Breykin Bad Healthy for Cattlemen’s 4-Year-Old Open Championship

As The Cattlemen’s 4-Year-Old Open finals kicked off on March 5, Beau Galyean just felt blessed that he and Breykin Bad had made it into the finals amongst some of the best cutting horses in the country. Then, when they marked a 224 to win the Championship, which came with an $18,500 paycheck, Galyean took it as a sign they were finally on the right track after a long and difficult journey that began in August of last year.

“He was a great horse all the way through July, and then I went on a vacation in August. When I got home, I started working him again, and he wasn’t right,” Galyean said. “We ended up having a couple vets come and look at him, and they found out he had an earful of ticks in the bottom of his ear. He started getting a little bit neurological and holding his head funny, then that stress and getting sick from that brought on strep.”

Breykin Bad (Stevie Rey Von x Sweet Abra x Abrakadabracre) ended up having to take a month-and-a-half off to recover from the ordeal, and Galyean started bringing him back in October, shortly before the 2023 National Cutting Horse Association Futurity. The pair did well at the Futurity and progressed all the way to the Open finals, but still, the horse just didn’t feel right.

“He never quite felt the same as he did before,” Galyean said. “I had always told [my wife] Ashley he felt like the kind of horse that could win, and then when he came back, he wasn’t that horse.”

Galyean and Breykin Bad started hauling to weekend shows in the new year, trying to help the stallion get back into his groove. It was only a few days before The Cattlemen’s finals that Galyean started seeing inklings of the old horse Breykin Bad was before, and then during the finals, the stallion finally showed the potential Galyean had always known was there.

“For him to be able to prove that he can be at the top of the leaderboard was pretty cool because there were just a lot of great horses and great horse trainers,” Galyean said. “It just made me pretty happy for the horse that he’d been able to accomplish something that I’d always hoped he could just because he was a good horse and he deserved it.”

Galyean thanked Ashley for believing in him and helping out so much at home and at the shows. He was also thankful for the support of Breykin Bad’s owners, Alvin and Becky Fults, who have been with him since 2008. Two horses marked scores of 223 to tie for the Reserve Championship. The first, Ivie (Cool N Hot x Peptos Stylish Miss x Peptoboonsmal), was piloted by John Mitchell for owner Slate River Ranch, who collected $14,000. Starr Spangled (Metallic Cat x Lectrifyn Royalty x One Time Royalty) and Adan Banuelos rounded out the tie, bringing home a check worth $14,000 for owner Nancy Sullivan.