Spotlight on Our Member!

Gene and Rose Baron, Hyde Park, Utah

"There is a time to lead 'em and a time to leave'em"

Knowing when that time comes is a difficult decision, but we have decided that the time has come to leave 'em. After 33 years of raising horses, we have decided to retire from the horse business. We will be having a dispersal sale on Aug.31, 2002, in Salt Lake City, Utah. We are fortunate to have Snow Sales handle the sale. As most of you know, Jim Snow did Hank's sale in 1998, Larry and Shane Wiescamp's sale in 1999, and Larry and Charlotte Wilcox's sale in 2000. More about that later. Let me go back to the beginning, and tell about how we got started in the horse business, and how we got involved with the Wiescamp horses.

We lived in California in the sixties and had three young girls at the time, and I would get notes from them which would read "please buy us a horse, we will take care of it, and feed it. Check box yes or no." So, one Christmas we decided to surprise the girls and get them a horse. On Christmas Eve, after we got the girls to bed, I drove out to a pasture, caught this mare, and rode her bareback, across the freeway overpass, and through the sub-division. It was a cool, moonlit night, and as the mare was clomping along, I felt like the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.

One horse with three girls did not work too well, so not long after, we bought a couple more. A couple of years later, we sold our horses and moved to Utah. The first thing we did was to buy more horses. I built some "temporary " corrals out of lodge poles and bailing wire, which lasted for twelve years.

The first Skipper horse I remember seeing was Skipa at Dean Parkers sale in Logan, Utah. I thought he was really a nice looking horse. A neighbor of ours had just gotten into the paint horse business and we went to look at their horses, and they had a young stallion that I really liked, and his name was Skipa Star Jr. by Skipa Star. We went back several times and asked if they had any horses for sale. They took us up on the mountain and showed us some, and one young, loud overo mare caught my eye. Her name was Still A Lady, by Spanish Ruler, by Spanish Nick, out of Lecheria, by Brujo, APHA. Lecheria was purchased in foal from Joe Taylor and left at Taylor Creek Ranch to foal. Joe has told me that if he had known what she was carrying, he would have never sold her in foal.

A few years later, we bred Still A Lady to Surenuffskippa because of Joe's success in crossing Spanish Ruler daughters on Surenuffskippa. That mating produced Sure A Skippa. I thought "this is easy". Little did I know. Still A Lady has played a very important role in our breeding program. I have kept all of her produce until a couple of months ago when I sold Sure A Skippa. He has been my riding horse for the past fourteen years.

Hank told me "if you want to have a good breeding program, its like building a good house. You have to start with a good foundation." He meant that I needed good brood mares. He also said, " you can't have a good foundation if you keep selling all the bricks." At that time he had St. Sheila in the #1 hole, and I thought he was the best horse I ever saw. There was no way Hank would discuss selling St. Sheila daughters, so I took home a couple of other horses.

However, at his dispersal sale, I was able to get two St. Sheila mares, and purchased the only St. Sheila mare at Larry and Shane's sale, and the last, and only St. Sheila mare at Larry Wilcox's sale. The St. Sheila mare that I purchased at Hank's sale had a Spanish Grant overo filly on her. I was fortunate enough to be able to leave this mare to be bred to Skip Napoleon, his first outside mare. The next year I took four breeding stock mares to him and got three overos.

The four St. Sheila mares will be in our dispersal sale, plus seven daughters and one son out of Still A Lady. And there will be get from the following stallions: Skippers Shem-2, Skip Napoleon-4, Skippers Zane-2, Skippoleon-3, Skip N Union, St. Union-6, Silent Print-7, St. Strate-4, Silent Endeavor, Spanish Grant, Spanish Spot, Spanish Skill-3, Silent Season-4, Skip The Print-3, Surenuffskippa-3, Skippa Bar On, Surenuff Strate, Silent Servant-2, Spanish Ruler, Silent Bid, Skippa Cruse, Skipa Star Lad, Skipa Star Jr, Surenuff Twister, and Prince Print.

We also have a line-bred yearling homozygous Tobiano colt that goes back to Skipper W twenty-three times. We will have over sixty head, mostly paints. Outside consignments will be accepted for branded quarter horses, two years and older. This will be a line-bred Weiscamp sale. It is going to be as close to the trunk of the family tree as you can get. In the next month, I will be posting photos of some of the horses on my web site at skipperwbreeders.com. I will keep one horse, Skippoleon. I figured that, if I am going to ride off into the sunset, it may as well be on the best horse I have ever owned. Everybody is welcome to preview all the horses at the ranch between now and August 31. Hope to see you at the sale, and at the Old Fred Family Legacy Show . by Gene & Rose Baron