After going through a sensational 2001 show season, CH Rob Me Blind was humanely put down Monday, August 26, 2002 following a long illness. The black son of Periaptor and Bewitched Goddess by Oak Hill’s Dear Sir was bred by Rob Tanner and sold to Bill and Becky Byrom as a yearling.
Rob Tanner first showed Rob Me Blind in harness winning the 1999 ASHA National Three-Year-Old Fine Harness Futurity Reserve World’s Championship and then going on to Kansas City to win the UPHA Three-Year-Old Fine Harness Classic Finals.
In 2000 he made his debut as a gaited horse and took Freedom Hall by storm winning the Junior Five-Gaited Stallion/Gelding World’s Championship and then went on to win junior stakes at the Kentucky Fall Classic and Kansas City where he was purchased by Nancy Leigh Fisher and place in training with Andy and Lynda Freseth’s Hollow Haven Farm.
Under their guidance the now five-year-old was nothing short of sensational in the amateur ranks with Fisher. They began the year winning two classes at Springfest moving on to another blue ribbon performance at Milwaukee. At the highly competitive Midwest Charity they would win the Amateur Five-Gaited Grand Championship and amateur stallion/gelding qualifier and then head to the Blue Ridge Classic and have the same results for one last tune up before Louisville.
With the crowd cheering, Rob Me Blind and Nancy Leigh Fisher captured the Amateur Five-Gaited Reserve World’s Grand Championship and then closed out the year winning the qualifier at the American Royal before coming back as the Amateur Five-Gaited Reserve Grand Champions. That would be their last show together.
“He was very smart, very willing, very inquisitive,” said his trainer Andy Freseth. “I’ve never had a horse that tried to please you as much as he did. He was very talented and intense. This horse had a great desire to do what ever you asked of him. He wasn’t too pretty standing around here but he had a unique ability to transform himself when he went to work. I’ve been lucky to have a few pretty nice gaited horses and I think he would have been the best of the bunch had he lived long enough. He made me look smart.”
Rob Me Blind was buried at Hollow Haven Farm next to another former great gaited star, CH Unattached.