Mark Dreesen is the owner of J Bar J Rodeo, a renowned rodeo company that hauls some of rodeos finest stock across the country. He hails from Montana and has been in the rodeo world since he was just six years old. Dreesen grew up on a small ranch where his father was a horse trader but after watching the movie “The Great American Cowboy”, Dreesen knew what his goals in life were.
He rode bareback horses for years before he married his wife, Marlene, and bought his first string of bucking horse mares from Harlan Gunville in South Dakota. Dreesen met Jim and Maggie Zinser, who founded J Bar J Rodeo Company in 1969, through the Sutton family. He then purchased the rodeo company in 2008.
“It was at the NFR in 2007 when Jim told me he was going to sell it to me. He said ‘Sparky, I’m going to sell you J Bar J, so you better figure out how to pay for it’,” Dreesen said.
Dreesen ended up buying the horses in Zinser’s string that were four years old and up, horses that had already been going down the rodeo road. Cullen Pickett, with Pickett Pro Rodeo, bought any horses three years old and younger along with the mares and two studs, Hells Belles and Mr. J. Neither Dreesen nor Pickett purchased Night Jacket.
Night Jacket was sired by Big Timber and out of a mare called Nightmare. Night Jacket ended up bucking at the National Finals Rodeo seven times with J Bar J while the Zinser’s owned the company. They retired the paint stallion in 2007 and he is one of five horses that the Zinsers’ did not sell. Dreesen bought 74 horses when he purchased J Bar J and 26 were sons and daughters of Night Jacket. Of the 26 offspring, 25 of them went on to be NFR bucking horses.
In 2009, Pickett purchased Night Jacket for $250,000 at the age of 15 years old. The stud was born in Michigan at the Zinsers’ ranch.
“I have a picture, that Maggie sent me, of Night Jacket when he was just a few hours old. It is the coolest picture,” Dreesen said.
Dreesen says that the five colt crops that Pickett got out of Night Jacket show that same potential to be NFR caliber broncs as the horses that he purchased from the Zinsers. Pickett is now Dressen’s son in law and the entire family has supported Dreesen’s rodeo dream.
When Mark Dreesen got into raising bucking horses, his father told him to research and learn as much as he could about the process of raising racehorses. The characteristics that Dreesen was looking for in his stock, are the same that those in the race industry look for: performance, heart, and stability. Dreesen bought a book called “The X Factor” and read it multiple times. Dreesen says that it narrows down to the fact that raising horses goes back to the maternal side.
“Performance, I think whether you talk about bucking horses, race horses, cutting horses, I think there’s really three things in performance. There’s one, the genetics, there’s two, which is the way you take care of them, feed, the nutrition factor and then the third one is the management or how you manage their experiences so that you can get the most out of them,” Dreesen said.
The next cross that Dreesen was really excited about was Fringe Jacket, a horse that is by Lunatic Fringe and out of Big Valley, a mare that came from the Zinser’s string of mares by Night Jacket.
“That’s the next exciting cross, I would say. But it really looks like the Night Jacket mares are going to carry the traits on,” Dreesen said.
Dreesen says that the biggest impact of Night Jacket is the air that the horses are able to get along with their hang time. Night Jacket offspring give cowboys a chance to show off and earn their scores.
“The getting up off the ground, that’s the main thing, and staying close there. That’s what the guys enjoy, they can show out in either event and that’s what makes them come to your rodeo. You want your heard to be consistent of that kind of horse,” Pickett said.
Night Jacket’s offspring are full of pops of color, covered in chrome and they carry themselves as majestically as Night Jacket. They are the kind of horses that stand out in an arena.
Dressen narrowed down his best performing Night Jacket offspring and came up with Straight Jacket, Night Gazer of Pickket Pro Rodeo made his list as well.
Buying J Bar J put the Dreesen’s on the map. They have had years of people helping them become what they are today and their breeding is staying at the highest of standards, Dressen expects the future of rodeo to keep getting better.