The barrel horse world is full of fast horses, gritty competitors, and big moments under pressure.

For a long time, it felt like a game of who could spend the most on the fastest horse.

But that’s shifted.

The real pull now, the thing that feels the most fulfilling and the hardest to achieve, is building those horses and building more than just one.

What really feels special today isn’t just a great horse. It’s a program that lasts. A program that produces winners, over and over again.

And the reality is, there are no shortcuts to that.

Programs like that are built over time, with extreme intentionality. Care. Patience. Hard decisions. Long nights. Early mornings. A willingness to stay teachable and keep asking questions.

If you know Britta Strain, or even catch her for just a few minutes, you quickly realize she is built for that kind of work. 

Where It Started

You might know Britta for what she does in the arena, both on the barrel racing side and the breakaway roping side. But behind the scenes, she is hard at work building something just as impressive: a breeding program built around intentional decisions and incredible mares.

The starting point was an inspiration from Alan Woodbury.

Alan Woodbury, a breeder out of Dickinson, North Dakota, has built one of the most talented, mare-based programs in the barrel horse world. Not just producing good horses, but consistently producing the kind of mares that go on to shape the future, again and again.

That approach stuck with Britta.

“I think what inspired me to get into the breeding side in the first place is the guy (Alan Woodbury)  from whom we bought all the mares,” Britta said. "You look at his breeding program and he's had generational success. He didn't just breed to the hot stud here or there. He's had success for years and years, and not just in barrel racing. Success across all events."

Her flagship mares came from that program: Frrench Vanila Sky, by Frenchman’s Guy and out of Rosas Cantina CC, and Golden Cloud, by Dash Ta Fame and out of Rosas Cantina CC.

Rosas Cantina CC herself is legendary, a seven-time NFR barrel racing qualifier with lifetime earnings exceeding $650,000. There is always a long list of Woodbury-bred horses making headlines, and for Britta, that kind of consistency is the point.

It all comes back to the maternal line.

“Mares literally carry more maternal DNA, weight-wise,” Britta explained. “And being able to know that on a mitochondrial level, and based on everything I did in school, a lot of it came from what I was studying. It was a new way for me to combine both worlds.”

While nuclear DNA is inherited 50/50 from both parents, mitochondrial DNA is inherited almost exclusively from the mother. That maternal line carries more weight than most people realize, and it is exactly the kind of detail Britta has built her program around.

That is the thing about Britta. She asks questions. She listens. She researches. She adjusts.

She came into the horse world with a willingness to learn, and she still carries that mindset.

“Just ask everybody questions,” she said. “Even if you think you know the answer, ask them. They may have a totally different way of going about it than you ever thought.”

That willingness to keep learning is shaping the way she builds her program now.

Her offspring lineup reflects that - Golden Cloud crosses that would stop any barrel racing fan in their tracks.

Her 2024 crop includes an Epic Leader filly, a Winners Version filly already standing 15.3 at the hip, and a Blazin Jetolena stallion.

Her 2025 crop adds a Tres Seis filly, and her 2026 crop includes a dream - a Slick By Design stallion.

Looking ahead to 2027, she has a recipient mare that has already been confirmed in foal to The Goodbye Lane out of Golden Cloud.

Talk about a dream lineup.

“I’m about to have everything I’ve ever wanted in terms of what I’m bringing up,” Britta said. “Those are the horses I want to focus on.”

Managing Both Sides

Breeding on its own is a full-time job.

Add in rodeos, jackpots, hauling, young horses, mares, babies, and the daily work of keeping everything going, and it becomes something else entirely.

It takes structure. Systems. Attention to detail.

“I have to be here during breeding season,” Britta said. “You never know what day something’s going to happen.”

That reality led to one of the biggest decisions she has made this year: stepping back from some of the rodeo road.

Not because she had to, but because she wants to build this the right way.

“I need my place to be fully functioning and my systems to be in place for when I leave,” she explained.

It is not the flashy decision.

But it is the one that builds something that lasts.

Britta is more laser-focused than ever on her goals. She made the NFR Open for this summer, plans to stay close to home and hit some circuit rodeos, and knows that if she can put herself in the right position this year, she can step into next year with a rock solid foundation.

That is what makes this season so important. It is not time off. It is build time.

Timing, Demands, and the Reality of Breeding

Breeding and competing both ask a lot of a horse.

Trying to push both at the same time does not always equal success, especially when you are asking mares to perform at a high level and also reproduce.

“It’s a whole other job,” Britta said. “They have their one job with competing, but it’s a completely different job when you go to ask them to make babies. That is a huge biological function.”

That is why preparation starts early in her program.

“As soon as they’re under lights, everything starts to shift,” she explained. “I increase fat a ton, all omega-3s. Omega-3s are a way better fat than omega-6s. I increase that probably about three months out, which is when you start putting them under lights.”

