When you’re watching highlight videos or hearing stories of horses such as the great Harley D Zip and Allocate Your Assets in their prime, it’s hard to imagine that at one time they were maiden futurity horses, just like the ones hitting the futurity trail this summer and fall. GoHorseShow talked to several trainers about what certain famous horses were like when they were younger. Find out more about Harley D Zip, RL Best Of Sudden, Allocate Your Assets, John Simon, and RPL My Te Cheerful before they became legends.
Harley D Zip
Harley D Zip (pictured right) has earned more points than any horse in AQHA history and is a household name in horse show circles. But not everyone knows that the greatest western riding horse in AQHA history wasn’t always as easy going as one would think. “I went through a lot with him,” admits trainer Doug Pratt, who is known for starting the 1995 bay gelding fondly known as “Harley”. “I needed a fantastic horse, and I got one. But, in all fairness to anyone, I had to work for it—he wasn’t easy. He was always a great loper, but he was tough.”
Understanding Harley’s pedigree, Pratt knew that his bloodline was known for being tough. Temper tantrums were thrown a few times while Pratt first got to know him and work with him as a two and three year-old.
“I hobbled him; I rode him in orchards and in cow pens, and I treated him like a horse and wore him down,” he remembers. “Jason Martin still had his hands full when he got him, but as he got to be seven, eight, and nine, he got better. But even when he was six or seven, if you didn’t longe him just right, he’d have a hump in his back and you’d have to grit through it.”
Pratt worked with Harley through most of his three year-old year, including coaching owner Brian Ale to some placings at the 1998 Tom Powers and the Congress. His first show with Pratt and Ale was the Spring Break-Out, where the bay gelding placed in the top five in youth western pleasure. His first big win came at the Whistlestop Futurity with Brian’s mother, Flossie, in the 40 and Over Western Pleasure.
Pratt credits Harley for creating his relationship with Jason Martin, who had flown in to see the gelding at the beginning of his five year-old year, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Harley was recently honored with a Breyer horse in his likeness and his record breaking number of wins makes him a western riding legend. The bay gelding has earned more points, AQHA World Championship titles (17), and Incentive Fund money than any other horse in the history of western riding. Harley was retired in 2011 and lives with his owners, the Papendick family of Highview Ranch Quarter Horses in Rapid City, South Dakota.
RL Best Of Sudden
Bret and Candy Parrish were in search of a great one in 2003 when they went to Roberts Quarter Horses, home of leading sire, A Sudden Impulse, in Ocala, Florida. Candy recalls the first time she laid eyes on the history-making stallion. He was aptly named RL Best Of Sudden and given the barn name of “Bo.”
“We found Bo at Roberts as a late yearling,” Candy remembers. “When we first saw him we knew he was special, truly, he just had such a presence he looked like a special one. Then, when we saw him lope around under saddle with just a handful of rides, we had no
doubt he was a great one. Bo was exceptionally easy to train. He was so naturally gifted that Bret just had to show him what
to do and it was easy for him.”
The gorgeous two-year-old stallion made his debut in the show ring in the very first $100,000 Reichert Equine Sports Medicine Challenge class in St. Louis, Missouri in 2004. To premier a young stallion in a high-level event such as the Reichert can often be nerve-wracking, but for trainer, Bret Parrish, he was confident going into the ring.
“The crowd was so large there and they were on the ground and all the way around the arena where we showed,” Bret recalls. “He was a little apprehensive about loping in the corners because the crowd was standing right at the fence, but he handled it pretty well. I thought he showed great, especially in that environment.”
Candy adds, “I will admit I was nervous when Bo and Bret showed at the Reichert. It was the first time in our industry we had the opportunity to compete for $100,000 and that night was historical for the western pleasure industry. The atmosphere literally was electrifying. I had confidence in them, but knowing what was on the line, I couldn’t help but feel some butterflies.”
“He was great to us, and definitely another step up in my career,” says Bret who won the history-making $100,000 check. “We now ride a lot of offspring by him. He’s changed the pleasure horse industry in the way he produces. We’re just proud to be part of his career.”
“We first saw Bo at the Reichert before Bret showed him,” recalls now owner, Ken Masterson of Masterson Farms. “There was no question in anyone’s mind which horse would win that first $100,000 championship well before they entered the arena. While at the time we had no idea he would later become available to us, you just had the feeling that you would never see a more special horse or better potential sire. I remember talking with Bret after he had worked Bo one day and not being able to take my eyes off of him the whole time we were talking. He seemed to have that effect on everyone there.”
RL Best Of Sudden, whose offspring have won 19 AQHA and NSBA World Championships, has earned a spot as one of the top western pleasure sires in the industry. The 2011, 2012 and 2013 #1 Equi-stat Sire of Offspring Earnings, Bo’s foals have amassed over 19,000 points and earnings of over two million dollars.
Allocate Your Assets
When Brian Isbell and partner Kevin Garcia first saw Allocate Your Assets (Al) as a long yearling in 2001, it was all they could do to keep calm—they knew he was going to be something. “I knew right then and there, he was going to be my once-in-a-lifetime horse,” recalls multiple World Champion trainer, Isbell.
