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Dee Dee halter-breaking a
Birdtail Ranch foal as a teenager.

Dee Dee Rains

Dee Dee Rains, the youngest daughter of Doug and Nancy Dear, operates the Birdtail Ranch Quarter Horse operation. She remains dedicated to producing horses that have correct conformation, sweet dispositions, working attitudes and all-around capability.

Dee Dee is the proud mother of two grown sons, Traver and Matt. In addition to running the ranch, Dee Dee teaches foreign languages at Simms High School. She also serves as a local 4-H leader helping area youth learn the value of horses, proper horsemanship and how to get to the winner’s circle.

Dee Dee’s story follows.

Dee Dee, born in 1951, lived out on the Birdtail for one year. At that time, Doug and Nancy decided to purchase 100 acres near Simms so that their older daughter, Barbara, could attend school more easily. Dee Dee has lived on the irrigated land near Simms since, except for 4 years in Ft. Collins, Colorado, following her marriage to Lennard Rains.
Dee Dee competed in barrel racing from the age of 8. One of her barrel horses, Red, liked to run-off rather than around the barrels. He was her first horse and he had lots of speed, but not the mind to be really tough. Then Dee Dee trained Dear's Matinee. Matinee was a daughter of Bear Cat and out of Little Dixie Beach. She was a tall, long bay mare that could really run and turn. Dee Dee's biggest win on Matinee was at the Calgary Stampede when Dee Dee was 10. One of the Dear's good friends was sitting in the grandstand when Dee Dee won. The people sitting nearby refused to believe Dee Dee's age. They said, "She can't be 10, she must be a midget!" Dee Dee kept pinching herself all the way home, too, not really believing she had beaten so many "toughs."

At 10, Dee Dee also joined 4-H and since all-around horses have always been and will always be the basis of the Birdtail breeding program, showing horses seemed to make more sense than rodeoing. You could not make a rodeo cowboy buy a weanling for anything, whereas 4-H kids in those days had to purchase a weanling for their
project. Therefore, between the ages of 11 and 15, Dee Dee competed mostly in Quarter Horse, 4-H and Open horse shows. The trophy room at the Birdtail is a direct result of these concentrated years of competition. The south and west walls are lined with
All-Around AQHA Youth trophies. Many of these trophies were won on the great mares Dear's Lady Dell and Dear's Charm Bar. Lady Dell was out of a Bear Cat mare and by Poco Dell. Charm was by Classy Bar and out of the same Bear Cat mare. Dee Dee took these mares in the 4-H yearling to maturity project and was extremely proud that no one but her ever rode the mares. They did every event imaginable. They both started in the pleasures, but ended their years pole bending, breakaway roping, reining and cutting. Dee Dee and Charm were the AQHA Honor Role Youth Cutting Horse winners one year - that was for the nation!

Dee Dee pictured with her father, Doug Dear

Dee Dee pictured with a Birdtail mare and her foal

At 15, Dee Dee wanted to High School Rodeo as well as show horses, so the van and trailer hit the road constantly. Nancy drove and chaperoned and Doug stayed home and kept the ranch running while Dee Dee won saddles and numerous All-Around Cowgirl titles. She roped and ran barrels and poles on a horse named Diamond Bear by Bear Cat and out of NR Chipper. He was an extremely talented horse in all three events. Charm Bar won breakaway and pole bending event when Diamond retired. Dee Dee's barrel horse her last year in High School was Classy Jilleena, the mare who would go on in College Rodeos to turn many heads. She was by Classy Bar and out of Miss Gillette, Barbara's great barrel mare.

Dee Dee had quite a dilemma deciding where to attend college. At that time, MSU had a fine rodeo team, but their Foreign Language and Music programs were not really strong. U of M, of course, had no cowboys at the time! Being a good student was always a top priority to Dee Dee, so she and her mom took off driving and looking at colleges out of state. She arrived at the campus Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Colorado, and fell in love with the location and the opportunities.

She joined the rodeo team by spring of her freshman year and by sophomore year was the All around Cowgirl for the Rocky Mountain Region. She wowed fans with her runs on Jilleena. She and her pal Vicki Janik roped on Classy Angelita. She was so fast out of the box that the girls made t-shirts that said, "All ya gotta do is catch." If the girls could get the loop over the calf’s head, they won because "Blackie”, as she was affectionately called, put them in position to catch with two swings. Blackie was by Classy Bar and out of Little Dixie Beach. Jilleena and Blackie turned the heads of many a cowboy, including Dee Dee's husband-to-be, Lennard. He always said, "I married Dee Dee because of those 2 mares!" Lennard did steer wrestling off Blackie and the same thing happened. She was so fast out of the box; she made cowboys out of the guys who rode her.