For Britta, that is not random. It is science meeting real-world management.

“Embryos are normally about 25% lipid, so increasing fat is huge for these horses,” she said. “It’s the same as an Olympic runner who usually can’t get pregnant when their body doesn’t have enough to give.”

That perspective shapes everything.

Nutrition is adjusted ahead of time. Demands are balanced. The system is supported before more is asked of it.

Because if the foundation is not there, the rest does not follow.

Golden Cloud: Recovery and Perspective

Golden Cloud is a cornerstone of Britta’s program.

She is also a true miracle story.

After battling EHV, the same outbreak that took the life of Britta’s incredible breakaway mare Eleanor, Golden Cloud’s recovery became top priority. 

Britta does not sugarcoat how hard that season was.

“I honestly don’t think Golden would be where she is had I not lost my other mare,” she said. “When we put that mare down at three in the morning, we didn’t even know EHV was a thing at the time. I walked outside and happened to notice her toes dragging. Had I not lost that other mare and known what was coming, I wouldn’t have gotten Golden to the vet that fast.”

Golden was hauled eight hours to Louisiana to get care.

And then the rebuilding began.

“When we did the necropsy on the mare that died, she had strokes all the way from her brain down her entire spinal cord,” Britta explained. “So you have to think about the fact that they’re literally losing neural capability. They have to rebuild neural pathways.”

With Golden Cloud, every step of recovery has been meticulous. Which, if you know Britta, is exactly what you would expect.

She painted ground poles white and yellow because horses can see those colors more clearly. She used them for side passing, trotting through, and rebuilding awareness and coordination one step at a time.

“If you want to rebuild neural pathways and then go ask them to run at top speed, you have to build up to that,” Britta said. “When I send her in there and actually go to ask her to run in the future, I better make sure she’s in shape, because otherwise she’ll get hurt.”

It is a reminder that recovery is not just rest.

It is rebuilding the system the right way, so the horse has the opportunity to come back with confidence.

And Golden is doing just that.

“She’s doing phenomenal,” Britta said. “I actually ran her at the Rodeo Austin qualifier, just cruised her through. She’s doing awesome.”

How You Do the Small Things is How You Do Everything

If there is one word that defines Britta’s program, it is intentional.

Everything has a reason.

From how she hauls, to how she feeds, to how she develops young horses, nothing is just thrown together.

On the road, she now hauls with water in front of her horses, something she says she did not always do. She gets them off the trailer more often, usually about every four hours, and wants their heads down so they can clear out after hauling.

“I want them eating something off the ground, whether it’s hay on the concrete or whatever, so they can drain out all that mucus they accumulate in the trailer,” she said. “They need to be able to get their head down to do that.”

That same thinking carries into her young horses.

Every time she gets home with the trailer, every baby gets loaded and driven a lap around the barn.

“I have never had a loading issue,” she said. “It saves you, because when you need to go somewhere, they hop right in.”

Routine is not accidental. It is built.

“Nutrition is all of it,” Britta said.

That’s also what makes her selective when it comes to supplements.

Because one of the biggest issues is simple. Horses don’t always eat them. They end up sitting at the bottom of the bucket, and if they’re not getting consumed, they’re not doing anything.

“But they eat the Four Sixes products,” Britta said. “They eat all of it. It’s alfalfa-based and I think it actually tastes good to them. And the main thing I love is the probiotics and gut health support. That is huge. Keeping their gut and digestion right is critical.”

That consistency matters, especially when she’s on the road or managing multiple horses at once.

Her program includes Complete Gut Protection and Joint Health Pellets, staples she keeps horses on when she leaves town so nothing falls off when the schedule picks up.

On the joint side, she’s seen the difference firsthand.

“I have a mare that I took shoes off of who was pretty much done,” she said. “I’ve been feeding her the joint supplement ever since I started with you all, so she’s been on it about six months now, and she is sound.”

For Britta, it comes back to a science-backed approach and whether something actually fits into the program.

Because if it doesn’t get eaten, it doesn’t matter how good it looks on paper.

Building a Program That Lasts

Britta’s goal is not just to win on her own horses.

It is to build horses other people can win on too.

“I want to breed horses for other people to win on,” she said. “That is how you know you’ve built something. When you’re winning on them and other people are winning on them, and they’re user-friendly but also fast enough to handle the level of competition we have today, that is when I’ll feel like I’ve really accomplished something on the breeding side.”

Not one cross. Not one horse. Not one win.
It is the decisions made every day. The willingness to stay teachable. The discipline to stay consistent. The patience to build something the right way.

And standing in her barn now, looking at the mares, the babies, and what is coming next, Britta knows she is close.

“I’m about to have everything I’ve ever wanted.”

And she is building it to last.

Listen to the full conversation with Britta below!