GoHorseShow is sad to report that all-time great halter mare, Pick Me Please (Pick) has passed away due to complications associated with arthritis. In September of 2012, the gorgeous show mare turned successful broodmare was purchased by halter breeder and exhibitor Lea Ann Koch of Oswego, Illinois for $18,000. The 1989 sorrel mare was one of the several hundred horses sold during the Rita Crundwell Dispersal Sale.
“She was certainly a one-of-a-kind mare,” says Koch, who spoke to GoHorseShow on early Sunday evening. “I knew when I bought her she had
problems with her hind legs and arthritis. I had always admired her
when she showed with Charlie Dobbs and Steve Landers. When she became
part of the Rita sale, I decided I wanted to buy her and give her a good
end to her life.”
Lea Ann continues, “I sent her to Wisconsin Equine to try and get one last
embryo from her. They were aware of her condition and went above and
beyond on her care. It was decided a few weeks ago that her legs were
bothering her more and we knew time was going to be against us on
getting an embryo. After x-rays the other day showed that her ankles
were almost to the bone on bone point, it was with a heavy heart and
many tears that the decision was made to end her pain.”
Halter trainer Todd Grant, who worked for Dobbs for three years, agrees that Pick Me Please, who was by Mr Conclusion and out of Sissydator, was one of the best ever. Grant also remembers Pick being a prima donna. “She loved certain people, but then she could be a nightmare in her stall with people she didn’t like,” Grant remembers. “Pick was a saint with me, but she liked to torment Charlie. The mare also didn’t care for the vet or farrier or anybody bothering her. She would run a lot of people out of her stall. I remember at one show the judge grabbed her tail to move it out of the way, and Charlie warned them to not do it, but they didn’t listen and she hauled off and kicked him in the leg.”
Grant said she was like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde and her moods could change in an instant. “But, that was only in her stall and handling her. In the show ring, she always showed well. When she hit the gates, she was all business. Everybody that showed her got a trophy. Charlie made her famous, but she was so dominate that I believe anyone could have won with her.”
According to Grant, one person that Pick loved was former owner Steve Landers. “He was so goofy and wild that he would do things around the mare that no one else did, and she seemed to get a kick out of it. He would hang out with her in his backyard by the pool and ride her around like a trail horse. He seemed to have a special connection with her.”
Trainer and AQHA judge Russ Smith of Whitesboro, Texas remembers helping Landers at the Congress one year. “Stevie was quite a character. He was always paranoid about someone hurting his mare. He wouldn’t let anyone else help him but me at the show, and he would tie horse hair around her stall door to make sure no one went in when he wasn’t there,” Smith remembers. “At this point, most people didn’t want to help him, but I did it for the mare. I had great respect for her, and I wanted to make sure she looked good when she went in the pen.”
Smith describes what was so special about her, “She had the muscle of a stallion or gelding but she still maintained her femininity at the same time and was also very structurally correct. That is what set her apart from the rest. She had the whole package.”
Smith remembers getting her banded at the Congress and ready to show but Landers was late and didn’t show up until they were making last call for his class. “He showed up at the last second with no tie on and jumped on his bicycle with the mare trotting beside him through the Gilligan Barn to the Coliseum to show. He barely made his class, but he ended up standing Grand Champion Mare and after he won, he rode his bicycle around the arena with his mare trotting right beside him.”
Unfortunately, Landers had personal and financial issues resulting in him selling the mare at the 2007 AQHA World Show Sale to Rita Crundwell for $21,000. Todd Grant recalls bidding on her, but he said he couldn’t compete with Crundwell.
Before her death, Pick was well on her way to proving herself as a dam. Crundwell showed one of Pick’s sons, Acoolest Pick, at the 2010 AQHA Amateur World Show to a Reserve World Champion in Yearling Stallions, and he also placed third in the Yearling Stallions at the Open World Show. She is also the dam of another Reserve World Champion and her offspring have produced over 250 points in halter events.
Grant mentions, “She was truly one of those special horses that you only come across once-in- a-lifetime, and she knew it!”
