Years ago, Jessica’s parents went to a sale barn and saw Jose for the first time in the sale ring. No one was bidding on him. “My parents purchased Jose for $100 as a malnourished yearling from a sale barn and at the time he had a higher chance of dying than living. My mom trained and barrel raced him at many futurities in the Midwest. I took over the reins in his 6-year-old year and after a year he started winning. Jose has over $40k in LTE earnings and is now becoming a third-generation horse as my daughter starts to ride him. We gave Jose a chance at life when nobody else would and he has repaid us over and over in and out of the arena!

His sire, Special Passum, was paid into a lot of breeders sidepots in the barrel futurities so my parents threw their number up and offered $100 for him. They decided he was worth the chance to spend a little money, whether he lived or died, to give him a shot at a fair life. Jose is a goofy horse; he is 17 years young and still gets scared of things on the farm that have been there his whole life. He also loves children and is a complete sweetheart. He wants to please everyone and loves going to work at a barrel race. He is a crowd pleaser, the louder the crowd the faster and harder he runs. My mom put the miles on him for barrels and ran him at futurities. He was a constant 2D/3D horse and my mom actually tried to sell him at one point, but nobody ever showed interest. That is when she handed me the reins and our partnership began when he was 7 and I was 20.

Jose really grew into himself and matured when he was 8 and he started winning a lot of barrel races and rodeos. Some injuries later in life sidelined him for a bit, which started his partnership with my 4-year-old daughter. He is currently a peewee horse, but there may be a day where mom gets to jump back on for one more spin. :)

I am a firm believer Jose has given back to our family just as we gave him a chance at life. He has a huge heart and willingness to run the race every time. I think he knows we were able to give him life when nobody else would and he has repaid us in safety, winning, and a lot of life lessons.”