Ep. 115 - Barrel Statistics Like You've Never Seen Them with Amber Case
It became apparent the more that we talked to Amber Case of Tennessee by way of Louisiana, that this was definitely not going to be the last time that Amber was going to be on the podcast talking about barrel racing statistics. Stay tuned for a quarterly segment with her as we break down the different futurities and major events of the year with Amber in regards to barrel racing horses, their backgrounds and more.
If you know us, you know that we are obsessed with anything related to stats with rodeo and, thanks to the Facebook algorithm, we found a like-minded individual in Amber Case during the 2022 National Finals Rodeo.
Backstory
The 1997 Miss Rodeo Louisiana, Amber started out riding at three-years of age riding mean sale barn ponies that her sister would find cheap. Competing at local horse shows and saddle clubs, she started to go to youth rodeo at the age of ten. Doing all the events, all day long at horse shows, the “horse bug” bit her early and kept her going.
“They tried to kill me regularly,” says Amber with a laugh about the sale barn ponies. “My sisters was 17 years older than me… she would buy them cheap, and here I was three, four or five year olds trying to ride them.” They were labeled as “good kid ponies” but no one had no idea that “little Annie Oakley” would barely survive.
Miss Rodeo Louisiana
In 1988, at the Washington Parish Rodeo in Franklin, Louisiana, Amber entered her first rodeo with clothes that her mom had made for her and that’s how she started. “I entered queen contests every year starting that year on until I competed for Miss Rodeo Louisiana in 1997.” A former Miss Dixie National and a couple first runner-ups along the way, but she never did High School Rodeo titles because she was focused on barrel racing.
“I learned so much and that definitely kind of set my mind as far as studying trends in our industry,” says Amber. “I had to study, as you know, to know all the stats on all the events, and all the rules, and all the bucking horses.. it started back then. The last five years I have become immersed in it. It’s so interesting to see what the numbers can show us about these horses with the trends, bloodlines and breedings.”
“I still keep up with it,” says Amber about the Miss Rodeo America program. Every now and then she has been selected or asked to judge state titleholder pageants. “I try to keep my finger on the pulse of that,” says Amber with a laugh, “and I’m pretty good at it!”
“Back when I was in there, nobody wore anything knee-length… we didn’t use anything like that, everything was ankle length. The hair has changed somewhat, they aren’t wearing it straight, it’s more curling iron straight versus fluffy,” says Amber with a laugh. “There were all the colored jeans that are coming back in again that I’m happy about it, our jeans were up to our waist and I’m happy to see that trend coming back as a tall woman.”
“They say in fashion that everything comes full circle every thirty years,” says Amber. A little nugget in history, the 1997 year was the first time Miss Rodeo America decided to have an online web presence and it was the first time the PRCA put Miss Rodeo America onto the pro rodeo website.
High School Rodeo
Interesting tidbit about former That Western Life guest Kati Jo Barber, Amber competed with Kati Jo and her sister, Brooke, at the Louisiana State titles. Kati Jo had a bang-up barrel horse named Cinco that was also ridden by Brooke and kids next door that had some issues and needs for a horse.
“I tried my best to compete in as many things as I possible could,” says Amber. “I dabbled a little bit in cutting horses… my main focus was barrels and poles… I did breakaway rope when I could bum a horse. I could rope in the three’s, even with no practice, … and I learned to head [in team roping].”
It was pretty expensive, traveling four hours one way, so Amber decided to focus on events and not in the queen’s competition. That helped her in the future for where she wanted to put herself.
Horses & Amber Today
“I am still hooked on these barrel horses, it’s a bad habit,” says Amber with a laugh. “You do realize a cocaine habit would be cheaper - not as healthy, but cheaper!”
Amber and her husband built Blowing C arena in 2017 on their farm after being the NBHA director and a barrel race producer. In 2012, she became a local Tennessee NBHA director when she moved to the state but the work was hard as they kept losing their arenas. Building their own arena and running open events based off of the BRAT system in Texas which includes time slots. The time slots have been the biggest blessing for them and allows her the chance to run people through faster.
