Stepping Into Retirement

The American Quarter Horse Association does a commendable job of recognizing its elite equine athletes, along with the hard-working people of the industry, through a plethora of awards every year. The honors span from lifetime achievement recognitions to Champion honors and numerous Regional High-Point awards. Many people aspire to take home the World Champion hardware, as it is the most prestigious award. However, there is a distinction that is just as exclusive: the AQHA Supreme Racehorse Award. 

This award was established by the AQHA Racing Council in 2002 and requires a horse to earn $500,000 on the track and win at least 10 of their starts, with two or more of those wins coming from open Grade 1 races. If a horse qualified for the award prior to its establishment, that horse received the honor retroactively. In addition, since the graded stakes system was integrated in 1983, a list of Grade 1 equivalent races had been used prior to that. A total of 72 horses have earned the award, while a total of 135 horses have etched their names in the annals of Quarter Horse racing as AQHA Supreme Racehorses.

When going through the list of Supreme Racehorses, a name that appears more than once is Jerry Windham, an AQHA past President who served on the AQHA Executive Committee from 1995 until 2000, the year he served as President. He also served on the racing committee. Windham’s tenure on the Executive Committee predates the introduction of the Supreme Racehorse award. Still, he recalls it being discussed. “That was done a couple of years after I was already President. I remember it being talked about because I was still active on committees, including the race committee.”

The Supreme Racehorses Windham has bred and/or owned include such headlining names as Indigo Illusion, Stolis Winner, and Azoom. Each of these horses has just as impressive a record as the other, providing Windham with ample information on what it takes to develop a Supreme Racehorse and the gratifying feeling when all that work comes to fruition. “Well, certainly it’s a rewarding thing whenever you have something like that happen with a horse,” reflects Windham. “I think it was kind of the ultimate goal for any of us as breeders, owners, and runners of Quarter Horses to achieve that particular goal (The AQHA Supreme Racehorse Award). I thought it was a great deal to be one of the first ones that had that after it was installed.” The horse Windham is referring to here is Azoom, who qualified for the award in 2004, just two years after its establishment. Indigo Illusion received the award, as she met the qualifications in 1985, and Stolis Winner qualified in 2009.

The criterion that poses the greatest challenge for horses vying for the Supreme Racehorse award is securing 10 wins, a requirement that has denied many great horses the award. The elusive nature of this requirement stems from the amount of soundness required to capture those 10 wins. Windham shares his perspective on this issue, “It’s very important in Quarter Horse racing that you have a sound horse. If you don’t have a sound horse, you’re probably not gonna go very far.” A prime example of the importance of soundness is the matriarch mare of the Vessels Stallion Farm, Chicado V. She was a smaller-framed mare that had an immense amount of speed but had some issues with her knees. In her first time out, she stopped the clock at :18.1, setting a track record at Pomona and running the fastest 350 yards ever run by a two year old at the time. However, her troubled knees contributed to her unsoundness, causing her to retire early from the track after making just six starts. Chicado V did go on to make her mark as a producer, but one could only imagine how impressive her racing record would have been had she been able to utilize her speed fully. Windham puts it simply, “That’s the only way you’re going to accomplish all that, is to have a sound horse.” A horse nowadays would almost have to race two or more seasons to compile 10 wins, underscoring the importance of soundness. If a horse gets ample time to recover between starts, it must also possess longevity to continue performing in top shape, which again requires soundness and durability.

Another obstacle to compiling 10 wins is the decline in the number of starts made by our current horses. Windham provides his take when asked if this affects horses achieving the award. “It’s a hard question to be definitive on because it’s hard to really know about all those things, but I’m sure that makes a difference. Used to, we started these horses a whole lot more times than they start them nowadays, so I’m sure it would probably have some effect on it. I don’t know how much effect because it would be hard to be definitive on an answer, but if I had to say yes or no, I’d say yeah, it probably has, but it’s hard to prove out.” Although there is…

While the American Quarter Horse was bred to excel at sprinting short distances, the breed has proved to be the world’s most versatile breed. Excelling at everything from trail riding to therapy work and everything in between, the Quarter Horse is the perfect candidate for second careers. After coming off the racetrack, there is a whole world of opportunity!