In 1971, Dee Dee ran for Miss Rodeo Montana riding Jay Page, the beautiful buckskin stallion seen in some of the Birdtail pedigrees. She was successful and champion rodeoed in Montana for a year. She sang the National Anthem at every rodeo she attended and usually placed in the barrel racing on Jilleena, too. She was the first State Rodeo Queen to actively participate in pro-rodeo during her reign. She went on to be First Runner-up at the Miss Rodeo America pageant and won the Personality division. She gave her trophy to her sorority for safe-keeping. There probably are not a lot of sorority houses with a MRA trophy on their mantel!

Even though Dee Dee spent many hours in the saddle during college, she also was involved in many campus activities. As in High School, being a leader and serving were as important as academics and a social life. Dee Dee pledged into the Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority where she lived and became friends with girls from all over the USA. Bobbie Barth and Patti Erdle were her pledge daughters and lifelong friends. Dee Dee was inducted into Alpha Lambda Delta, Spurs, Mortar Board, Phi Sigma Iota and Phi Kappa Phi. She was also elected to CSU student government. She majored in French with a minor in Spanish after an attempt at being a music major. She found that sitting for 4 hours a day at a piano bench just was more than her social life could take. Between music theory, piano practice and voice practice, there just was too little time for jitterbugging at the Silverado, Ft. Collins' cowboy 3.2 place. It was at the Silverado where she first danced with Lennard. A blind date gone sour resulted in being escorted home by Lennard instead; Lennard and Dee Dee danced their way to marriage in 1973.

Dee Dee, Miss Rodeo Montana, pictured with Jay Page

Upon graduation from CSU in March of 1973, an opportunity for employment arose in the Animal Science Department. Dee Dee was offered a teaching position at the University, but not in her major! Dee Dee became the head riding instructor and taught some Light Horse Management classes as well. The biggest challenge was teaching Packing and Outfitting. She thought she had done it all with a horse, but tying diamond hitches and mantying bundles was a new aspect of horsemanship. After a pack trip into the Rockies and excellent coaching by John Keene, she finally became a respectable packing instructor. At this point in her life entered her all-time favorite mentor, Dr. Larry Slade. Dr. Slade saw her through her Master's degree in Animal Science. Which was such a challenge since all her undergraduate work was in the Humanities. Dee Dee failed her Master's oral exam the first attempt and was devastated. She named a foal Master Fox (Out of Classy Angelita and Two Eyed Fox) just so she would look at him everyday and know she had to go back and conquer the exam. The stimulus worked - the second time at the table and the Masters degree was hers.

Dee Dee pictured with her Champion Barrel Racing Mare, Classy Jilleena

Birth was given to son Traver in 1977. Dee Dee's most famous barrel horse was also trained and sold. Classy Kimero by Classy Bar and out of Bert's Lady was trained and then sold to Karen Abercrombie who qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in Barrel Racing. That was the down payment on 5 acres and a house just north of Ft. Collins. Yeah! Anything was better than the 35 x 8 foot trailer with a hole in the living room floor which served as Lennard's spittoon.

In 1977, Lennard decided to make a run for the National Finals Rodeo. Dee Dee was
starting over with a young barrel horse, but Lennard ended up Runner-Up for Rookie of the Year in the PRCA. The Rains family decided at this point to return to Montana to help run the horses and cows. Matthew was born in 1980.

Dee Dee became mother, wife, ranch hand, trainer and school teacher; although the trainer identity diminished as the other occupations became more demanding. Agriculture became less lucrative, thus teaching paid the bills. Lennard became an AQHA judge, quit rodeoing, and started training horses. The Rains had numerous young interns whose lives were hopefully affected in a positive learning environment.

For Dee Dee, a priority was her children and her time and effort paid off. Son Traver is a graduate of Southern Methodist University in economics, now currently running his own photography and fashion design business in California. Son Matthew, is a West Point graduate in Systems Engineering and is retired from the Army where he flew Black Hawk Helicopters. Dee Dee became active in her United Methodist Church playing music, serving as Youth Group Advisor, Sunday School Chairman and numerous other committees. She sang in the Great Falls Symphonic Choir for 6 years. She was just awarded her 15 year pin as a 4-H leader. She started taking students to Europe in 1988 and has taken over 150 Sun River valley students on 8 different tours. She was co-founder of the Valley Citizens Involved in the Arts, a "booster club" for the Arts and Humanities in the valley. She has had many acting roles in the plays sponsored by this group. She was the secretary of the Montana Quarter Horse Association for 9 years, President for 1 and Vice- President another. She has served on the State 4-H Horse Committee and co-wrote a Horsemanship Manual. She judges local horse shows and provides riding instruction on a regular basis. Politics are her interests and maybe someday a reality.

Today, Dee Dee runs a portion of Birdtail Ranch for her mother and hopes that someday one of the boys will return to raise a family on the ranch. Both children have been well instructed to never plan to make a living on the ranch, but just to live the best life on earth while here. Dee Dee considers herself lucky to have been able to take care of the land for the last 30 years. She also is grateful for having been able to work at her passions in life - horses, foreign languages and music and to be blessed with a great family.