Sun Frost

A Legend Dies at 27

In the mid-90's, rodeo fans across the country were captivated by the Cinderella story of a humble Colorado horsewoman, Kristie Peterson, and her gutsy horse, French Flash Hawk, better known as "Bozo."

The pair tore up the professional barrel racing circuit, winning four Women's Professional Rodeo Association World titles in six years (1994, 1996-98). The big-hearted horse quickly earned a reputation in rodeo as virtually unbeatable.

"I think he's got to be known for his guts," Peterson said of Bozo. "He'd run on any kind of ground, any situation...he just loved it."

As the fame of Peterson and Bozo grew, so too did curiosity about the bloodlines of the amazing equine.

A Legend in the Making

The answer was found in the plains of central South Dakota--Highmore, to be exact. Pat Cowan's ranch was the home of a copper-gold palomino stallion by the name of Sun Frost. His pedigree spoke volumes. With Doc Bar, Driftwood, and other top bloodlines, Sun Frost was already a respected stallion in South Dakota and surrounding areas.

Cowan was known for raising hardy ranch horses--the kind of horses that could get the ranch work done during the week, and carry the kids to high school rodeo championships on the weekends. he looked for speed, agility, size, and of course, heart. Cowan found much of his top stock in the barn of his longtime friends, Stanley Johnson, who lived in nearby Ree Heights, SD. Both men held the all-around horse in high esteem. They dearly valued a horse that was cowy enough for the cutting pen and fast enough for the rodeo arena.

The Cowan family owned a gelded full brother to Sun Frost by the name of Runnin Gunn. By Docs Jack Frost, by Doc Bar, and out of Prissy Cline by Driftwood Ike, an own son of Driftwood, "Gunner" was the family's rodeo horse.

"Without a doubt, Running Gunn was the horse that set that bloodline off," said Tigh Cowan, one of the three Cowan brothers who make up the family operation. "At one state high school finals, we roped calves, they breakaway roped on him, cut on him, tied goats on him, hazed bulldoggin' steers, and heeled on him. My sister Shannon rode him the most aside from me. This was absolutely a phenomenal horse."

Runnin Gunn was a 1971 gelding. In 1976, the Cowans picked up Quick Draw Cline ("Quick Draw"), another athletic all-around mount.

"They were a great team," Cowan said. "We hazed off of Gunner and bulldogged of of Quick Draw. They were the frontrunners that indicated the way Dad wanted the horse program to go."

Pat Cowan vowed that the next colt to come along would be the stallion he'd build a breeding program around. On June 1, 1079, a stunning golden colt was born, and Stanley Johnson aptly named him Sun Frost. He came to his permanent home at the Cowen Ranch when he was a weanling in the fall of 1979.

"He had what those other horses had and more, as far as character," Tigh Cowan explained. "Sun Frost, from day one, demanded respect. You didn't have to wonder if this horse was something. He'd put you in mind of a British aristocrat--he was very dignified and regal-acting."

As a 2-year old, Sun Frost put his prestigious Doc Bar blood to work in the cutting pen, competing under Tigh Cowan at the South Dakota State High School Finals.

"I'm not saying we were ready for Fort Worth [the National Cutting Horse Association Futurity] or anything like that, but we used him at the state high school finals and we beat some horses that had been to the [National High School Rodeo Association] finals," Cowan said proudly. "At the state finals, he placed in the first two go-rounds and then I ended up losing a cow in the short go to go to the national [high school] finals. All that as just a 2-year old."

A Performance Career Cut Short

Without a doubt, the young stallion was proving himself in the performance pen. But an unfortunate accident during his 3-year-old year would cut his show career short and speed him toward his role as a top producing stallion.

"He was turned out, and there were some mores across the sucker-rod fence," Cowan related. "He jumped the fence and it broke, except for the brace. A piece of half-inch pipe stuck him and missed his stifle by an inch. We got there and the horse was shish-ka-bobbed over this pipe. When my dad got there, he was it and went back home to get a 30-30. He stood over that horse and told us that it was over. We begged him not to do that. At the time, I'm sure that he thought that pipe had gone right through his stifle.

"We got him stood up and got to looking at him. The pipe had actually missed his stifle by not a whole lot at all. We threw a burlap sack over him with ice and let that ice drain down over the top of him through that hold. He ended up having a scar there, but he wasn't unsound. Once he healed, he was fine. He recovered, but he didn't leave the place much at all after that."

While his show career may have been over, Pat Cowan knew he had a precious commodity in the golden palomino horse. The family began breeding their own mares to him, creating the kind of all-around ranch horses that Pat Cowan believed in. But Cowan's untimely death in an airplane accident in 1985 left the family struggling to continue their father's work.

"There was a long time in there that Sun Frost was never bred to any mares in the public except for a couple," Tigh Cowan said. "Due to losing Dad, we were just doing other things."

Until their 1997 sale, only seven or eight Sun Frost sons were left intact. Meanwhile, the breeding of PC Bronsin, PC Sun Socks, Sunfrost Country, Mr Docs Dakota and Frenchmans Guy became well known in the upper Midwest. It wasn't until year 2000 that the Cowan Brothers Ranch had Sun Frost grandget through a son, sired by PC Sun Wood, foaled on the ranch.

Of the few outside mares that were bred to Sun Frost early on, there were two that would help propel him onto the national stage. One of them was Casey's Charm, the dam of Bozo and PC Frenchmans Hayday ("Dinero"). Dinero is the palomino stallion currently ridden by Sherry Cervi of Marana, Arizona, on the professional rodeo circuit. The second mare was Frenchman's Lady, which is the dam of prominent barrel horse sire, Frenchmans Guy.

