GoHorseShow, in partnership with SmartPak, is pleased to continue our highly popular GoSmart column featuring in this installment Highpoint Breeding Manager, Christi Christensen. Since founding Highpoint Performance Horses in 1992, Jason Martin and Charlie Cole have trained over 100 World Champions and 200 All-American Quarter Horse Congress Champions. Somewhat recently, they have ventured into standing stallions, and we sat down with Christi to find out more about her role with Highpoint.
Now, a thirty-year presence in the horse industry, Christi Christensen’s journey through the horse world began at an early age – a spark inside that she nurtured by showing all-around events in her home state of Arizona and throughout the West Coast. Though she didn’t know it at the time, when her path first crossed with Jason Martin and Charlie Cole at a horse show in California, it would eventually birth a new trail for her in the industry, one that would lead her to become the breeding manager at the renowned Highpoint Performance Horses.
It was at the 2002 AQHA World Show that Christensen, who had moved to Texas the year prior, again ran into Martin and Cole. In that conversation, the two trainers asked her if she would consider helping them with clerical work on a part-time basis.
“It started out that I went to Highpoint one day a week to help with filing and organization,” Christensen, who’s now going on her fifteenth year at the facility, recalls. “Then, we started discussing standing stallions, and I took on the position of manager of Highpoint at that time. Since then, we have grown to be one of the industry’s leading stallion stations.”
And leading may not be the right word – premiere or world-class may be more appropriate. Highpoint stands 14 stallions, offers full-time training and cares for roughly 150 horses, all in addition to raising their own babies each year.
Aside from Martin and Cole, four other trainers work at Highpoint, where 45-50 horses may be in training at any given time. The soon-to-be growing staff is rounded out with a bookkeeper and a barn manager/showmanship instructor.
“Jason claims that I am ‘the boss’ but I’m not really,” she laughs. But one can see why he would say that when Christensen rattles off some of her responsibilities.
“I handle payroll, pay the bills, help with advertising, do show entries, order supplies, handle vet appointments, breed mares, rehab horses, schedule appointments, give tours of the stallions and animals, and much more.”
Her phone starts ringing by six in the morning and doesn’t quit until nine or after. When she does leave work, she enjoys spending time with her daughter, Cara, her “other half,” Jim and their three bulldogs. Christensen’s typical day during the breeding season involves a conglomeration of collecting stallions in the breeding barn, processing semen in the lab and getting shipments labeled in her office.
Having bred about 950 mares last year, Christensen projects over 1,300 breedings this year. So when she says, “You must move quickly to keep up with me,” she means it.
Highpoint’s Stallion line-up includes five performance stallions: Hot Ones Only, I Got Em Talkin, Hubba Hubba Huntin, The Born Legacy and the newest addition, VS GoodRide (Pictured right). The speed horse stallions they currently stand are A Streak of Fling, A Dash Ta Streak, Slick By Design, Shawne Bug Leo, Feel The Sting, NNN Firewater Alive, Dashin Dynamo, Slye By Design and HP Dash Ta Fiesta.
“I think our key to success is our customer service. I try to take care of our customers how I would like to be taken care of. Many of my breeding customers have been breeding to stallions with me for ten years because of the service they received,” Christensen says, noting that many clients breed to one stud one year, then a different one the next. “We have a great team and Jason and Charlie are great to work with.”
As the new year approaches, Christensen has much to look forward to. “I am most excited about having two full-time assistants this year and our amazing stallion lineup. It’s the best of the best here at Highpoint, and I am so honored to be a part of these stallions’ careers.”
About the author: When she isn’t wrangling 12 and 13 year-olds in her middle school English classroom, Megan Ulrich enjoys riding, showing and judging horses. She lives in Holmen, Wisc., with her husband, daughter, two dogs and two horses. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
