People’s Choice - Arrowhead’s Dreamcatcher and Pour Some Sugar On Me
Monday, February 25, 2008
(Editor’s note: A complete list of all People’s Choice winners is posted in a separate news item.)
by Ann Bullard
If Deborah Butler had to choose which type of saddle horse held the largest part of her heart, five-gaited horses would be the answer. Road horses would follow closely behind. This year, her two five-gaited stars swept your junior five-gaited ballots. Her well-proven Dirt Devil garnered your votes for the Reserve Ladies Roadster To Bike.
For Butler, much of the 2007 season was one to rebuild. Linkin Park, the gaited horse she expected to show, had an injury that sidelined him for his five-year-old season. Trainer Todd Miles brought along her two junior horses while Butler “spent much of the season sitting in the stands.”
Why Arrowhead’s Dreamcatcher? Melinda Moore named him. “I thought this very special colt deserved a very special name. He was always beautiful and kind, and acted like someday he would be somebody. He has,” Moore said.
Miles rode Arrowhead’s Dreamcatcher to win
the Junior Five-Gaited Stallion and Gelding
World’s Championship as well as your votes
for People’s Choice Junior Five-Gaited Stallion
and Gelding of the Year.
Dreamcatcher was bred to rack. His sire, Periaptor, had a successful five-gaited career with the late Charlie Judd and Bill Sutton. The late Don Hulse bred the Supreme Spirit daughter, Beautiful Tina, to his great stallion, Champagne Fizz, to produce Dreamcatcher’s dam, The Fizz-Is-On.
Dreamcatcher had one show on his resume when Butler purchased him in May 2007. A few weeks later, he and Miles began their successful partnership, winning the Junior Five-Gaited Stallion and Gelding and Junior Five-Gaited Championship at Indianapolis. Louisville was up next with the team riding off with the Junior Five-Gaited Stallions and Geldings World’s Championship in a class of 17 entries.
“By the end of the year, I got to ride again,” Butler said, acknowledging that riding the lightly-shown four-year-old was a challenge. She stepped up on the Dreamcatcher at St. Louis Charity, earning the Amateur Ladies Five-Gaited blue and amateur grand championship. They wound up the season with a pair of yellow ribbons in the American Royal’s very competitive amateur five-gaited competition.
Pour Some Sugar On Me captured your votes for
the Junior Five-Gaited Mare of the Year. They won
the reserve world’s champion of championship
in Louisville’s Junior Five-Gaited Stake and
the American Royal Junior Five-Gaited blue.
Pour Some Sugar On Me came from Spencer Mains’s breeding program. Mains chose to breed his CH Courageous Admiral daughter, Feather Light, to CH Callaway’s Gold Rush. The mare, whose dam is out of a Harshmont The Great daughter, had a successful career in five-gaited competition with Charlie Judd and later Janet Green in the irons. Callaway’s Gold Rush, by CH Will Shriver, enjoyed a good show ring career in the five-gaited division with trainers Tom Moore, Redd Crabtree and Rob Brison. Their daughter has lived up to her bloodlines.
“It’s a little funny how she came to be,” said Mains, who gave the mare her interesting name. “I sent Kim and Peter [Cowart] to Melissa’s [Moore] for the Bluegrass Auction. I had told Peter there were three stallions I was interested in, if their services could be bought reasonably. He called to say he got a couple I wanted – and Callaway’s Gold Rush, one he knew I really wanted.
“Feather Light was at Dr. [Rob] Foss’s [at Equine Medical Services in Columbia, Mo.] to be bred. We pulled two embryos – Sugar and Platinum’s What A Rush,” Mains added, pointing out that the gelding is being shown successfully in junior exhibitor five-gaited competition in the Northeast. The two are half-siblings to Mains’s stallion, the I’m A New Yorker son, Joe Fabulous.
Brian Chappell introduced Pour Some Sugar On Me to the show ring, winning the 2005 Bluegrass Futurity Two-Year-Old Fine Harness title. The following year, Lance Williamson showed the mare to win the UPHA Five-Gaited Classic at Kentucky Spring Premier and a reserve in Rock Creek’s Classic competition. Butler bought her shortly before the 2006 World’s Championship Horse Show, entrusting her to Todd Miles and the Shively team at DeLovely Farm. That summer, she was reserve in the Three-Year-Old Five-Gaited Futurity at the Kentucky State Fair and earned a reserve title in the UPHA Five-Gaited Classic Finals at the American Royal.
Sugar and Miles put together a memorable 2007 season, highlighted by a reserve world’s champion of championship in Louisville’s Junior Five-Gaited Stake and the American Royal Junior Five-Gaited blue.
Getting to ride all three of her gaited horses highlighted Butler’s recent visit to DeLovely Farm. “On our second or third trip down the hall, I made the mistake of clucking to Sugar. She jumped up in the air and went sideways. Todd said, ‘Don’t cluck to her unless you’re ready to go somewhere.’
“My favorite description of her? She has the statuesque beauty of Nicole Kidman and the bawdy pushiness of Bette Midler and Madonna. She likes her job and gets better and better. She’s very quick and very hyper,” Butler said.
Miles spoke of the two five-year-olds and Linkin Park, all of which will be Butler’s mounts for most of the year. “She has three totally different horses. Sugar is a very game horse and awfully powerful for a mare. And she’s real handy in the ring.
“If a class is close, there are two things that work in her favor. She can ‘out-grind’ the competition,” he said, comparing Sugar to a little machine. “I don’t think she’s ever even tried to get tired. And if you find a hole and point her to it, she’ll get right through.
“Dreamcatcher had only been shown once when we bought him from Rob Tanner. It took at while to get him to show like he works at home,” Miles said.
At Louisville, Miles said he rode conservatively the first way. “On the reverse, Lesley [Miles] was on the rail. She told me I’d better get busy, set the horse’s head and get to riding. I rode him like a road horse under saddle. It was awesome, like a light bulb had come on. I’ve never had a horse that totally changed in a matter of minutes.
“The neat part about him is that he is very athletic. He separates his gaits and will get stronger and stronger as time goes on. He’s a horse Deborah can ride and have fun on,” Miles said.
“Dreamcatcher is so talented,” Butler added. “He’s so sweet; he gives you kisses in the stall. Get on him and he transforms into a five-gaited racking machine. He seems unassuming, like a nerdy, geeky high-school boy. He’s like Toby McGuire’s character in Spiderman. When you call on him, a super powerhouse emerges. You’ve got this explosive, incredible gaited horse under you. It’s like a rocket taking off.”
What lies ahead for the pair of five-year-olds? Butler is looking forward to showing them both as well as Linkin Park.
“They are three distinctly different horses and very different from Callaway’s Lil Abner and Carolina Cat. They’re quite a challenge,” she said.
“I bought a new riding habit last year when I was getting ready to show Linkin Park. My goal is to wear out that habit this year.”
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