Shes Five Bar
Grit Beyond Racing
It is not every day that you find a mare who can do just about everything. Leslie Peterson’s Shes Five Bar is that mare. The ten-year-old chestnut filly by Five Bar Cartel and out of RLH Shez Blushing by Blushing Bug, was a poised runner but her full potential was not reached until she started her second career. She was a winner with two seconds and a third from 12 starts earning just over $16,400 on the track for her then owner/trainer Umberto Belloc. She has now transitioned to the skilled horsewoman Leslie Peterson who has pointed Shes Five Bar, or “Cinco” as she likes to call her, in a couple different directions. Cinco has been used as an outriding horse at multiple tracks including Fair Meadows where she has been seen chasing down runaways. Leslie has also competed with her in AQHA shows in the Ranch Horse division, as well as placing in Hunter Jumper shows. She is also used as a basic riding and jumping lesson horse. Leslie plans on taking her to Canterbury Park this summer as well as to Will Rogers Downs or Turf Paradise for the winter racing season. Bob Miller shared that Leslie has done all of the training on this mare after her racing career. He also shared this story about Cinco after some races at Will Rogers Downs this past fall: “A rider came in to ride some races and after a race he was asking why the outrider was riding a western pleasure horse. A couple of the riders informed him that he didn’t get to talk about “Cinco” like that. They let him know that at any given time she very well could be the fastest horse on the backside.” It is safe to say…

You may find yourself living in one of the few places in the USA or Canada where there are no, or only relatively rare, natural disasters. However, for the bulk of North America significant climate events are becoming not just more frequent but increasing significantly in intensity. Not a day goes by lately that there isn’t news of some destructive flood, fire, hurricane, or tornado that wreaks devastation on all in its path.

It is hard enough to get you and your family out of the way of an oncoming inferno, raging water, or vicious hurricane or tornado winds. But when you have animals, the stress of response is compounded. The small animals are manageable to gather into a carry crate or leashed and evacuated with you. But, what do you do with your horses, especially when there is neither time to load and trailer them out, or there is no longer road access to do so?

Each natural disaster has its unique circumstances. Usually there is advance forecast warning about a developing hurricane. In some cases, a wildfire may be approaching but is not yet in close proximity. That is not always the case. Some floods may develop over days or be so rapid in onset that people perish from the inability to flee. A tornado warning rarely gives sufficient time to evacuate and even if you do, there is no telling which way the tornado will veer and potentially intersect where you are or where you may attempt escape on the road.

I will preface this by saying that in September 2013 two storm systems backed up against the Rocky Mountains to create a 500-year flood event that impacted our small mountain town in the Colorado foothills. It took 2-1/2 days to develop into a catastrophic flooding situation but even with that much “warning,” we never dreamt it could turn into what it did. So, in essence, we had only hours to pack up what seemed reasonable, including the cat, and head to higher ground. Luckily, our horse property did not at that moment have a horse on it. The only recourse would have been to just open the gates and let them find their own way to high ground because there wasn’t time to load and take them elsewhere and besides, the roads were completely washed away in hours. Wildfires have also caused us to evacuate at least three times in the last decade. These series of natural disasters have prompted us to develop an evacuation plan that is written on paper, produced in triplicate and posted for easy access in the house and barn. 

Let’s look at some possible strategies you can plan in advance to be horse ready for a natural disaster calamity, no matter what it might be.

Community Involvement
First off, if you live in a horse-loving community, it is a good idea to set up or get in touch with a group that responds to these kinds of emergencies. 

In my County, Search & Rescue and also Animal Control are organized to alert a cadre of horse lovers who respond immediately by bringing horse trailers to the vicinity of a fire or flood. In a recent small fire that was quickly contained, a main road nearby was set up as a staging area with drivers with horse trailers ready to evacuate animals in need. There is a phone tree notification system to those who sign up to be alerted to the need for their efforts. 

It also helps to…