Hope Thompson and Sheza Gucciful won 4-&-Under breakaway at the Royal Crown in Oklahoma City with a 296.06 on three head to bank $8,500.
Sheza Gucciful, the 4-year-old roan mare Thompson calls “Gucci,” is by The Animal (out of DMAC Spoon Tango), the $260,000-winning cutting horse sire owned by Cindy Perez. Gucci won the short round with a 100.14 and finished the job in the average, doing it in just her third futurity appearance.
“It was a tough setup for the babies,” Thompson said. “I thought she handled it really good. That’s a pretty mature mare to be 4 years old and to have only ever been to a couple of futurities, not even any jackpots.”
Gucci’s first calf left hard left toward the fence, then hooked back down the pen. The run didn’t feel pretty, Thompson said, but the mare still scored well enough to put herself in the mix. Her second calf was tough, too, and by the short round, Thompson knew the best thing she could do was let Gucci be Gucci.
“That mare scores really, really good, and I think it’s one of her strong suits, to be 4 under that kind of pressure and stand there like she does,” Thompson said. “That calf was strong, and so my idea was just let her run in there and set it up, and then she finished the deal.”
For Thompson, Gucci’s biggest selling point is her mind. Not every 4-year-old will stand flat, stay focused and leave running without letting the box become a fight. Gucci has never made that part complicated.
“The ones that scores like she does, they just have it,” Thompson said. “You can’t teach that. She’s zoned in on the calf, and that’s the only explanation that I have for how she scores so well. That is definitely her best attribute.”
That trainability is exactly what Perez is hearing about The Animal’s colts across the board.
Thompson has two by The Animal in her barn for Perez—Gucci and The Savage, a 6-year-old she showed in 2025. They are different kinds of horses, but Thompson said the common thread is how willing they are.
“That’s one thing that I will say about the ones that I’ve ridden by The Animal is they are super trainable horses,” Thompson said.
Perez, who has owned “Animal” since he was a 5-year-old said she hears that from everybody riding them.
“I think his athleticism allows the versatility of his offspring to go anywhere you want them to go,” Perez said. “They seem to adapt and do whatever you ask them to do.”
That matters to Perez, because she has never wanted The Animal stuck in one lane. Even though he made his name in the cutting, Perez has pushed to see his colts in the cutting, cow horse, ranch riding and roping.
“I have always pushed for him to go into all disciplines,” Perez said. “I’ve had him at other stallion stations and they’re like, ‘No, you need to keep him here,’ or, ‘Just market for the cutting or cow horse.’ And I’m like, ‘I can’t do that. That’s not what’s in his best interest. His best interest is to have offspring in all the disciplines.’”
Gucci’s win makes that point for her.
Perez bought the mare sight unseen from breeder Kathy Reisman and sent her to Thompson. When the hauler picked Gucci up, he called Perez and told her the mare’s feet were turned in and that she “just didn’t look right.”
Perez told him to bring her anyway.
“I was like, ‘It’s OK. Just bring her. She might be fine. We don’t know,’” Perez said.
Once Gucci got to Thompson, they x-rayed her, worked with a farrier and gave the mare time. She x-rayed clean, and instead of writing her off, they let her come along.
“We just didn’t give up on her,” Perez said. “I think people give up on horses sometimes too easily.”
Thompson got Gucci as a coming 3-year-old, and because Thompson was rodeoing, Kelsey Love and Jade Mitchell both helped keep the mare ridden and tracking calves. When Thompson got home, she brought Gucci into her program slowly, starting her more on the team roping side before moving her to the calf side in the fall.
“She’s not a very big horse,” Thompson said. “It’s more slow pace and just kind of get some routine under her. And then I knew she had a chance.”
Since then, Gucci has made every short round at every futurity she has been entered in. She placed at her first one in February, made the short round at the Old West and Gold Buckle, then finished the job in Oklahoma City.
For Perez, Gucci is proof that patience still matters. For Thompson, she is a young mare with a rare mind and enough try to handle pressure before she has many runs behind her.
And for The Animal, Gucci is another one proving his colts do not have to stay in the cutting pen to win.
