Bet Yer Blue Boons

World Champion Cutting Horse

They were queens of the cutting horse world: a Cowgirl Hall of Famer and her red roan mare with the blue-blooded pedigree of cow horse royalty. In 1999, at the National Cutting Horse Association World Finals, Lindy Burch and her American Quarter Horse mare, Bet Yer Blue Boons, delivered a performance so close to perfect that it earned the highest score ever in the six-decade history of their sport. Got cow? This pair can answer with a resounding, “Yes!”

© Darrell Dodds

"Bet," as she was called at home on Lindy’s Oxbow Ranch in Weatherford, Texas, was born in 1990 to a granddaughter of the great stallion Doc Bar, Royal Blue Boon, who was not only one of the NCHA’s all-time leading cutting horses, but considered by many to be the greatest-producing mare of the sport: her distinctive genetic signature was foals born red or blue roan.

Combined with the deep copper-chestnut and blaze face of her sire, 1976 NCHA Futurity reserve champion Freckles Playboy, the muscular red roan filly was born with her parents’ good looks and good cow sense. At the famous Oxbow Ranch, the brand that Bet carried, and with Lindy’s training, by 1994 Bet was making the top ten and top five in open finals. Five years later, a nine-year-old Bet’s performance in the Open World Championship produced the virtually flawless score of 233.

“What made it record-breaking was that there was never a dull spot,” Lindy recalls. Bet’s first cow was “nearly perfect,” and the pair could have played it safe sticking with a second calf. But with only 20 seconds left to their two-and-a-half minute run – and last chance at the world title – Lindy pointed Bet at a third cow and felt her explode into action. Feinting like a boxer, with her powerful hindquarters close to the ground, Bet kept a third insistent calf from the herd, and as the buzzer sounded, they heard the arena erupt in cheers as the judges assigned a new world record score.

Lindy credits her remarkable partner for their win that day: “The degree of difficulty was strong on all three cows. Bet remained very stylish and physical. That’s what Bet was best at – “giving her all every time we would compete.”

Bet passed away in 2019 at the incredible age of 29. Her own career earnings totaled over $350,000, plus $1.2 million in earnings from her progeny, making her an official NCHA "million-dollar producer."

"Bet's" Breyer model was produced from 2009 to 2011.