Dr. Gregg Veneklasen got his start in 1983 thanks to a man named Dr. Glen Blodgett, a vet at the 6666 Ranch. It was a start that put Special Effort and Pie in the Sky in Veneklasen’s lap.
“There was a horse that won the Triple Crown again but I don’t bet there was a horse on the Earth that could outrun him ever,” Veneklasen said about Special Effort.
That same year Veneklasen started his first embryo transfer. It was not until 1990 that Veneklasen decided to go off on his own and he met Brenda Michael, Benny Binion’s daughter and her son-in-law, Clint Johnson. Together, they brought a new level of reproduction to the bucking horse world.
“We started with Franzens and Frontier Rodeo and they brought mares and away we went. You know, we kind of figured out, I wasn’t sure how we were going to do bucking horses but we figured out and it’s made me a much, much better horseman,” he said.
On top of bucking horse reproduction, Veneklasen specializes in cloning. It was around two decades ago when Veneklasen and a good friend, Jason Abraham, first got started in cloning with a business called ViaGen.
“It was new and it was unique and it was something for me that I would enjoy I know so I got involved with cloning. Our oldest clone right now is 21,” he said.
While Veneklasen’s start came with cutting and race horses, bringing in bucking horses from some of rodeo’s most elite stock contractors for reproduction and cloning has taught him so much.
“I’m lucky enough, I get the elite mares. That’s the magic,” Veneklasen said.
Horses like Powder River Rodeo’s Miss Congeniality and Frontier Rodeo’s Medicine Woman are just two of the horses that Veneklasen has had success with and the sky is the limit as he continues to progress the breeding of bucking horses.