After purchasing Allocate Your Assets, Isbell took him to a cutting trainer in Georgia for 30 days. In February, he started riding the stallion, and, then, they started hauling to horse shows to get him used to the atmosphere.
His debut in the show pen was at the 2002 Kentucky Quarter Horse Futurity in Lexington right before heading to the All American Quarter Horse Congress. “Even though he was two, he showed just like a junior horse,” Isbell remembers. “He won the class on all five cards.”
Jim and Deanna Searles purchased “Al” right before the Congress, but agreed to let Isbell show him in the 2 Year Old Hunter Under Saddle Futurity. While being shown in Columbus, Isbell recalls the weather was “iffy” on the day of the futurity finals. “There was a rumble in the air,” Brian remembers. “Al got a little nervous, but he never tried to scoot out from underneath me, never tried to lift up … he just pooped a lot in the finals. And that’s the way I knew he was nervous. He never changed his gait, cadence, anything—he just pooped a lot. He’d never done that before.”
Allocate Your Assets won the Two Year-Old Hunter Under Saddle Futurity at Congress, as well as additional Congress Championship in Senior Hunter Under Saddle and an AQHA Reserve World Championship in Senior Hunter Under Saddle in 2006.
Now owned by the Searles’ longtime customer, Kathy Tobin, Allocate Your Assets stands at the Searles’ Circle S Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona. He has become one of the premier hunter under saddle breeding stallions by siring multiple World and Congress Champions.
RPL My Te Cheerful
Arguably the most honored gelding in the halter industry, and one of the most decorated horses in AQHA history, some might be surprised that RPL My Te Cheerful’s (Henry) first show wasn’t until late into his two year-old year with Monte Horn. His breeder, Bobbie and Henry Atkinson, felt that the late-blooming son of My Te Telusive needed some time to just grow and be a horse, so he spent many days out to pasture, with some light work here and there with the Atkinson’s farm manager, Michael Ochetto.
“We kept him in the barn, and he’d get a little too big, so we’d push him out of the barn,” says Ochetto. “We did that for quite a bit, until about his coming two year-old year, and then we sold him. We had him for a couple of years—we knew he was going to be really good. History has actually said how good he really is.”
Horn recalls how easygoing the bay gelding was from the very beginning, even when it came to competing at Congress for his first big show. “That horse would just eat and sleep,” says Horn. “He was a piece of work. He loved to just be a buddy. He’s always been an extremely kind horse.”
Henry has since been owned by Peter Cofrancesco III (pictured above left), Terry Wilkerson, Amanda Maria Arevalo, Vern Habighorst and Josh and Kaleena Weakly. Habighorst bought the great gelding back from the Weakly’s after the 2011 show season and has continued to show him.
“He was the consummate show horse from the beginning—he knew his job and did it well.” RPL My Te Cheerful earned his 17th AQHA World Championship in August at the Adequan Select AQHA World Show with owner Vern Habighorst. Henry has maintained his laid back attitude his entire carrer. Habighorst’s young grand daughters, Kaylee and Monica Hamm, have had great success showing the gentle giant as well.
John Simon
The incomparable paint stallion, John Simon was bred and raised by World Champion trainer Vicky Holt of Argyle, Texas. At the time, Holt wasn’t showing at many paint shows, so she asked Tim and Shannon Gillespie to look at John as a two year-old at the Reichert Celebration. Holt wanted to see if they would like to take him home and finish him out.
“There was never a question the second I saw him move that he would turn into something special,” says Tim Gillespie, who said he was the best minded stallion he has ever trained. “He was very easy to finish out and was a true gentleman. He never had any quirks or gave us any trouble.”
When Tim and Shannon Gillespie hauled him to his first show at the Illinois Breeders’ Futurity, they hadn’t planned on showing him because they felt he was still too green. But when the quiet stallion settled into his stall and settled into the atmosphere easier, they decided to enter him in the big two-year-old western pleasure futurity. Their gamble paid off, and Tim and John won it under all four judges, in a “very scary pen.”
The win streak continued to the Paint Horse Congress and the Holiday Classic as a young horse. He eventually went on to earn 10 Pinto Horse Association World Champion titles, three APHA World Champion titles (western pleasure and aged halter stallions), and five APHA Reserve World Champion titles (trail and western pleasure).
“We love John Simon,” says Tim. “It’s why we are trainers—when horses we trained can go on and become a legacy for our industry, it doesn’t get much better than that!”
John Simon is now owned and loved by Erin Bradshaw, and his young foals are showing huge promise.
Photos © Rick Childress, Jeff Kirkbride, Shane Rux, Don Shugart, and Holman
About the Author: Megan Arszman is a freelance writer based in Lexington, Ky., and has been covering the equine industry for almost 10 years. She’s been lucky enough to work for AQHA and NRHA’s publications, fulfilling a lifelong dream. A former exhibitor herself, she currently contributes to GoHorseShow.com, American Quarter Horse Journal, Paint Horse Journal, Rodeo News, Western Shooting Horse Magazine, and the NRHA Reiner. She is also the Digital Media Content Coordinator for Neogen Corporation’s Animal Safety Division in Lexington, where she lives with her husband and competes in dog agility.
