A Certain League of Men

Without a doubt, Jane Backes possesses a certain brilliance for breeding. Time and time again the exceptional bloodlines of Backes’ program have carried proven history into promising futures for long lasting showing and breeding careers of many horses.

“My breeding aspiration is to improve the individual foal and not just reproduce it,” she says. “I coined the phrase, ‘The Magic is in the Mare,’ which is the backbone of my breeding belief. I believe the mare passes on at least 65% of the foal’s attributes. I look back on the first two to three generations of a maternal line when picking a broodmare. By using this method I have raised AQHA Reserve World Champions, Congress Champions, multiple World and Congress Top Ten finishers, NSBA World and Reserve World Champions, AQHA Honor Roll Top Ten finishers, multiple Superior award winners, and two Justin Rookie of the Year horses.”

Backes started showing horses as a youth, qualifying for the Youth World three times in Halter, Showmanship, and Western Riding–all on the same horse. “This has instilled a goal of producing an all-around horse in my breeding program,” she says.

Backes continued to ride and show until her parents mentioned that it might be time to consider college. She recalls, “It was that time in my life, so off I went to Southern Methodist University. I missed not having horses in my life, so I started the first SMU Polo team, and I played all four years of school.”

Nowadays, Backes’ husband, Leon, and son, Blake, may not share the same level of interest in horses, but they’re still very supportive of what it takes to run a top-notch breeding program on their 34-acre ranch in Tioga, Texas. Besides the magic in her broodmares, Backes, along with Kim Dean, stand Good Machinery (A Good Machine x Vested Miss Buckeye) an AQHA Champion, NSBA BCF Maturity Champion, and Superior Western Pleasure Horse that has been on the AQHA Honor Roll three times and earned his ROM in Performance Halter.