GoHorseShow is very sad to report that the legendary sire, Zips Chocolate Chip has passed on to greener pastures. He was 30 years old. One of the finest sons of Zippo Pine Bar and out of Fancy Blue Chip, the bay stallion retired from breeding in 2013 and spent the last of his days at his owner Ann Myer’s farm in Ashland, Ohio. Myers, who bred, raised, owned and adored Chip until the end, could often be found driving her golf cart at shows handing out delicious chocolate chip cookies.
For the majority of his life, Chip was under the watchful eye of stallion breeding managers Joe and Suzy Jeane at Down The Rail in Valley View, Texas. Suzy Jeane confirmed that Ann had to put Chip down Thursday morning due to complications associated with old age. “He was the kindest, most wonderful horse,” Jeane told us. “The people who know Ann, know that she doesn’t want people to be sad for her, but thankful that she was graced by such an amazing individual. She is going to put up a Facebook page soon where people can share stories about Chip. We are both thankful that we were a part of his life and sad that he has passed. We were really a part of his family. It is bittersweet.”
In 1989, Zips Chocolate Chip was awarded the AQHA World Championship in the Junior Western Pleasure. He also was a Congress Champion and two-time NSBA Hall of Inductee in two different divisions. His offspring have amassed over 44,000 points and collectively won 20 AQHA World Championships, 12 AQHA Reserve World Championships, $885,904 in AQHA Incentive Fund Earnings and NSBA futurity earnings of $985,861. For many years, the stallion was the all-time leading sire of western pleasure point earners.
Many of his offspring are household names including: Skips Special Barb, Huntin For Chocolate, Chips Hot Chocolate, Chipariffic, Chocolate Leaguer, Chips Original Cooki, Chips Chocolate Star, Choclitchipsobsesion, One Red Hot Zip, Chocolua, Smooth N Chocolatey, Chipped In Chocolate, RA Undisputed, Chip Van Winkle, Zips Last Two Cents, The Cookie Baker and Chip N Pie.
In Chip’s retiremen
t article that GoHorseShow wrote in 2013, Myers mentioned that Chip was always involved in fun things. Early in his career, Chip was asked to be a Breyer horse which Ann said was “Exciting…..like winning the World!” Ann also told us about a story when a New York City publishing house put Zips Chocolate Chip in a coffee table book about chocolate. He ended up being in the 1001 Reasons to Love Chocolate book and he appeared on the page before Katherine Hepburn’s brownie recipe.
In the 2013 interview, Myers told us that for Zips Chocolate Chip, everything had always come easy. “With horses, more often than not, there is something that doesn’t go as planned. Your dream horse injures itself or something happens to derail what you have envisioned for your horse, but that never happened with Chip,” Ann fondly remembers. “Everything went perfect with him. He never tried hard to become famous–it came naturally to him. He would have been a great kid’s horse if he hadn’t become a breeding stallion. I think Chip should have been in a Walt Disney movie. He had that kind of personality–he could have been a star!”
Zips Chocolate Chip never became a movie star, but there is no question that his legend in the horse industry will live on for years. We would like to send our sincerest condolences to everyone involved with this amazing individual.
