Emily Beisel’s in a unique position en route to a 2024 NFR appearance thanks to the addition of Teasin Dat Guy to her barrel racing lineup.
Fans are wondering how Emily Beisel is going to decide which star horse to run at her sixth NFR appearance in 2024. Her iconic grey gelding, Namgis D 33 or “Chongo,” has won eight NFR go-rounds, and Ivory On Fire, “Liza,” has earned her own victory lap inside the iconic Thomas & Mack arena. Plus, her newest edition already has an NFR aggregate victory to her name.
Not everyone who’s watched Beisel run the bullet of a palomino mare since she joined Beisel’s string in spring 2024 realizes that it’s Teasin Dat Guy—the same mare Molly Otto trained and took to the 2021 NFR as a 5-year-old. The gritty mare they call “Chewy,” won a boatload of futurities in 2020 – some by clocking a 16.9 on a standard set – and had already hit nearly a half-million bucks in lifetime earnings by last winter.
“I’m having the time of my life,” said Beisel. “Chewy was my dream horse. I always admired her resilience so much. There were times I’d see Molly get up at the bottom of the draw. If it was me, I’d think I didn’t stand a chance and drive on. Not only would Chewy do well, but she’d actually win in those tough draws. She’s like, ‘You tell me I can’t? Watch me.’”
Otto, who trained and campaigned the mare for her breeder, Katie Lindahl, has said that Chewy broke an arena record at her very first jackpot. Lindahl raised the daughter of Frenchmans Guy out of her Blazin Jetolena/Juno Dat Cash mare Teasin Jetolena.
Easily bored, Chewy got her nickname thanks to a penchant for destroying other horses’ tails in her corral. All grown up now at 8, Chewy loves a good challenge, Beisel said, and loves to win against the odds.
“That’s something a little bit rare in barrel horses today,” Beisel said. “It makes her so unique and special. We’ve bred a little of the toughness and grit out of these horses, and Chewy’s not that way at all. She loves tough ground. She loves a challenge – and the roar of the crowd.”
The mare was purchased in the past year by 4M Equine Ranch in Decatur, Texas. Relatively new to the barrel-horse breeding arena, it’s owned by investment fund guru Darrell Martin and his barrel-racing daughter, Felicity Martin.
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“Chewy really likes to rodeo,” Beisel said. “They called me and said they’d like to see her back at the NFR, and they mainly take young horses to slot races now.” She added, jokingly, “Training is definitely not my forte, but I do love being a rodeo bum!”
Beisel had only ever ridden her own horses.
“It was a little out of my comfort zone, but when you get the opportunity to ride a horse like Chewy, you definitely don’t say no,” she said. “A horse like her is one in a million.”
Beisel’s no slouch in the jockey department and no stranger to great horses. She’s won first place at rodeos this season on (count ’em) five horses including Chewy, Chongo, Liza, Pipewrench and Trigger, the young horse she raised. But she’s been a Chewy fan for years.
“I thoroughly enjoyed watching Molly run her, and Molly has helped me get my timing down with her and learn her little habits,” Beisel said. “Katie and I have developed a friendship, too. Selling that mare had to be a very tough decision. Chewy’s just a special horse and all of her people love to see her win. She would do it for anybody – it doesn’t have to be me on her back.”
4M also counts on its roster stallions such as Epic Leader plus other mares like Kiss Me Good Bye – the filly by The Goodbye Lane out of Brittany Tonnozzi’s NFR mare Kiss Kiss Bang Bang that sold at the 2023 Pink Buckle sale for $490,000. On Beisel’s roster, Chewy has stepped into the role formerly filled by Biddin On Fame, a horse she sold last year, and has lightened the load on Chongo, who’s been fighting an abscess this summer.
Deciding where to run Chewy isn’t difficult – she loves performances, and she handles deeper ground really well, Beisel said. At a pen like St. Paul, Oregon, where great horses don’t even see the barrels, she gets the call. Beisel can’t put it more simply than to say, “She’s just a winner.”
The mare has presented a new style for Beisel, whose main man Chongo can be tricky to first because he needs momentum but sets really hard, and whose bay mare Liza is such a free-runner that she idles her to the first barrel.
“I can push Chewy and ride more aggressive,” Beisel said. “It’s been a long time since I had one that I can send that hard in open space and she’s going to find that barrel.”
As for being around the mare, her personality is a 12 out of 10, Beisel said.
“She’s really sweet, but also is proud of herself and very confident,” she shared. “She loves to be loved on, and she’s funny. I could spend all day in the pen with her.”
