Skip Elite Bar (AKA Burt)

My Mother said the first word I ever said was horse. I have loved horses ever since I was a kid and got to ride the work horses on Granddads farm. My folks lived in town, but purchased several horses when I was 13, including a pregnant thoroughbred mare in foal to a Quarter Horse Stallion. The filly was mine and I named her - Shadow. I broke her and if ever a horse was ridden to death it was Shadow. When I married Gary in 1964 I moved to the farm; I took Shadow with me.

In the ten years that followed I raised several colts and four children. In the middle 70's we started raising Quarter Horses. The kids all showed at the County and State Fairs; and at tri-state shows. They won hundreds of trophies, plaques, over a thousand ribbons, a couple of saddles, a drawer full of belt buckles; and assorted tack.

We have a wonderful red dun stallion out of an own daughter of Magnolia Bar. His sire was out of an own daughter of Ed Echols. He has a ton of old foundation breeding. Teddy Bear Jet is 25 now and still going strong. Soon we had several of his daughters and were looking for something to breed them to. Our neighbors also loved horses and they came over one day and said that they wanted to buy a bay stallion; but they wanted us to stand him. I laughed as we were raising mostly colored horses. But they showed me his pedigree and his dam was dun, and his pedigree was loaded with color, so we thought he should cross on my Teddy Bear mares and keep the color. (It worked) I showed the pedigree to our local Skipper W breeder, Charlie Alloway; who had such good horses I was almost to shy to ask him what he thought. He said that if you didn't breed your mare to better than she was you were going the wrong way. The man had a really good idea and I have remembered it 20 years. He said this should be a really good one.

So, my daughter and I accompanied our friends to look at him. He was at Carol McMillan's Ranch in the barn with Skip Light Lee. He belonged to her trainers Carol and Allen Rice. They had purchased him at Youngker’s production sale in 1982. They had shown him, but they needed to sell him. She really did not want to. He was her baby!! When we drove up my daughter fell in love. He was tied outside and they were grooming him. He was not just a bay horse. He was the most beautiful mahogany bay. I had seen some blood bays but they did not compare in color to this horse. He just jumped out at you. He had a gorgeous jowl with huge kind eyes and the tiniest of ears. We were mesmerized. That first year we traded three mares for 50% interest. Three years later we owned 100%. The cross worked!!!!!!!! He crosses well with all kinds of mares, and when that gorgeous mahogany color comes out the foal nearly always looks just like him.

As a yearling Skip Elite Bar was the Hi-Point Yearling Stallion in Oklahoma. He won 32 class A and B shows. It was the last year before they gave points to yearlings or he would be a superior halter horse. He won: The Little Gym Futurity; Big T Futurity; Rogers County Yearling Stallion Futurity; & the 2nd Oklahoma City State Fair Yearling Futurity

CIRCUIT CHAMPION: Heart of Oklahoma Circuit at Shawnee (The first time I sold one of his colts at Shawnee the owner remem-bered Skip Elite Bar); Oklahoma City Mini Circuit; Tulsa Winter Holiday Circuit (He stood reserve behind The Barn Burner); He won 2 yr. old pleasure futurites. They had just shown him to a Grand Champion at Dewey, Ok.

After we got him, my 18 year old daughter showed him at the tri-state shows. She won every-thing, halter, pleasure, trail, western riding; he did it all. It was half way through the show season (20 shows) before some people realized that he was a stallion. She would sit around on him and visit with the other kids just like an old broke gelding. My daughter has shown his colts and they have also done well; although we have upped the competition. It is really hard to win against the big trainers when you do all the work yourself. Some of these are: Skips Touch of Class AQHA 1st; Kansas Breeders Futurity 2nd; American Royal 3rd; Elite Dream Master; Kansas Breeders Futurity 4th; AQHA points; Skips Obvious Money (Granddaughter); ABRA (American Buckskin Registry Ass'n.) 3 yr. old Snaffle Bit Futurity Reserve World Champion; 4th ABRA Halter, 4th ABRA Trai; Winner KBHA (Kansas Buckskin Horse Ass'n.) 3 yr. old snaffle bit maturity; ABRA ROM, ABRA Honor Roll.

Skip On Smoothly Bar.

This great roping horse belongs to some of our repeat customers. They like to ride colts out of Skip Elite Bar and Teddy Bear Jet daughters. Bill has four of these colt crosses in his roping pen. His wife Jana has had a wonderful barrel racer with the same bloodlines. They are solid. They are quiet, but can answer the call when asked. It is much better than sitting on a keg of dynamite that is about to explode Jana says. They don't just have good dispositions, they have personality.

We have daughters, granddaughters; and great granddaughters. They are all family horses. We imprint our foals and people are just amazed at how gentle our mares are. We can walk out in the pasture and the mares and foals are all over you wanting attention. What fun would they be if you couldn't get closer than 30 feet away (I have been to some places like that). I hope that my children and grandchildren will be able to appreciate this line of horses for years to come. They have such good minds.

In the 1980's our family went on vacation to Colorado. Of course, we visited the Wiescamp Ranch. Hank sold a stallion to Brazil for an unbelievable amount while we were there. I will never forget going through the old log pens looking at horse after horse. Then we went to different barns and pastures. Each horse as good as the last or better. They were all so uniform. I will never forget the pastures full of beautiful horses.

When my second Grandson was two he wanted to help feed. So I gave him a 1/4 can of feed; and my daughter and I continued feeding. A few minutes later we missed Justin. We couldn't find him in the barn anywhere. We found him outside in the pen with Burt. He had crawled under the gate with his 1/4 can of feed and poured it in the feeder. He was crouched on his haunches right by the stallions head (which alone probably weighed more than Justin) and he was very intently watching Burt eat. After my heart stopped pounding and we retrieved Justin only then were we amazed by what we already knew. Skip Elite Bar is truly a very Special Horse. THE END

Lou Hucke