Its been a long time coming, but Winchester Performance is slowly beginning to make it's way back to the competitive show pen. The primary goal of Winchester Performance has always been and will always be breeding Western and English athletes that are viable both in the show ring and in the breeding barn. However, with recent changes, Winchester Performance has had to make some tough decisions to sell off a lot of stock or enter them in different arenas for competition. Most of the mares were sold and have moved on to happy, productive homes where they fit with their new owner's program much better than with my own. For my own part, the few horses I simply was not able to part with, have made begun putting the Winchester mark on the Cutting pen.
Current Show String
The show string currently is a small one as a result of the serious overhaul that took place several years ago. I am still culling stock and you wouldn't believe the attention to detail that has to be paid to breeding now! If Reining was the end game decades ago, it's now a brand new endeavor to firstly breed and raise the right kind of horse!
However, in the process of trying to find said future champion, Winchester Performance has been fortunate with these competitors:
Precious initially came to WP as a showing competition horse. She was bred by Wood Oak Stables and owned by Fast N Loud. When Precious arrived at WP as a weanling, she had no training, so we immediately went to work on her. You should probably know this filly didn't earn her name because she is willing, cooperative, or sweet for that matter. Precious is absolutely, out of the box, explosive and she means business! After a long foal breaking process, I was relieved to give her to one of the hands to work with until it was time to start her green breaking (Lord help me).
At 20 months, it was that time and it came all too soon. Whoa was a problem, walk was a problem, lope was her favorite as it gave her a chance to really have some fun and test my ability to stay mounted. This girl can absolutely drop either of her shoulders on command and boogey out from underneath you whenever she wants to. Every aspect of her green breaking was a problem. I had a phenomenal filly on my hands fitness wise, but every time I looked at her, she was plotting how to get away with homicide and how much smarter than us she was. In short, I was in love. I stayed in contact with Chassidy and nicknamed her Precious. Chassidy liked it so much, she changed the horse's name.
When the time came to get Precious in the ring, I was a nervous wreck of emotions. Competition wise, Precious was looking miles ahead of everyone else in the game. But what I was worried about was the part of her you couldn't see, that over reactive, always thing brain and always moving feet. She had an uncanny ability to really sharpen her focus and execute tasks with utter precision and speed. Never having had cutters in my life, I started to wonder if this filly is what a promising cutting horse looked like.
I rolled the dice and decided in her two year old year, that I was going to risk training her to cut cattle. Her training was fantastic. At home, she showed no fear as she hugged the ground to get eye to eye with her cow. She was relentless as she drilled the poor animal and kept it from the herd. Her rollbacks were rock solid and she was sure of foot sliding, rolling, and twisting around. It seems, whatever resentment she tried to pretend she had about riding, was in fact, an overlooked character trait in her that needed focus on something other than going around a ring in circles.
Even so, the fact that I had never owned a cutting horse made me worry about cutting the mustard in that event, so I also had her worked English and Western. Not only did she hate it, but her scores reflected it. In English, her scores were down in the 20's and 40's, in Western, she faired little better in the 50's. These scores would not stand up the three year old crop that was futurity bound. After some soul searching, I entered her in a beginner cutting event. Not only did she win the event with a score in the 70's, but she also brought home the High Point award for $50,000.00. I have never been more surprised!
Precious actually went on after that and was well into earning her Intermediate title by the time she returned to Fast N Loud. As a side note, she also won the showing competition sponsored by Fast N Loud.
As time wore on, I really missed Precious. Chassidy was really sweet about my habitual stopping by to see Precious. One day, out of the blue, Chassidy calls me up to ask if I would be interested in having Precious a little closer to my place. When I asked her what she meant, she asked me if Precious had a stall in my barn. I was completely overjoyed and told Chassidy, yes of course!
So Precious was returned and here she has been, still tearing up the cutting arena and breaking hearts.
Tuff is a homebred American Quarter Horse stallion. He is the direct result of WP's efforts to improve intelligence and speed in the Quarter Horse. While he has the disposition to do well in reining, his heart just isn't in it. Tuff has the desire to look pretty in the halter ring, follow the rail in Pleasure, and make Trail Riding look glamorous to spectators. He is double bred Black Tie Kustom and a grand son to Western World Champion Lotto Jackpot.
Tuff is trained to English and Western. Most of his titles and awards were as an English horse, but he made Grand is currently being shown Western. Tuff was leased to Serenity River Ranch recently and they did a wonderful job getting Tuff to his grand championship status.
This year will be Tuff's first real go as a potential sire, so I am curious to see who will breed to him this season, as well as to see the first foal crop I will get from him. Of course I am hoping he will throw babies with his wonderful temperament but with an athletic desire to rein.
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The Clave
"Jamie"
BCh Jiggin Up In Time x ACh Tracker With Style
American Quarter Horse |
Isn't Jamie a LOVELY piece of eye candy? He is a genetic masterpiece that has champagne and cream modifiers to his bay coat. He is the product of an attempt to breed for a rarely seen color in Quarter Horses and I would say to that end, he is a total success!
Jamie was sent to Serenity River Ranch to complete his foal and green training. From there, they thought Jamie would be best suited as a reining horse because of his willing disposition. They weren't wrong. Jamie isn't scoring as highly as I would like to be really competitive in just reining, but he usually produces scores in the 70's, which is enough to convince me that he hasn't come into his own just yet. He is currently working towards his beginner title in Western, but I have a feeling he could also go English with no problem.
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Up N Flames
"Coal"
BCh Jiggin Up In Time x Smoken Hott Flame
American Quarter Horse |
If there was ever a more aptly named horse, I have never met him. Coal is absolutely a fire breathing dragon. Coal is so hot that quite often fails to remember that yes, we have covered walk, trot, and canter. Coal was owned and bred by Secret of Manna, and trained by Serenity River Ranch. Since Coal's return to the ranch, he has been teamed up with Precious on the trailer headed to cutting events. Despite his evil disposition, he is even more aggressive as a competitor and at the time of this posting, he remains undefeated in all of his events. He is well on his way to his beginner title and even though he is the most extreme case of what I DONT want in my herd, it's hard to deny his staying power. He is gorgeous, he is athletic, and he has the heart of a Viking champion. He is completely unbelievable to watch in the show pen and absolutely a commanding presence when people are around.
His temperament and aggression in the ring, doing his job is THE reason he will stay at Winchester. I WANT that kind of fire and that kind of heat in an athlete. He will stop at nothing to be the best, even if it means he eats a few people along the way. All in all, he is my kinda dude.
That's it for the current show string. Like I said, its tiny, but it's fierce! I am looking forward to finishing up this month's events and I will see all of you at next months events!
