Easy, Breezy, Beautiful...and Six Figure Earners at Just Four Years Old
It is no secret that when Solo Select has their name on something, it is going to be exceptional. After all, their motto is "the very best." With industry altering goals and a plan to get there, Melanie Smith and her team have proved time and again that they can live that motto.
Over the past few years, Smith has teamed up with Trevor Brazile and Miles Baker of Relentless Remuda to forever alter the rope horse industry. Simply put, Brazile and Baker are also "the very best" at what they do, selecting and training elite rope horses.
Smith, Brazile, and Baker have been striving to create something that has never been offered before - horses bred specifically to excel in the roping pen. If Gunna Wanna and Relentless PYC are any indication of what is to come, it truly is revolutionary to the industry.
The irony is not lost that only a beautiful mare could effortlessly shake up an entire industry precisely like Elle Woods in the movie "Legally Blonde": "What? Like it's hard?"
Relentless Remuda, along with Select Genes and Hal Earnhardt, owns Gunna Wanna. Just last year, the mare won $75,000 at the Snaffle Bit Futurity with Corey Cushing, finishing fourth overall. The mare earned the highest score in rein-work in the preliminaries and the finals, making her an obvious addition to the Select lineup.
Gunna Wanna "Homegirl" is by GunnaTrashYa and out of Chic Vintage Flare by Smart Chic Olena. Only a few months into her second career in the heeling with Baker and Brazile, she has earned another $35,000.
Relentless PYC, by First Prize Diver and out of Chars Gun by Playgun, is owned by Solo Select, Relentless Remuda, and Tonkin. Her third futurity win of the year, "Nala" left the Old West Rope Horse Futurity $55,000 richer for her efforts in the pre futurity heading. After the dust settled in Rock Springs, Wyoming at the Royal Crown, the mare had broken $103,000 in lifetime earnings.
Smith, Baker, Brazile, and Ty Smith discussed Nala at length in a recent episode of The Business of Horses with Solo Select podcast. The group feels that the mare is one of the first examples of a mare truly bred for the heading.
Smith remarked, "What I hope we're doing is looking back in 10 years and saying those used to be cow/run crosses and now they're just head horses. We bred the greatest head horse mares to the greatest head horse stallions and now we've got head horses."
Discussing what makes the mare so exceptional, Brazile stated, "She goes from 0 to 100% every time in the box. She's able to hold that power and keep it in check and she scores amazing. She has so much finesse when she gets ahold of the cow and faces, there's really not a hole in her game. Having a little extra talent in all those places, she can do it with ease."
When Smith asked Baker about the experience at the Old West Futurity, he simply said, "What happened is the mare was great and she always is."