Page 55 - November 2020

Chuck Bowlan DVM of Bowlan Farms urged Dan & Kaye to change to Paints, providing them with Treasured Brew who won the 1997 American Paint Classic.
THEIR ENTRY INTO HORSES
Dan’s grandfather supplied mules to the U.S. government during World War II and was “kind of a homemade vet,” Dan says. “He took care
of horses for everyone in the country; he had an Indian way of taking care of them, and I guess I got [my love for horses] from him.”
Kaye had a 16-hand Paint named Daisy while on the reservation. “That’s how I got started,” she says. “I’ve always loved horses and have been attached to Paints my whole life.”
They stuck their toes into the horse world again soon after they got together by buying two 1981 Quarter Horse mares: Fannie Fuel, by Oklahoma Fuel and out of Win Or Lose daughter Winners Doll; and Gracie Vittoro, by Three Ohs son Vittoro and out of Sessums Baby Bob, by Texas Leo. “Gracie was just a riding horse,” Kaye says, “but we actually did start running Fannie a little bit.”
Soon after, Kaye says, a friend’s salesmanship skills one-upped Dan’s.
“That fella came by my dealership and we
talked a while,” Dan says. “He was on his way to Oklahoma to look at some horses and there was a dealer right next door to me who was supposed to go with him, but he didn’t show up. I told my friend I wasn’t interested in any horses, but I’d go with him.”
Later, Dan pulled up at his and Kaye’s back door with a trailer load of 13 Appaloosas. “I almost shot him,” Kaye says.
FROM APPALOOSAS TO PAINTS
Although those horses didn’t pan out, Dan and Kaye did make a start in Appaloosas, and their naturally gregarious personalities made them naturals for promoting racing. “We worked really hard in the industry,” Kaye says. “We worked with [the late Appaloosa Horse Club racing representative] Alice Warren in promoting the Texas Appaloosa Futurity and Derby, and we worked with Dwayne Burrows in starting the Strike It Rich race at Blue Ribbon Downs. When Trinity Meadows opened at Weatherford, Texas, we were there every entry day trying to get Appaloosas entered.
“Lex Smurthwaite and Darrell Dodds told us we needed to change colors,” she adds, “and then we ran into Chuck Bowlan of Bowlan Farms and he urged us to change to Paints, too. Dan popped off and said, ‘Well, if you get a good enough Paint, I’ll do it!’”
Chuck was ready with the 1995 gelding Treasured Brew, by APHA $1 million sire Treasured and out of Froggywentacourtin, the homeliest mare she’d ever seen by Dash For Cash, but her foal went on to boost them into the ranks of stakes-winning owners. In four years on the track, Treasured Brew won five of 24 starts, with two seconds and two thirds and $41,537 in earnings.
Trainer Matt Whitekiller talked them into buying their great Texas Hero Paint mare Elaina Go Go, their highest-priced mare at that time, as a yearling in 2005.