GoHorseShow is saddened to report the passing of western pleasure great, Mr Magnolia Zip. This 1992 bay gelding was fondly known as “Gangsta Rick”, “Tricky Ricky”, “Ricky”, or sometimes “Rick” when he behaved. He was 23 years-old.
Over the years, Ricky was loved by many owners and exhibitors including, Allee and Andrea Thompson, Montgomery Lee Petty and Dennis Pathroff.
“He made it to greener pastures,” says former owner Montgomery Lee Petty about his passing on Thursday, August 27. “He will forever be missed–a part of my youth died with him. I’m so honored to have loved him and blessed to have owned him and forever grateful to him for making me a better person.”
Throughout his career, Ricky accumulated over 1,100 AQHA points, mostly in the western pleasure events. This striking gelding was by Zippo Pine Bar out of Miss Magnolia Bee.
In his retirement, the AQHA World and Congress Champion was a therapeutic riding horse at Victory Junction Camp which was founded by Montgomery Lee Petty’s grandparents, Richard and Linda, and her parents, Kyle and Pattie, to help chronically ill children. The camp, located in Randleman, North Carolina, was created to honor one Montgomery Lee’s brother, Adam, who died in May 2000 during practice for a NASCAR Nationwide Series race in Loudon, New Hampshire.
“Those kids loved him. To say they rode a world champion is something a lot of kids in their situation never get to say,” Montgomery Lee proudly told us when talking about Ricky’s a therapeutic riding horse career. “He loved kids, and he was like an old wise man. He knew to be calm, to be safe, and to be loving.”
In 1997, Mr Magnolia Zip was the Youth Reserve AQHA World Champion with Allee Thompson of Hillsboro, Ohio. Thompson was the first youth exhibitor to really put him on the map.
“My most vivid memory was riding Ricky at the youth world shows,” Allee remembers. “He loved that pen (in Fort Worth). I think because the rail was very high, and we always had our best rides in that pen. When my parents sold him, I lost my interest in showing horses because it wasn’t the same after he was gone.”
Allee’s younger sister, Andrea Thompson, also remembers the first year her older sister showed him. “The first year Allee showed she was Reserve World Champion at the Youth World. That was probably the most surreal experience for our family because we had no idea what it meant at the time, and it was completely unexpected. We were just thrilled for her to make the finals,” Andrea recalls. “Our nickname for him was ‘Tricky Ricky’ because he was always trying something or another. I remember being in Delaware, Ohio at a show, and he knocked down an entire fence line because he was scared of a measly garbage bin. However, he always knew when a major show was coming up because he would put on the proverbial game face and really perform above and beyond what we could ever expect.”
“He was a tremendous horse,” Allee and Andrea’s mother, Susan Thompson, said of Mr Magnolia Zip, who also showed him to a third place one year in the Amateur Western Pleasure at the AQHA World Show. “Very delicate looking for a gelding–more like a mare, and you could pick him out in a crowd, and he was a very slow jogger.”
Susan adds, “In 1996, Cleve Wells (pictured right) kept Ricky after we bought him to finish out the year. He had decided to not show him at Congress that year, so we were leaving the grounds to head home. Suddenly, someone came up to us and asked us why we weren’t going to stick around and watch our horse show. We had no idea that Cleve had changed his mind and he was going to show after all. We sat in the stands and watched Ricky win the Junior Western Pleasure. It was our first Congress win. Our daughter, Allee, has never forgotten him and loved him. She still has not forgiven us for selling him. He was certainly not an easy ride but a great one.”
When Montgomery Lee was 13 years-old, her parents purchased Ricky at the Congress from the Thompson family. “My parents and I wanted a horse that would teach me to be a better rider, and a better competitor. Basically, a horse that would make me a world champion. Mitch Leckey, who has and always will be my trainer, came to us and said,”‘I have dreams about this horse.’ So I rode him, and that was it. I said, ‘Daddy, I want this one!’”
Ricky had more personality than the average person, Montgomery Lee explains. “He isn’t a horse you had to get physically tired, you had to get him mentally tired. He thought he knew everything and was always willing to tell you what he thought about a situation,” Petty fondly recalls. “He tended to see things before you did, would make decisions for you (good or bad). He was like an old, wise man.”
According to Montgomery Lee, there were too many funny memories to count with Ricky. The one that stands out was at a show in Georgia. “It was within the first year of having him, so, I was still learning. As we started our second lap around the arena, Ricky just decided he didn’t want to show that day. He turned, bucked and trotted to the middle of the pen. That was him though–when he was done, he was done.”
Of course, Petty’s favorite win would be in 2001 when she became the AQHYA World Champion in western pleasure at the Youth World in Fort Worth. “But, I think I was most proud that we were top five at the world show for five years in a row,” she recalls. “A horse that is that consistent, that talented, and that great doesn’t come around too often. I feel so blessed that I was the one that rode him for those achievements.”
When Petty went away to college, her family decided it was time to sell Ricky. “Everyone made fun of me because they said I ‘interviewed’ people about buying him. I wouldn’t let just anyone have him. After meeting the Pathroff family and their son Dennis, it was a perfect fit. They loved him. Not just the fact they could win on him, they loved him as an animal, as a pet, and as a part of their family,” Petty told GoHorseShow.com. “After Dennis showed for a few years, they decided he was ready for retirement. The day they called and offered to donate him to the Camp was the happiest day. Technically, I wasn’t getting him back, but in a way I was. I will forever be grateful for their donation of him to Victory Junction Camp.”
Petty reflects, “I just think Ricky was one of those horses that comes along once-in-a-lifetime. I will forever be thankful that he and I were a team at one point in our life. I will forever be grateful that he gave me a world championship. He is one of the best horses to ever walk this earth.”
