For Parrish Quarter Horses of Pavo, Georgia, family has always come first. Growing up on their parent’s farm, Cody and Chase Parrish were part of the family business from a young age, breaking out ponies and desensitizing the young horses.
Now, Cody plays a bigger part in the operation: he and his dad, Bret, break and train the colts, while Candy, Cody’s mother, helps raise them. It’s an effective process and has worked well for the family.
With their up-and-coming stud, Fiire N Ice (Kona), the family ties go even deeper. Their gorgeous 2018 stallion is by Machine Made and out of Diamonds R Best. His dam is by $5,000,000 sire RL Best Of Sudden and out of the legendary mare, Ona Good Impulse. Kona’s bloodlines lead directly back to the Parrish family and their successful showing and breeding programs.
“It’s kind of neat because, on his papers, it’s pretty much all horses that we’ve ridden or had a connection with,” Cody said. “His grandmother is Ona Good Impulse (pictured right), a mare that we had for a long-time client, Jan Pittman. Mrs. Jan showed her in the Non-Pro, and my Mom showed her in the Open. I couldn’t even tell you how many titles she won. She was a great show mare.”
Not to be outdone, RL Best Of Sudden (pictured left) was trained and shown by Bret Parrish and won the 2004 Reichert 2 YO Western Pleasure $100,000 Open Challenge Champion. Additionally, Machine Made is a stud whose bloodlines they believed in early on and bred numerous mares to from day one.
Kona’s impressive bloodlines create some high expectations — ones that Candy says he shatters.
“His pedigree is literally royalty. He looks great on paper, but he lives up to it,” she said. “When you look at his lineage, you think, ‘Oh, that’s a great horse.’ But he exceeds those expectations. He’s just exceptional.”
Born on the Parrish farm, the family kept a close eye on Kona and knew he was special early on.
“We raise a lot of horses, so we usually have 20 yearlings out there at a time. So you would walk out there, and he was different from every single other one,” Cody said. “We knew even as a weanling that he was just different. Just the presence that he had and the way that he carried himself. He just set himself apart and was different from all of them then, and he continues to do that now.”
Those who interact with Kona have always appreciated his unique personality.
“Kona really likes people,” Bret said. “Since he was a yearling when he’s turned out, and he sees you coming, he’ll lope back up to the gate real slowly and softly, like show speed, stop and drop his head for you to rub him.”
“He’s a people horse — he likes attention, and he’s a little bit of a big ham,” Cody said. “He likes you to rub on him and show him affection. He’s got a personality that he likes what he does, and he likes being around people. So it made the training process a lot easier and made him want to please.”
While the Parrish family already believed in him, Kona really proved himself at the Sudden Impulse Futurity, where he and Cody were Champions in the inaugural 3 YO Maiden Open Western Pleasure Slot Class at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Florida, winning both the Open and Limited divisions.
“That’s my favorite memory of him,” Candy said. “With us owning Kona and Cody showing him, it’s one of those experiences that’s like a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
“It was incredible. It was such a good feeling because that was something that we had all worked for so long,” Cody said. “It was very much a team effort. Dad and I both rode him, and Mom was the eyes on the ground. It’s a horse that we’ve always put a lot of effort into, and kind of all stood behind for a long time. So it was amazing to get to experience all that together.”
While the entire family spent countless hours getting Kona to where he is, Bret and Cody say that his laid-back personality made that process easy.
“I know he’s ours, but I’ve been around a lot of horses over a lot of years. So there really isn’t much you can say he doesn’t do well,” Bret said. “He’s just so trainable; he loves his job, he’s very laid back. Everything is very easy for him — the training process and just him doing what he does.”
His teachable personality is complemented by his conformation, proving successful in the show ring.
“He’s just so well made. He’s such a balanced horse; he’s conformationally as correct as you can get one,” Cody said. “That carries over physically because it’s so easy for him to do his job. He’s got a lot of self-carriage, a lot of rhythm. He was born to do it; he came out doing it. It’s easier for him than for any other horse I’ve ever ridden, hands down.”
The Parrish’s are excited to see where Kona’s future goes and can’t wait to be with him every step of the way.
“This horse is the next step, and we feel like he’s the next generation,” Bret said. “He has the whole package. For quite some time, we’ve been waiting on the right horse, and we feel like he’s the one. The fact that we got to watch him grow up from a baby and mature into the stud he is today and win the things he has is so special.”
Fiire N Ice will will stand to a select group of mares in 2022 at Doug Tallent Quarter Horses in Vale, North Carolina.
Fiire N Ice is 5 Panel negative and enrolled in Premier Sires and Super Sires. Please follow Fiire N Ice on Facebook for updates on “Kona” and for breeding information. Contact Candy via email at [email protected], Bret at 229-224-2019 or Doug Talent at 704-284-4401.
Click here to view his ad in the November issue of GoMag.
