^h Lightning Bend Ranch is a family owned operation located in Bowie, TX. Gary “Roach” Hedeman, his wife Cindy, and daughter Katie strive to improve the ranch in all areas. The ranch motto is quality vs. quantity.

Roach’s background includes experience in the racehorse breeding industry, cattle ranching, and 25 years experience in the professional bull riding and bull fighting business. He drew from all of these areas to build his born to buck breeding program.

Lightning Bend Breeding program was born in 1990 with the offspring of Mack Altizer’s 5-time NFR bull 0 Big Bend Coors. Lightning Bend Breeding’s cows are daughters of the prolific Big Bend Coors, who has 90% success rate. These cows were crossed with Stiener Rodeo Company’s 1978 PRCA Bull of the Year #11 Red Lightning. Those two great bulls were the foundation of a new breeding program with some of the highest percentages in the business. Other sires including Vela’s NFR bull 242 Bad to the Bone, NFR bull Skoal’s Drifter, George Haynes’ Bucking Bulls, ^20, a son of Red Lightning, ^h Lightning Bend Ranch’s 7X, Mr. Walter, and Berger’s #40, son of Moody Blues have strengthened the success of this program.

In the short history of this program Lightning Bend Ranch has a success rate over 80%. Successful offspring include: CBR Bull of the Year & 2006 PRCA Bull of the Year H03 Biloxi Blues, NFR and 2 time PBR Finals bull h34 “Jump” and Top 10 Finalist Gold Standard Futurity, Glenrose Futurity, and PBR Finalist 2005, “Marshmallow Bend”. Three of the top ten bulls at the 2005 ABBI Futurity were direct descendents of Big Bend Coors. Lightning Bend heifers purchased by other breeding programs have produced successful “buckers” as well.