Bill Myers starts selling at noon Tuesday, Sept. 15, the second year Myers Performance Horses has run its production sale online instead of on the ranch at St. Onge, S.D. Bidding stays open through Sept. 16. Myers joined Kayla Jones on The Money Barrel ahead of it to talk about Frenchmans Guy, why the program sells started 2-year-olds rather than weanlings and what it costs to stand a stallion now.
Who is Bill Myers?
Bill and Deb Myers run Myers Performance Horses at St. Onge, S.D., with a second place at Union Center they bought in 2011. They started out riding outside horses for the public after they married and made a living at it for years. Their first production sale was in 2000, built on 2-year-olds they started themselves, and they held sales through most of the next two decades. Five stallions stand there now: Frenchmans Guy, A Smooth Guy, Mr Sassy Frenchman, Lucky Wonder Horse and CR Tuff Dual.
“We finally got to where we didn’t need to ride outside horses anymore if our horses would sell for enough money to generate the kind of income we needed to make a living. And thankfully they did.”
Myers on the point the sale replaced the training business. He said the breeding program and the sale went hand in hand.
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Inside the 2026 Myers Performance Horses sale
Bidding opens Sept. 15 at noon MST on tiltXchange, and Lot 1 begins closing Sept. 16 at 5:30 p.m. MST. The offering is one 3-year-old, nine 2-year-olds, two yearlings and two weanlings, with Frenchmans Guy, Mr Sassy Frenchman, Lucky Wonder Horse, CR Tuff Dual, Ima Special Kindaguy and Dash Ta Fame among the sires represented. It is smaller than last year, when Myers said the sale had about 30 head. A couple did not vet clean on X-ray and got pulled. Myers named three he likes: a Frenchmans Guy mare, Luckyz Hot Toddy and Buggin The Guys, a 2024 buckskin filly by Streakin Boon Dox out of Guyz One N Only by Frenchmans Guy. In the sale announcement he calls Luckyz Hot Toddy and Sassy Disarray his top picks.
Myers said the first year online surprised them. The horses sold well, it took fewer people on the place to show them and it cost less to put on.
“We X-ray all the horses and so we try to be as transparent on everything as we can.”
Myers on selling sight unseen. He said he talks to interested buyers on the phone and tells them everything about a horse.
“It’s hard to get people’s interest in a horse if they can’t really tell what the horse truly looks like.”
Myers on sale photos. He said the horse has to be sale fit and standing correctly, and named Jay George, Larry Larson, Sammy Johnson and Lane Tiltrum as the photographers the program has used.
Why Myers sells 2-year-olds
The first sale in 2000 was built on showing started 2-year-olds, and Myers said the program was basically one of the first to do it that way. He wants one loping a correct circle both directions on the correct lead, stopping smooth, backing, rolling back both ways and moving off a leg well enough to size the circle. Horses get at least three months of riding before they sell, and some this year have five or six months on them. Five went to Arizona to get started at 16 to 18 months. None of them get ridden hard that young.
“By the time we sell them, you should be able to go give them a job.”
Myers on what a 2-year-old should be able to do at the sale. He said it should gather cattle, track a lead steer or work the barrel pattern.
“We took the risk of getting them from that baby year to their two-year-old year for people.”
Myers on why the 2-year-old market caught on. He said buyers could go straight to the discipline they wanted and the horses won early because the basics were on them.
How Frenchmans Guy built the mare band
Frenchmans Guy, the 1987 palomino by Sun Frost out of Frenchmans Lady, had one eye. Myers said they rode him, Deb Myers ran barrels on him at what he called a pretty high level in that country, and they decided not to castrate him. Myers calls Bozo a three-quarter brother to him. Bozo, registered French Flash Hawk, was winning four WPRA world titles with Kristie Peterson over the same stretch, and Myers said that attention is what kicked off the popularity of the bloodline. Frenchmans Guy died in 2021 with progeny earnings past $20 million, per Myers Performance Horses. The mares Myers went after were race bred but built like using horses: balance, a big sloping shoulder, a short back with a good wither, a long hip, a low hock and straight legs.
“We thought, well, we better see if we can’t figure out another way for this horse to generate some income.”
Myers on what they did with a one-eyed stallion instead of gelding him. He said the horse threw beautiful babies from the start, before he ever got the best mares.
“Conformation is also tied to soundness. And if you have flaws in your conformation, your soundness deal is a lot harder to be consistent with.”
Myers on why he will not breed past a conformation fault. He said he would rather breed like kind to like kind than try to correct an extreme, and that he wants the whole crop to look the same.
Why Myers foals out in the pasture
Most of the mares foal outside at the Union Center place. Myers said pasture foals get sick less, the mares take care of them better and the hills and creeks teach them to travel from the first day. Yearlings get grain once a day at bunks and are otherwise left alone. Foals are weaned around Sept. 1 at 4 to 5 months old, and Brandon halter breaks them over about a week to 10 days, trims their feet and desensitizes them. After that they are not handled much again until they are 2.
“If they never get out of the living room, they don’t become very good athletes.”
Myers on what a horse raised in a pen misses. He said outside horses he has taken in that were raised that way were not safe to ride off flat ground.
What it costs to stand a stallion now
Myers said the first thing people underestimate is the cost, and that the incentives changed the math. He said a stallion needs about three years, long enough to ride that first crop as 2-year-olds, before the program knows what it has. He also weighs the stallion payback against what an incentive costs to enter.
“I think a lot of people think you got to be in everything, and I don’t think you do.”
Myers on picking incentives. He said to watch which futurities his clients enter and let that sort the list.
What Myers would tell somebody starting a program
Asked for one piece of advice on building a program that lasts, Myers went to patience first, then to raising the kind of horse you actually want rather than chasing whatever is popular. The third thing he named was the hardest one.
“Be extremely critical of your own horses. Don’t be afraid to cull your own horses.”
Myers on what separates a hobby from a living. He said a horse that does not market well and does not win at a high level will not make anybody a living.
The full sale catalog is at sale.frenchmansguy.com. Patreon members get the bonus episodes, including recent sit-downs with Tricia Aldridge and Tana Renick, at patreon.com/themoneybarrel, $5 a month, the cost of a single exhibition.
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