the first year lightning bar stood as a breeding stallion, his stud fee, or the fee charged to breed a mare to him, was $250 ($ as of ). only nine mares were bred to him. the next year, he only bred 11 mares. in 1956, he bred 102 mares at $500 ($ as of ) each. one of pollard's attempts to advertise his stallion involved letting one of his ranch hands take the stallion to a local jackpot roping. pollard assumed that the employee would just ride lightning bar around and show him off. pollard later discovered that more was involved. pollard said later that "i should have been suspicious when he (the ranch hand) returned with lightning bar that afternoon, with a sheepish grin on his face. i asked him how the horse was received and he said 'the stud did good and i won the jackpot!' after congratulating him, i asked which rope horse he had used. he replied, 'the stud.' "