A Place in History

The magic crosses of Sun Frost with Casey's Charm and Frenchman's Lady proved to be history making. Bozo commanded respect from longtime industry insiders.

"Bozo--I think he's one of the three best barrel horses to ever live," said Mel Potter, longtime Driftwood breeder and owner of full-brother, Dinero. "On any kind of ground, Bozo was fantastic. He just couldn't be beat."

After studying Bozo's pedigree, there was no question in Potter's mind as to what accounted for his greatness.

"So many people don't have any idea how many great horses are packed into a few generations on Sun Frost's pedigree," Potter said. "On his bottom side, the mare Prissy Cline was by Driftwood Ike, which was probably one of Driftwood's greatest sons. She was out of a mare called Josephine L, one of the best-producing running horse mares in the world at that time. I don't know a lot of great pedigrees, but this one is worth knowing.

Potter can easily name each and every horse for at least four generations on Sun Frost's pedigree, and for good reason. He's currently using those same bloodlines in his own breeding operation, and mounting cowboys in the rodeo arena on his horses. And, while many are aware of Sun Frost's prowess as a barrel horse sire, Potter will be the first to point out that he has sired just as many great roping horses--very much in line with Pat Cowan's original vision.

There've been some great rope horses--I've got some of them," Potter said.

Incidentally, he rides an own son of Sun Frost as his personal roping mount.

"I still win a lot against some pretty tough ropers, but the reason is because I've got such a great horse," Potter said. "I don't really know a lot of the famous rope horses by that horse, but if they weren't famous, it's because they had the misfortune of not having world-class ropers ride them yet."

Peterson agrees that she special combination of Casey's Charm and Sun Frost sparked magic for Bozo.

"I really didn't know who Sun Frost was at that point, but I sure liked the Doc Bar influence," Peterson said of her decision to buy the future world champion horse (for a modest $400). "I think he got durability, a gutsy attitude, and the big heart. The whole combination just worked there. It's hard to tell what comes from where, but that combination was sure right for durability and heart.

After the phenomenal success of Bozo and other Sun Frost-bred horses, the game changed for the Cowan Brothers. They began breeding Sun Frost to a limited number of outside mares and holding production sales at their South Dakota ranch. Their program produced such performance standouts as Frosty Feelins, the horse ridden by Denise Adams to two go round wins at the 2006 National Finals Rodeo.

"After we did decide to breed to outside mares, we were very, very picky about what we chose," Tigh explained. "We wanted to make sure it was a good deal for both sides. it felt like the right thing to do."

The family held their first production sale in 1997, and have had four additional sales in the years since.

"We had no doubt that this horse was a great sire," Cowan said. "If you put 25 colts in a pen, and five of them were his, I'd bet something very dear to me that I could pick out all five of them. His colts have a unique way about them--the way they move, their look--he stamped them, without a doubt.

Cowan laughs at Sun Frost's ability to add his unique style to nearly anything.

"You could cross him with anything and get what you hoped for. I always had a lot of respect for him because of that," Cowan related. "There was a horse by the name of John Red that stood in this country. He was a hell of a racehorse, and own son of Red Man. Dad brought home a handful of mares by John Red and we laughed. They were good-bodied, but definitely not good-looking. We bred Sun Frost to those own daughters of John Red, but we teased Dad about it. We said, 'Dad, that's a nice horse [Sun Frost], but you're really asking a lot of him.'

"Come spring, here come these little buckskin and roan fillies, and it was a cross that really, really worked. It was just neat, because any of that unrefined-ness was gone.

The Cowans still use the offspring of those original John Red daughters in their broodmare band today.

"It's truly a bloodline that we treasure and try terribly hard to keep it coming," Tigh said.

Besides his look, Sun Frost also stamped his foals with a distinctive athletic ability.

"Those horses could run," Cowan said. "It didn't take them a quarter of a mile to get rolling really fast. To me, that's definitely something that he passes on. From the back of the box to cattle [in roping] when that tail crosses the barrier, they're running as hard as they're going to be running in the middle of the arena."

Potter can testify to that, having roped off many good Sun Frost and Driftwood horses in his lifetime. Their intensity and cow ability is very evident.

"When you put Doc Bar and Driftwood together in a horse, you get a pretty cowy son-of-a-gun! they've got good bones and good feet. They're just outstanding."

The End of an Era

As Sun Frost got on in years, the Cowan brothers--Tigh, Tork, and Treg--began planning for the inevitable. They all agreed on one thing--that when the end came, they did not want the geat horse, which had meanto so much to their father and their family, to suffer.

"We were--at least we thought--ready for this," Cowan explained. "We decided that if something like that did happen, we weren't going to put a bunch of drugs into him or anything.

The horse that had started it all for the family, Runnin Gunn, had lived to be nearly 32, and Sun Frost lived happily until he was close to 28. Then, on a cold January day in early 2007, he went down and quit eating.

"He went down and we helped him up for a couple days, and then we decided enough was enough," Cowan explained. "We wanted him to die fat and happy, and I think we accomplished that. We just weren't willing to go any further and take a risk of him suffering."

The great stallion was buried next to Runnin Gunn on the family's ranch, where he may be gone, but certainly not forgotten. Tigh Cowan was both humbled and surprised at the response to his death.

"We've buried our mother and our father, and it amazed us how much of the same feelings came across when that horse was gone," Cowan said. "I'd have never seen that before with a horse passing. When I called people like Mel Potter, it stopped him in his tracks. It was humbling to me [to see] the reaction of the guys I have so much respect for in this business. I realized that he may be gone, but he will live on for a very long time."

The Cowans have no plans to try and "replace" the late, great stallion, but simply carry on his remarkable abilities from one generation to the next. The family is assured that Sun Frost's legacy will continue for years to come through his progeny.