Spotlight on Our Member!
October 2006

Hi Everyone,   

I was probably 10 years when I lived in Illinois. I was taking riding lessons at our local stables when I fell in love with “Lad” one of the horses I was taking lessons on.  My mom and dad knew their horse-crazed daughter loved this horse so they purchased him for me.  “Lad” was an unregistered gelding and was also older than we had thought.   My instructor knew the people who had owned him and said he was Skipper W bred.   I had so much fun with him.  Those were the days when you could trail ride with friends all day when school was out.

The riding / boarding stables had been sold to make way for a new subdivision.  Sadly I didn’t have a place to keep him any longer so we had to sell him.   It was a sad day in deed for me.  

It wasn't until I was old enough to pay and care for my own horses that I started my next venture with Skipper W's.  I met my best friend Renee at a  horseshow and she liked Appaloosa's so I began looking around and found a nice mare and bred her to a son of Prince Plaudit. She had a beautiful few spot leopard filly Princess Del Rio aka “Princess”. We belonged to our local Appaloosa club.   Our filly, Princess won at the Blackhawk Fall Futurity in Illinois.   What a thrill to have her win!!

Princess had a hernia.  I took her in for surgery and she died from the anesthetic they gave her.  It broke my heart and was a difficult time for me. Her sire died of colic complications so I was unable to breed back trying for another filly just like Princess. However, I bred to a few other stallions and had fun with the resulting foals. 

We had always taken our vacations in Colorado to see my brother and family.  My brother said, “Why don't you move out here”.   It sounded good to me so I moved to Woodland Park, Colorado. Right away I started to look around for breeders in the area and another mare. In the mean time I met and married Dale Ward.

The two of us looked around at different breeders Larry McLarty and Mildred Janowitz. We traveled to Longmont, Colorado and met Richard and Marlyn Swalde.  We really liked the horses they were raising. We bred to Skipster's Hank and the resulting foal was a nice filly.  

We joined Rocky Mountain Quarter Horse Association and saw Cody and Phyllis Highland’s horse add.  We went and saw their horses and were very impressed. We bred our mare to Heza Premium twice and have two full sisters in our broodmare band.  They’re both very nice mares!!   

Later we bred one Heza Premium daughter to St Union and the other to their older stallion Stage Like. The St Union colt won his weanling class and last year our filly by Stage Like won the weanling filly class all at the Loveland Colorado shows.  We also have done very well at the Rocky Mountain Quarter Horse Fall Futurity. 

Cody and Phyllis told us they were going down to Hank Wiescamp’s estate sale. It was a unique experience to watch Cody Highland bid and purchase St Union.  It was so exciting to see the horses we had always heard about and saw part of the history before it was gone. We have several pictures from the sale.  Our favorite is a band of older bred mares all standing together with those "Big Hips". 

We currently have a small breeding operation we started about 10 years ago.  Our broodmares consist of the bloodlines of Heza Premium, Premium Skip and Ima Cool Skip and Stage Like.  

We are expecting foals in 2007, by Phenomenal Creation a Dun Skipa Star Bred stallion and Colors Celebrity he is by Color me Skip. We enjoy looking at different Skipper W stallions for the upcoming breeding season.  

Over the past years we have shown and won at the Rocky Mountain Fall Futurity and the Shoemaker ~ Skipper W shows.

 Here are some of our horses ~ We Love those Babies

	This is Comet he was 1st in Open and 2nd in the Shoemaker ~ Skipper W futurity.  He is by Too Hot To Splash and our mare Premium Lace.
This is a Sheza Special Unionwith her Color’s Celebrity 2006 colt.

Sculptured By A St aka “Annie”
And 
Her yearling full brother 
Heza Silent King aka “Buddy” 

If you’re traveling along I-80 in Nebraska we are 10 miles SW of North Platte give us a call.

308-534-8948

Take Care
Dale and Christine Ward