It’s Throw Back Thursday and 12 years ago today, Kristen (Glover) Galyean sold the legendary mare Vital Signs Are Good (Lucy) to the Moran Family. Charlie Cole of Highpoint Performance Horses contacted us to break the story of what he considered to be the “greatest show mare ever” selling. Lucy went on to win several more World and Congress Championships with the Morans as her owner before her passing in 2017 at the age of 17.
Following her amazing show career, Vital Signs Are Good also made her mark as a producer. She went on to become one of the leading dams of all time, producing such amazing offspring as leading sires VS Code Red and VS Flatline and VS Code Blue among many others. Lucy was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2019.
At the time, GoHorseShow was barely a year old, and when we published this breaking news, it crashed our website. It was such a huge story that it ended up being the number 1 story of 2009 on GoHorseShow and still stands as one of our most read stories of all time. Take a look back at this memorable day in our industry.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED OCTOBER 28, 2009: GoHorseShow.com has learned that one of the industry’s most dominant show horses, Vital Signs Are Good has sold to the Moran Family of Laguna Hills, California. Trainer Charlie Cole of High Point Performance Horses told GoHorseShow.com Wednesday evening, “There is no doubt that she’s the greatest show mare ever and we are really excited to add another great horse to our string.”
Trainer Jason Martin explained how the deal came about. “We were at the Congress and Joe (Moran) wanted to look for a new horse for his daughter, Theresa. We weren’t really seeing anything, so one night I texted him and said ‘Why don’t you just buy Vital Signs?’ From there, it was a long negotiating process. There were a few other people interested but we were able to make it happen and we are just thrilled.”
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, however, according to Cole, “The price was negotiated between the Morans and the Glovers. There are a lot of prices floating around out there and I haven’t heard a correct one yet.”
Vital Signs Are Good, fondly known as Lucy, has been a household name synonymous with consistency and domination in both the amateur and open ranks. The 2000 AQHA mare began her reign of World Championships at the 2002 AQHA World Championship show where she won the 2-Year-Old Western Pleasure. (Pictured right, photo courtesy of John and Karen Boxell).
Kristen (Glover) Galyean bought her after her two-year-old year and the two were an immediate force. Their first AQHA World Championship came as a three-year-old in Amateur Western Pleasure. The pair went on to win 9 AQHA World and 27 Congress Championships in both Amateur and Open Western Pleasure and Western Riding. They just returned from the 2009 Congress where they won four Championship titles. Kristen and Lucy’s mark of 237.5 at the 2005 AQHA World Championships in Amateur Western Riding has not been topped by an amateur and will forever go down in history as one of the greatest single performances at an AQHA World Show.
The nine-year-old mare by Zippos Mr Goodbar and out of Vitalism has proven herself as an outstanding broodmare as well. She is the dam of Invest N Vital Signs, the highest money earning western pleasure stallion of all time, as well as VS Code Red who won three classes at the 2009 Congress. He was the winner of the 2-Year-Old Non-Pro Open Western Pleasure, the 2-Year-old Open Western Pleasure as well as the 2-Year-Old Limited Open Western Pleasure, all with Kristen aboard. “One of the big plusses to buying Vital Signs is that she is already a great producer,” Cole said. “Joe is excited to be able to flush embryos out of her and have her foals.”
As far as plans for the upcoming World Championship show, Martin will show her in the Senior Western Riding and they are not ready to announce who is showing her in the Senior Western Pleasure. “I don’t feel pressure to show her,” Martin commented. “My job is to give her the opportunity to do what she does and to do her justice. I want to make everyone proud and we’ll do our best.”
Vital Signs Are Good
- 27 Congress Championships
- 13 World Championships (AQHA and NSBA)
- 1846 AQHA Points
- $201,287,65 lifetime earnings recorded
- 6 AQHA Superior Awards
- AQHA 2007 World Show All Around Amateur
- AQHA Amateur Champion, Amateur Performance Champion
- Numerous AQHA & NSBA High Point Titles
- NSBA 2007 Horse of the Year
- NSBA 2007 Leading Dam
