Adios to the Records: The Palomino Powerhouse Racks Yet Another Record

There's not only a new highest money earning futurity stallion in the house, but he's now the horse with the all-time highest futurity earnings in history.

Tricia and Adios at the 2024 Young Guns League in Guthrie, OK / Lexi Smith Media/Photo Courtesy of Tricia Aldridge

Barrel racers around the world have watched the journey of Tricia Aldridge and Adios Pantalones, the phenomenal four-year-old Tres Seis son out of French Bar Belle by Frenchmans Guy. Aldridge has a very successful blog on Facebook through her business page, Red Hot Barrel Horses, with 77,000 followers and the stallion himself has 31,000 followers on his page. But their social media stardom isn't just flash - both Aldridge and Adios earned their fame. We were able to chat about this duo's very special, and historical, career so far.

Making Adios

When Aldridge purchased "Adios" as a weanling, she had big plans. If there's one thing about Aldridge, it's that she is always very clear about her intentions. From the very beginning, she intended to set Adios up for success.

"I wanted to make sure he was raised how I wanted him to be raised. I kicked him out with all my mares and worked really hard to socialize him and make sure he had the best start. I sent him to Rodney (Yost). It was so easy to take him with me, he got quite a bit of hauling on accident. He's always been so easy with everything, he feels the exact same today as he did the first time he loped through the pattern," Aldridge explained.

Aldridge has another stallion, Streakin Lil Wayne, so she was aware of what stallion ownership entailed, "Another stallion is so much work and promotion and the time spent to get a stallion to this level. When he was a two and three-year-old, I never skipped one day. I absolutely did everything in my power to make sure he is what he is."

Futurity Career

Aldridge is very vocal about her goals - no matter how outlandish the internet thinks she is. For the record, I think she's a woman who knows exactly what she and her horses are capable of doing. Her first goal this year was to win $300,000, which would secure Adios' name in the record books as the highest futurity earning stallion. Adios broke that record in June. Aldridge likes to think big, so she thought, "Why not double our goal?"

Aldridge told us, "Speaking those wild, crazy goals out there, it just gives you so much confidence to keep pushing and believing in yourself when you see it start coming together. It takes a lot of hard work to get there, but you can never get there if you don't know where you want to go. Thinking about it every day and taking steps to get you to that point."

With fourteen Champion or Reserve Champion futurity titles and nine more top-five placings, that intentional focus has clearly paid off. Adios started with a bang at the Barrel Futurities of America $uper$takes in 2023, earning the Reserve Championship and a top-three finish in the Juvenile.

In 2024, the duo's runs at BFA officially earned them the title of All-Time Leading Futurity Horse. After this past weekend, his futurity only earnings are $458,000 and his total lifetime earnings are $525,000.

Sharing the Journey on Social Media

With Aldridge's familiarity of social media, she knew what she would be getting into by sharing it all. At the end of the day, she knew Adios was worth the risk, "Sharing everything on social media is really risky as a stallion owner. I shared everything and people really got to know him. He came out swinging and never really looked back. People got to follow the story and feel like they were part of the story. He has a fan club, so it's really cool to see that."

"He is hilarious and has a great personality to share. He's such a happy horse. He loves his job. I hauled him with mares all year, he did a full breeding season this year. He's so smart about everything, he's super aware and he knows what his job when we get to a show," Aldridge said of her special stallion.

As for the Future...

Aldridge and Adios are not done just yet. And we can't wait to see what they do next.

"I'm super proud of the year we've had, but I can't imagine retiring him. He's so involved in everything and loves life and traveling, so I can't imagine him living at a breeding farm for the rest of his life. I think we're going to do the derbies, but also try to get into some rodeos and see what we can make happen," Aldridge said.