Frenchmans Guy

Over the past three decades, there has been one constant among the fastest horses in rodeo, roping and show arenas.

Frenchmans Guy.

“When we first went to riding him, we could tell he was something special,” says Bill Myers of St. Onge, South Dakota, who with wife Debbie bought “Guy” as a weanling. “He was smart, a great mover and a great athlete. There was something extra there that you just didn’t find in every horse.”

Bred by James and Frances Loiseau of Flandreau, South Dakota, Frenchmans Guy now joins his sire, Sun Frost, in the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.

Foaled June 15, 1987, the palomino colt was out of the Laughing Boy mare Frenchman’s Lady, whose dam is Hall of Fame member Casey’s Ladylove; Frenchman’s Lady is a half-sister to the dam of French Flash Hawk – “Bozo,” Kristie Peterson’s five-time AQHA-Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association-Women’s Professional Rodeo Association barrel horse of the year. Frenchmans Guy traces top and bottom to Hall of Famer Lightning Bar, who sired Frenchman’s Lady’s sire, Laughing Boy, and also Sun Frost’s legendary grandsire Doc Bar.

“We had brothers and sisters to him that had been really good horses,” Bill says. “We really liked the foals out of his dam. We had owned several and ridden others, so we were buying him partly off his pedigree. But he was a really attractive colt, balanced and good looking. He looked the part.”

Frenchmans Guy went on to sire 1,975 American Quarter Horses that have earned more than $15 million and more than 2,560 AQHA points, mostly – but a long way from solely – in barrel racing.

Many of his competitors ran before the implementation of today’s documentation and formal recordkeeping systems such as QData and EquiStat, but they have shown brightly in working cow horse, team roping, tie-down roping and pole bending, and scored titles in futurities and derbies across the nation and several foreign countries.

The South Dakota Quarter Horse Association Legacy Horse in 2022 and the Casey Tibbs Foundation Rodeo Animal Athlete of 2018, Frenchmans Guy is represented by nine horses sporting nearly a dozen (and counting) AQHA world and reserve world championships. The stallion also sired American Paint Horse Association and Palomino Horse Breeders of America champions, numerous PRCA and WPRA champions, PRCA barrel horse of the year French First Watch, and National Finals Rodeo qualifiers that include Morning Traffic, with more than $482,000 in lifetime earnings; Teasin Dat Guy, $426,000+; and Bring It On Guys, $323,000+. Frenchmans Guy’s get include champion steer wrestling horse French Wonder, aka “Ote”; Guyz Girls R Tough, a National Western steer wrestling champion; and Guys Best Effort, ridden by PRCA world champion steer wrestlers Tyler Waguespack and Tyler Pearson. And the list goes on and on and on…

It’s progeny records that put great sires and dams in the Hall of Fame. It was an accident as a yearling, which cost the colt his right eye, that put Frenchmans Guy on his path to the Hall.

“We were so discouraged over that, we turned him out for two years on a friend’s ranch south of Rapid City,” Bill says. “After he lost that eye, we thought we’d try to keep him a stallion and make him a riding horse. It wound up being a blessing because we probably would have sold him as a high-priced gelding if he had not lost that eye.”

So the Myerses saddled Guy and went to work.

“It was amazing how easy it was to train him,” Bill says. “It was really impressive how he responded to us. Even blind on one side, he carried his head real straight, he was light-sided and very responsive.”

Bill trained Guy for barrels and ran him in futurities as a 5-year-old. Debbie then took the reins in amateur and pro rodeos, where they excelled.

“Bill always told me I had to protect him on the blind side because he was depending on us,” Debbie says. “I tried to do right by him every time. When you sat down and said, ‘Whoa’ going to the first barrel, you’d better be where you wanted to be for that right turn. I think he always had such a great first barrel because he wanted to get it over with so he could see the others.”

In the meantime, Guy was catching sight at rodeos. Stepping up from a $300 breeding fee and six Quarter Horse foals in 1991, the young stallion was on his way.

“Guy has shaped history for so many kids and families,” says Kristie Peterson, who rose to fame with Bozo. “His strong genetics will last forever in the American Quarter Horse world.”

Frenchmans Guy died August 15, 2021.

“He was a really neat horse,” Bill says. “He was so intelligent and had a presence about him that very few horses ever have. He knew he was important, he knew he was special. We are so blessed to have had him with us.”

The American Quarter Horse world agrees. And on it goes: The sons and daughters of Frenchmans Guy have themselves sired and produced progeny that – so far – have earned more than $20 million, continuing on as the fastest horses in rodeo, roping and show arenas.

Frenchmans Guy was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2024.

Biography updated as of July 2024.