Shoemaker Skipper W Bloodlines, Inc.

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Spotlight Archive

Spotlight on Our Member!
July 2007

Springledge Quarter Horse Farm
W. Gary & Susan K. Mangus
214 Knight Road
Hickory, KY 42051

(270) 856-3951
(315) 247-1538 cell
(315) 247-1968 cell

gsmangus@wk.net

Although my husband Gary and I got into Skipper W bred horses later in life than many other club members, we have always been involved with horses. Gary had horses of the live / breathing variety all his life, while the horses of my youth were plastic and small.   I always wanted a horse but my mother told me one day, after many pleas on my part, that while they could afford to buy me a horse they could not afford the upkeep because we lived in a large city. I learned a lesson in economics at a young age !   After college and starting teaching I did buy my first horse - an appendix QH mare which I showed HUS. When we married, we began with that mare, two other mares, and a foundation stallion.

We became involved with Skipper W horses in 1987 when we purchased a Palomino mare at the PHBA World Sale (sight unseen). Jack Strong dispersed most his horses at that sale and one was "Silketta" - by Silky Fox and out of a Skipper bred mare, in-foal as one of 2 test mares to a young stud named Imapressive Too that Jack also owned.

In the spring of 1988 she foaled a fantastic Palomino filly that really put us "on the map".   As a yearling "Impressions In Silk" earned numerous AQHA Halter points and Grands, and did even better Palomino showing.   After all the winning this filly did in one year, that fall we contacted the then owner of Imapressive Too in Louisiana and arranged to buy him in October of 1989. Imapressive Too was an own son of Impressive and out of a top producing daughter of Triple's Image. We showed him for one year in 1990, earning Halter points, Grands, AQHA World's qualifier, and 4 State High Point titles, and then decided to get his foals out showing.

We quickly noticed that whenever we bred him to a mare with any Skipper W blood, the foals were consistently outstanding. Even though we lived at that time in the Northeast (New York State), Skipper W / Wiescamp bred horses were well known for 2 reasons. First, the great Wiescamp bred Appaloosa stallion Prince Plaudit stood for many years in Pennsylvania; and second, the Quarter Horse breeding program at Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA. Dr. Tom Merritt, a professor at Penn State and head of the Animal Science Program, had gone to Alamosa, CO, in 1971and purchased for the university the Palomino stallion Skip Sioux (Skip's Reward x Summer Madness - herself by Sir Bar and out of Summer Cash by Spot Cash), from Larry and Charlotte Wilcox. Skip Sioux put Penn State on the AQHA Leading Breeders list for many many years. Skip Sioux was a performance point earner himself and excelled at producing fantastic foals (Color Me Skip is

      Skip Sioux was 20 years old
             when Susan K. Mangus
                 took this photo !

probably his best known son), but many people are unaware of what a tremendous broodmare sire he, Skip Sioux, really was.

We purchased our first Palomino Skip Sioux daughter at one of Penn State's yearly sales of 2 YOs, and liked her so much we eventually bought another 4 Palomino Skip Sioux daughters for 5 altogether: Skips Gay Hostess, Skips Blond Dude, Skips Fairy Gold, Skips Pink Champagne, and Whims Last Skipper. Nowhere else in the world could you find 5 Palomino Skip Sioux daughters at one place and at one time. These mares, crossed on Imapressive Too, along with the mare Silketta, produced many wonderful horses including: Impressions In Silk - 1995 PHBA Honor Roll #1 Road Hack / 1995 Honor Roll #7 HUS, earner of also almost 200 PHBA Halter points, and 21.5 AQHA Halter points...... Imapressive Skip 1999 PHBA World Champion Youth Aged Gelding / Honor Roll Horse / PHBA Superior Halter... Imapressive Rico AQHA Open Halter ROM

and 9.5 Amateur Halter pts. .... Imapressive Fairly PHBA Halter ROMs Open and Amateur.... and many other ROMs in both Halter and Performance AQHA - PHBA - APHA, Futurity winners and State High Points. Imapressive Too also sired horses such as Imapressive Sunny - PHBA World Champion Weanling Halter 3rd place ... Dandeimprressive Dude - PHBA World Champion 3rd place Jr. WP and at the same show 4th place Jr. HUS and 1996 PHBA Honor Roll Amateur WP 7th place... and Imapressive Gold - 1995 PHBA Honor Roll #5 Road Hack.

When he died in 2002 at age 18 (due to a recurrence of laminitis originally suffered as a yearling), Imapressive Too's get had earned 3000+ PHBA points in Halter and Performance...most of those
offspring from Skipper W bred mares.

We decided in late 2002 to purchase another stud, and because we were keeping some of the last Imapressive Too daughters, it seemed a good idea to look for a Skipper bred stud to breed them to. After a very long search (an entire story in itself) we finally found Saints Glory (by Fame And Glory - Sir Raleigh x Fame Martha Day - and out of the

branded mare Shi Duina - Fly Duino x St Jewel). I remember telling my husband that I had "good news and bad news" - yes I had found the colt that I thought would really work for us and our program, BUT he was living near San Francisco (we were still in New York State).

Two months and 4 time zones later, "Santo" arrived in New York. We showed him lightly in New York, earning Halter points and Grands, and 2 State High Point awards... even though many people had told us Skipper W bred horses could not get AQHA Halter points in this day and age.

In 2004 Gary and I decided it was time to leave New York State (we hate snow). We sold the older Skip Sioux mares, and moved here to Hickory, Kentucky, in the fall of 2004 with the "kids". "Santo" continued to earn more AQHA Halter points here in KY, and was also High Point Open and Amateur 3 YO Stallion for the KyQHA in 2005. Since then, we have added a few more mares with the Impressive / Skipper W cross .... including our filly White Downtown Girl, a cremello, who is, in spite of her color, earning AQHA Halter Points Open and Amateur, and standing Grand. Our goal has been and is to breed Palomino horses with the Impressive / Skipper W cross that can both halter and ride. We have not shown much ourselves in performance classes over the past years only because we are now too OLD to break and train our own horses, and we have yet to find a good trainer we can trust, and whose philosophies agree with our own (ie: natural movement, bringing a youngster along slowly, no snatching at the mouth etc.). We do enjoy and continue to show Halter, especially with the babies.

Thanks for listening and reading this "little" history - we look forward to continuing to be a part of this super club with all it's great people!