GoHorseShow is heartbroken to report that Congress Champion Sleeptite has passed away. The 2009 sorrel gelding was ten-years-old. Due to complications associated with an MRI, he had a heart attack and passed away from an enlarged heart. The gelding was by the legendary sire Impulsions and out of the top-producing dam, Zipped Tight. He was bred by Donna Morgan of Pilot Point, Texas.
“I’m still in shock about it and so sad,” says Bonnie Sheren, who was his owner at the time of his passing. “He was a very sweet and easy-going horse. Everyone loved him. He had a very late start in his training and show career, but he stepped right up and was very successful with Jason Martin in the western riding and Ashley Clock in the trail.”
Sheren told us that in a short time, Sleeptite went from a very green senior horse to a Reserve Congress Champion in the Senior Trail in 2017 with Ashley Clock. Last year, he was the Level 2 Senior Trail Champion at the AQHA World Show. In 2016, Sleeptite and Jason Martin won the Congress in the Green Western Riding. He also had his superiors in the trail and western riding.
“This was my first year showing him in Select Amateur Trail, and I didn’t know what to expect because I had hardly ever ridden him,” Sheren remembers. “But, we started strong, and I qualified him for the Select World pretty quickly. What I loved about him the most was that he was so tolerant of all my mistakes. It takes a special horse to take care of a select rider like me. It’s tough to lose a horse like him.”
Highpoint Performance Horses trainer Ashley Clock shared her thoughts about him. “I’m heartbroken over losing him. He was special to me. You only come across so many special horses as a trainer, and I have been fortunate to have a lot of them lately, but he had a big part of my heart and always will. Every morning when I walked into the barn, and he heard me, he would nicker until I came to kiss him. I’m going to miss that. He will forever be missed.”
