People, who show horses, dream of one day owning a champion. This is the story of Gay Bars Silver My champion . . . my Appaloosa Champion!!!

Several years ago, in 1998, I purchased an old mare, Silver Roxie at the auction held during the National Appaloosa Show in Oklahoma City. There were two reasons for the purchase: First,  Roxie was in foal to I’ma Doc O’Lena, an outstanding sire of performance horses, and secondly, Roxie was somewhat Herndon bred.

My partner at that time and I were promoting the Herndon bloodline. I was actually told by her not to even consider purchasing the mare because of the age factor. Roxie was 17. But something about this mare drew me to her. I went against the advice  and purchased the mare on pure gut instinct.

Her top side had just enough Herndon blood to qualify her for our program. However, I believed it was the outstanding Quarter Horse bloodline, on that top side, and Silver Strikes Equal phenomenal performance record, on the bottom side that really gave her prestige. They had the show records and proven progeny in a variety of performance areas to back it up. Roxie’s sire The Poka Man was sired by The Ole Man an own son of Three Bars. Need I say more? The Poka Man’s dam, Herndon’s Pok-A-Dott, had mostly produced nicely marked halter-type Appaloosas. Roxie’s grand-dam,  Devil’s Musi), as it turned out, was a Thoroughbred mare that actually went all the way back to Man O War!! Roxie’s maternal grandsire was the great Appaloosa stallion, Silver Strikes Equal. Silver Strikes Equal defined the term; versatile athlete. He was a record setting race horse, National Champion halter horse and a National Champion performance winner. The icing on the cake for purchasing Roxie was the fact that she was in foal to the legendary, I’ma Doc O’Lena ... for many years and still to this day, one of the leading Appaloosa sires of performance horses AND an own son of the immortal Doc O’Lena!!!

Unfortunately, Roxie lost her I’ma Doc foal a few months after I got her home. My partner suggested that I breed Roxie to her old stallion, Gay Bars Jess. He was not much more than a tease stallion at her place, but he was an own son of Gay Bar King. Jess had never been shown due to an injury he received as a young horse. What few offspring he had sired were not being shown. In other words: no production record. He was also 22 years old.

I politely turned her down. I had heard of Gay Bar King, but never researched the stallion. I didn’t do anything the first year I had Roxie home; as it turns out she was foundered and was in need of corrective shoes, she was also thin and needed a rest. This was bad planning on my part and here’s why: it seems if an older mare skips a breeding season, it then becomes even more difficult (up to 50% more difficult) to get her in foal the following season. T.O.P. Appaloosas’ veterinarian, Dr. Dennis Stallings, said, "Even if we are able to get the old mare to conceive, she probably won’t carry to full term because she had aborted her previous pregnancy."

So, disheartened, I didn’t do anything. We let good ole Roxie, just be a horse. She was finally walking without pain, gaining weight and had a shinny coat.  She forlornly watched the foals from the ’98 season play in the pasture across from hers. continued >>

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