How It Works:
You make an appointment to come run barrels in 30 minute slots. They run 10 exhibitions and then 10 run in a 30 minute slot. People will often sell their extra exhibitions to others that have an extra colt they want to run. In the summer, they’ll run in the morning and take a break for the heat and then run again in the evening. During good weather, they’ll run all morning and through the day with a big break in the middle of the day by her husband.
“He has studied the ground ever since he has got me,” says Amber with a laugh about her husband and how hard he works to keep their ground in tip top shape. “He keeps it so it’s fair all day - which is hard in an outdoor arena. He watches it and knows when to water, when to drag … he really does a fantastic job on that so kudos as he can!”
Building an Arena
Is it worth it? If you are going to build an indoor arena, it’s probably not going to be worth it. The biggest expense of the whole operation (and that includes a two story announcer stand with concession stands, bathrooms and a sitting area, an arena with holding pens) is the sand that you haul in. The whole facility paid for itself in just two years with barrel races and a 75% payback and exhibitions. They also don’t charge for daily rides.
“There is no way that I would invest in building a covered arena! Do you know how much money I would save in diesel and driving to the covered arena versus building a million dollar arena?!”
Current Horsepower
Growing up in high school and college with racehorses, she started at a quarter horse race barn galloping horses, sale prep, grooming, etc. When she got into college, she went to work for Clear Creek Stud in Fulsom, Louisiana, galloping some and grooming, she helped with whatever was needed. “I have always had a love for racehorses!”
“I tend to, personally, make a horse into a lazy pig,” says Amber admitting. “I have raised some sons of Frenchman’s Guy, I have had a daughter of a Streak of Fling, I have been blessed with some nice horses… I can get them going and they make nice horses for other people. I am such a creature of habit that I think I just make them lazy,” says Amber laughing. “I guess I bore them into submission?”
In 2019, Amber got a two-year old filly off the racetrack, purchased from the trainer, that couldn’t outrun a fat man. A daughter of Game Patriot, she was fractious and nervous when they got her, but now she’s had time to heal, decompress and she’s calm.
Finding an Off The Track Horse for Barrel Racing
When Amber goes to the track, she looks at the ones that can’t get out of their own way. Her Freighttrain B daughter was one that got bumped by a horse in the gate and she was so scared to death she wouldn’t catch up with the other horses. Later, down the road, her husband loped toward her horse and she took off - you can’t be a racehorse if they are scared of other horses.
Three starts are ideal because that means that they have hauled and done something. “I have had similar experiences in their athleticism, so I try not to start them from the bottom - I take them from where they are,” says Amber. “Because I am a creature of habit, they mesh right into the habit.”
Releasing pressure and allowing them to leave the barrel, Ashley Schaffer did a video on allowing them to turn the barrel as a part of their reward if they held their form and did their thing. “I try not just pound pressure into them, give them that release when it’s appropriate, and keep the sessions short.”
“I see so much information on facebook, but a very well known barrel horse breeder commented on a post a girl made asking about retraining a horse or work around something to fix it permanently or would you constantly have to maintain fixing that issue, whatever it may be. This well known breeder got on there and commented, and said, ‘You’ll always have to fight that battle.’ She went on to say, ‘That’s why it’s almost impossible to make a barrel horse out of a racehorse off the track.’ My eye started to twitch,” says Amber. “I had to hold my hands together and not to type, ‘have you ever heard of Leslie Willis?’”
Leslie Willis and her husband have a relationship with Todd Matt with some Fury of the Wind horses and won multiple slot races and her horses, on equibase, all have starts. Her MO is the racehorses that are off the track - that’s her success story.
Barrel Horse Stats
“I started because I eat, sleep, breathe these horses that cost your heart, mind, body, soul and money,” says Amber. “I am training horses every day of my life and I wanted to know what was driving our industry.”
There is always a band wagon horse or stallion that just have tons of offspring out there but Amber wanted to whittle down what percentage of entries at a barrel race like the Pink Buckle and come out with the percentage of one of those horses making it into the 1D. “Of course, when I’m watching the NFR, one thing led to another and I had to analyze every thing about each one of these horses. You wait your whole year to watch the NFR and I wanted to know all the things. Once my mind kind of went there and started delving into it, I had too.”
