“We don’t meet horses by accident. They are chosen to cross our path for a reason.“
After such a successful show and breeding career with Congress Champion, HOT DIGGITY JOE, we started entertaining the idea of “looking” for a western pleasure stallion prospect that we could show and promote. We wanted a stallion that would compliment our western pleasure mares. After being in the breeding business and involved in the show industry for over 20 years, I knew what I wanted as far as bloodlines and movement. I figured I would be looking for awhile as my list of “must haves” was quite long!
Even though I had focused primarily on raising HUS horse, I had been following the pleasure horse industry. A young son of the late Open Range had already piqued my interest. I had seen “Hugh” show at the Congress as a 2YO. I had been hoping I’d get the chance to see him again. I got that opportunity after the 2013 NSBA World Show when we went over to Shirley Roth’s to look at a couple of yearling stallions she had. When I saw “Hugh” in his stall, I stopped in my tracks! Shirley brought him out in the alley way for us to look at. As I walked around him, I was thinking to myself, “THIS IS THE ONE”!
We continued our visit at Roth Quarter Horses and looked at many outstanding prospects. The youngsters that stood out the most were the foals by Open For Suggestion–they were big, pretty and balanced. They all had their sire’s substance, flat front leg and strong hind ends with a lot of eye appeal.
I have been fortunate to have seen foals by many of the nation’s top stallions. The uniformity we saw in the weanlings to the yearlings was definitely something to get excited about as the mares they were out of were all so different. Open For Suggestion is one of those stallions that you just know is going to be a breeding horse. Call it a gut feeling or intuition. It was right then and there I knew I had found the perfect addition to our breeding program.
“A good stallion will improve things on your mare. A GREAT stallion will stamp himself.”
