Elizabeth “Spike” Roberts Brewer has a special bond with Shes Inviting, a mare who would not exist without the miracle of science. This mare won a Reserve World Championship in the Masters Amateur Senior Western Pleasure on Monday with Spike’s mother, Nancy Roberts, in the saddle.
The story behind Shes Inviting is one of tragedy and triumph.
It started with the mare that Spike and Nancy purchased by the name of HF Skipa Tizzy. Spike, her sister Carrie, and Nancy all showed “Tizzy.” Spike showed her in Youth and Amateur earning two World Championships in Youth Western Riding and a Reserve World Champion in Youth Showmanship.
“We spent $50 and tested to see if Tizzy was homozygous,” Spike said. “She was, and we thought we had hit the gold mine. I talked my parents into breeding her rather than selling her.”
Tizzy bore a total of five foals including the stallion Invited Back, who is sired by Willy Be Invited AQHA.
However, in 2003, Tizzy was sent to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, after foundering in a hind leg. Advised to put the mare down, Spike asked if there was any way to save her or try to save some eggs from her ovaries so she could pass along her excellent disposition, conformation and performance traits.
She decided to send the mare’s ovaries to Colorado State University to try an osteocyte transfer for one last chance to produce a foal. “We knew we had only one shot at this,” Spike said. “Luckily, it worked out and we got Shes Inviting.”
Also sired by Willy Be Invited AQHA, Shes Inviting won a World Championship Classic Amateur Junior Western Pleasure in 2009 with Spike. “I had jokingly told my mom that if I won a buckle last year that she could show her this year, and now she’s won a Reserve World Championship on her,” Spike said.
“The mare is actually in foal right now and will have a baby in April 2011,” she continued. “I’ll probably end up bringing her back to show next year.”
Tizzy’s genetics will carry on with Shes Inviting, and Nancy and Spike both consider her, like Tizzy, a part of the family. These two sets of mothers and daughters share a common bond and look forward to seeing the next generation of offspring.