Each night, Amber keeps up with who runs what horse and how they do with money won. “That’s how I kept up with who ran what so I could keep the horses earnings. Just because a horse went out there doesn’t mean it won a dime. I also wanted to know the horses that the girls ran that made the most money. For example, Emmett didn’t get to go but he’s the reason Kassie Mowry got to go.”
“I watch Miles page Texas and Other Rodeo Barrel Races - it’s phenomenal. He has facilitated some of these things. I would have never known Stevi HIllman’s story about Lemon Drop unless I was friends with Dakota Mock who trained her and the Dunn Ranch that raised her - it’s such a web that folds out a story. That’s another one, Truck helped Stevi to get there but he can’t run at the NFR, he can’t handle the anxiety in the tunnel. Lemon Drop was her ticket to a world championship and she died - that’s just tragic.”
“I guess my Facebook is honed in on what I want to see and that’s a good thing!”
What did the numbers show this NFR?
“I don't think it’s really intriguing, the most prominent that you see when you really break down and count up horses on the pedigree, Dash Ta Fame showed up eight times on the collective pedigrees of the horses that earned money at the NFR. He sired three of them and he was the dam sire of three of the horses. I thought that, based on all the other trends I saw and the trends I saw, that was prolific.
“First Down Dash, who is the sire of Dash Ta Fame, showed up fourteen times. Obviously more times than just behind Dash Ta Fame on those pedigrees. I would say that if I had to make one blanket statement, that that is the cornerstone of the breeding in our industry.”
Some people say that they are quirky but everyone knows that you have a great chance to success with one. “He is iconic, and that’s not even a strong enough word to use.”
“Other things that standout, there were eleven of those dams that had earned money were 100% race bred,” says Amber. “Five of the horses that were money earners were race bred top and bottom.”
Potentially, High Valor did have starts as he was purchased out of the Heritage Place sale. There is a good chance that he was raced because it’s where you get race prospects. Neither of Wenda Johnson’s horses were raced but the one that won all the money is 100% race bred out of a Stoli daughter and a First Moon Flash. It is really fascinating to see these racehorse bloodlines and see how they compete in the rodeo arena.
Futurities to Watch in 2023
Keeping up with horses that compete in the Top 20 of all the Open Futurities (that doesn’t include the buckles that you have be entered into the incentives to go too) so there’s a lot of work Amber has done cumulatively in 2021 and 2022 for the Royal Crowns, the Breeders Challenge, the Buckles, Fort Smith, the WPRA at the end of the year, BFA, Oklahoma City Futurities, etc. This may be a whole other podcast to do. “It’s interesting to see those futurity horses to walk over and see the history of the horses that won money in the NFR that started as futurity horses and Kassie Mowry trained three of them!”
It’s all intertwined and, if you sit down and dive into it, there are so many trends and so many myths that can be debunked through it. “I am taking horses that raced on the track at two years old and broke at 18-months that are still sound and running today… being open minded is a huge way to success in this business,” says Amber.
Changes in the Futurity World
The biggest change is the five-year old option and a lot more people are taking advantage of it. When she does stats, Amber tries to narrow it down to the class of 2022 but that’s hard to know if they ran the past year and if you ran this year for the first time. You almost have to message every person to find out. While it’s difficult for stats but it’s great to have that option. Some horses to salvage them and make them the best that they can be is definitely an option that has changed the whole futurity perspective.
RULE CHANGE:
I know that those horses that ran at the NFR have ran on the trashiest ground all year that you wouldn’t even want to run a goat on and kept four legs under them to make it to the NFR. I get that they are capable of running on it but the fact that they have to go to that rodeo and run on that ground without it being prepared correctly and/or dragged regularly is just mind blowing. I don’t care what Joe Beaver says - just no. Fix it. Please Jesus, don’t let those horses get hurt!
DEEP THOUGHTS ON THE RODEO TRAIL
I believe that anyone that puts forth hundred percent effort and time into this, and keeps their butt in the saddle can be successful at barrel racing. Get in the saddle a lot and you can get to the same place as all these big time trainers are going - you just have to spend the time. There is no gimmicks, no supplements, no therapeutic solutions - it’s time. Haul your horse, spend the time and anybody can be successful.