Sonic Thunder: From Rodeo to Royal Shows

Not many Quarter Horses are spotted in the show ring, but Sonic Thunder is a steed that can do it all. The striking red roan has excelled as a junior barrel racing prospect and is now excelling at the highest levels at shows across the east coast of Australia.

Not many Quarter Horses are spotted in the show ring, but Sonic Thunder is a steed that can do it all. The striking red roan has excelled as a junior barrel racing prospect and is now excelling at the highest levels at shows across the east coast of Australia.

Now trained and ridden by Goulburn’s Louise Slater, Sonic Thunder, known as Biggs at home around the stable, started his riding career in the rodeo arena as a juniors horse. Louise says he is a “square peg in a round hole” in the showing world, but that isn’t stopping the duo from notching up performances across Queensland and New South Wales in showing.

“His professional beginnings were at age two by trainer Harvey Wakefield,” Louise tells Horse Deals. “He lives near Charters Towers in North Queensland and specialises in campdraft and challenge horses. I thank Harvey for giving Biggs his solid foundations. Biggs went on to be a junior girls’ barrel racing horse. The girl riding him at the time, Mackenzie, was only seven or eight when she started with him. She was riding him in barrel races and small jackpots around North Qld. Another older girl took him on and did breakaway roping & barrels. He took his junior riders to the pay window many times.

Louise says Biggs was bred by Glynn Brodie of North Queensland, who breeds Quarter Horses. She says he is very well-bred as a sprint-bred Quarter Horse. “Marble Hill Thunder Sonic is his dad, and his mum is Doc ‘N’ Candy, Louise says. “His dad’s sire is out of Thundering Jet, who was a very popular sire used for Sprint Racing. And his dads dam is Petite La Femme. So he is very well-bred as a performance horse.”

The versatile gelding is 15.2hh and has always turned heads in the rodeo arena and now the show ring. Louise says Biggs campaigned over North Queensland while competing with junior riders. “I know the family that had him,” she said. They said the ‘roan horse was in the paddock. Do you want him? He is just not going to make a competitive open rodeo horse?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t.’ I had just bought myself a nice type, a Stock Horse mare, so I didn’t need another horse. They said he was sitting there wasting. I said, ‘Ok, well, maybe I can grab him as a babysitter for my horse’.”

It took a while before Louise got Biggs under saddle, moving from being a babysitter to her main riding horse. “Twelve to eighteen months later, I sold the Stock Horse mare and kept Biggs,” Louise says. “At that time, I changed his name from Mr Bigglesworth’s to Biggs. It was just a bit of a mouthful.” Biggs’ transition to the show ring was a fairly smooth endeavour, despite Louise wondering how it might go and how soft he would be in the mouth.

“He didn’t know how to walk. I think that’s a rodeo thing,” she says. “I didn’t know if he would have a mouth as he had been ridden in shanks and a tie-down, but it’s perfect. In either in a snaffle of double.”

The well-bred horse has a steady temperament and took to his new career with gusto. “His nature is very kind,” Louise explains. “He’s got very good intuition, and because he is a bred workhorse, all he wants to do is work, then get tied up. If you ask him to do it, he will. He won’t put his ears back. He is extremely obliging and very trainable. You ask him once; he might not get it, but he will the second or third time. There is never any resistance.”

Biggs’ first show was a success, a sign of things to come. “It was at Hughenden, 400 km west of Townsville,” Louise says. He won his novice class, and in his second year at the same show, he got Champion Hack. So, in 12 months and a limited number of shows, he went from winning a Novice class to Champion Ridden Hack and Supreme Led Horse of the show.”

The duo have also tackled higher-level events. “Our first bigger show was North Qld Horse of the Year in Mackay, which is a Grand National qualifier. That was in his second year of showing, 2022. He qualified in the Child’s Hunter and qualified me in the Rider over 30,” Louise says. He has also been sashed Supreme Hack at multiple shows.”

At the 2023 Grand National Horse of the Year show, Biggs had his first-ever classes in an indoor arena. “He had never been indoors, so he was a little bewildered by the experience, a bit unsure,” Louise says. “We were just happy to be there. Whatever place we get, we are always just happy to get it because we are putting a round peg in a square hole.”

In late 2022, Louise moved to Goulburn from Queensland and, from there, competed in their first royal show. “At Canberra Royal Show 2023, we placed in the Novice & Open Lady Rider classes.” “Then we went to the Roan National Show in Sydney, where he won the Supreme Led and Ridden Roan. Then we went to Tamworth for the New South Wales Country Hack Championships, a Grand National qualifier. He was Runner-up Preliminary Show Hunter, top five in the Child’s Show Hunter class, and he took me and a child rider to top 10 riders in our respective classes. He was just fabulous.”

Biggs happily goes around the ring with an adult or child rider. “There is no qualms to put a child rider on. We went to Canberra Royal this year and I placed in my lady Rider and was third in the Novice Hunter 15 -15.2.” Louise says Biggs has “quite a following” now in the ring, with people often wondering about his history and his transformation into a show horse. “He draws people in. They want to know his story. He has quite an engaging presence. I’m happy to tell it to people.”

“He has a few little quirks. He windsucks. Hates putting a skinny hood on. And you have to set him up; I won’t go to shows without earplugs. I avoid fireworks if I can; it will unsettle him. I think that all comes back from clapping and loud music at rodeos. “Every ride, I still treat him as if he doesn’t know how to do something, just to make sure there are no mistakes. If I get a ribbon at a royal, I am stoked. Some judges see his colour, and they turn around and don’t acknowledge him because he’s not traditional. The colour is a good thing; it makes him stand out - there are a few different coloured horses going around in the show ring at the moment & receiving placings at the bigger events.”

She says Biggs is an easygoing horse. “He prefers a paddock over a stable. The maintenance level on him is zero; he doesn’t wear shoes. He was bred to work and be reliable,” Louise says. “He’s very easy, so life with him is very easy. “At Canberra, he had a 10-minute warm-up. He doesn’t need hours going around on the lunge or being ridden. You aren’t working down energy.”

Louise’s love for Biggs is evident - he has become a huge part of her life. “If I had my time again, I would absolutely start a Quarter Horse and do it all again,” she says. “I call him my dreamboat.”

Article: Rachael Houlihan

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