Derby and seventh out of 200 horses. They proceeded to the St-Brigade Show in Quebec in August and finished third both days out of more than 225 horses. They were winning constantly and Cindy qualified her to the IFR46 World Show in Oklahoma in January of 2016. So, Cindy is third in the world with that horse and another, named Aligria.”
With only seven years under his belt as a professional trainer, Dale finds satisfaction in building a solid foundation for his horses, in being part of the Burt family — owners of what he rates as the best stallion in the world — and in being able to say he’s been in most of the United States to either buy horses, visit or just have fun with nice people. “I was an unknown in a country town and now I train for the best stallion owners in the world and top competitors are riding my horses,” he says with wonder.
horses in the show and he would’ve placed third or fourth. So, the next show he did a time-only and he was perfect. I called Darian and said, ‘Let’s enter him!’ I think the horse thought, ‘If
I do it quick, I’m going to be able to go back to my Nintendo games,” Dale joked.
“My friend Jessica ran him and he did well, but he hit a barrel in both goes. But, I wasn’t sad. He won his next run over 100 horses. After that, he finished 10th and then third. He’s now for sale with Danyelle in Millsap, Texas.”
OVERCOMING CHALLENGES
Placing Phillip with Danyelle brought
the horse into closer contact with the barrel industry — one of the challenges Dale faces. “He’s a good trainer who lives about 3,000 miles out of the mainstream,” says Molly.
Another challenge for Dale is also a boon to his program’s results: Dale now limits his training roster to four horses so he can observe the entire process. “I do everything,” he says, “— grooming, saddling, warming up, cooling down, turning out. I’d rather do everything from the beginning to the end, so when I say a horse is ready, it’s ready.”
But, being so involved with his equine clients creates yet another challenge. After moving from his family ranch in Mont-Laurier to Barn 5-5-5 in 2013 to train and organize the biggest show
in Eastern Canada, he found he needed more contact with people in general, and people in the industry in particular. “I need a social life and horses don’t talk!” he says. So, he took a part-time job serving in a restaurant. The native French speaker also became fluent in English.
t t h h e e i i r r h h o o r r s s e e D DT T F F F F i i r r e e f f o ox x t t o o t t r r a a i i n n , , a a n n d d C C l l o o u u t t i i e e r r aboard her. Together, they began beating qualified to the 2016 IFR46 World Show in
T T h h e e B B u u r r t t s s s s e e n n t t D D a a l l e e
put his sister Cindy
other competitors,
January in Oklahoma, and are ranked third in the world.
n n e e d d t t o o h h i i s s s s i i s s t t e e r r
“I’d rather do everything from the beginning to the end, so when I say a horse is ready, it’s ready.”
SPEEDHORSE 75