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The reining world lost a very special horse this year, Colonels Smoking Gun, which all
of his fans knew as Gunner. One of the best performing horses and producing horses, ever,
in the reining world. He will be missed, by not only the producers, the trainers, but
also the fans.
When we bought Gunner, I bought him not on a whim, I thought he would be a sire, but I was fortunate enough to ride a handful of
colts that he had sired already, when we made the deal to buy him, so I had the feel that
his colts, every one I rode wanted to stop a lot. That's a big part of what I hunt for
so we made the deal on him and I just hoped. Cause when we bred him, he probably didn't
have, if he had a hundred colts on the ground, that was it. From the time we got him, we
bred over a hundred mares and we were fortunate that people called and said "We're so glad
you got him, it will make it easier for us to breed to him." That was a great feeling
when we got him that people were that interested in him. Then the rest was history.
These last two years he's just been incredible, his colts have won first and second at the Reining Futurity
last year, they came back and they won the Derby. Last year, his colts won a million
and a half dollars themselves. Just his colts. There's not another stud in the industry that
has had colts be first and second at the Reining Futurity, ever. He did his job way better
than I ever expected him to.
When Tim purchased him, he talked to me before he got him here and told me what he was doing and asked what I thought and I thought it's
a really good horse. I've bred some mares to him and I think it's probably a good move
for you. I'll never forget, I was riding in the arena here and I looked across the street,
I see this bald faced horse running in that front pen. I just picked up my phone and called
him and said "Hey, Tim, you need to fire some of your help." He said "What's wrong?" and
I said "Well, they just painted that white face and turned that pretty sorrel house and
now he's got white all over his head and his tail and his legs, turned that beautiful sorrel
horse into a paint horse." He just laughed at me. It was a sad day when he passed here.
I competed against him all those years but he still kind of gets in your heart and I
don't know why that flop eared thing did it but he got into you.
His full name is Colonels Smoking Gun and he got nicknamed Gunner. In fact they used
it on his competition license for the NRHA stuff. I saw him early in his three-year old
year but then he went on and was second in the Reining Futurity and then he was second
in the NRBC, tied for second, and then he went on and won the USET deal in Gladstone, New Jersey.
That was the last he'd been shown then. He won $177,000 himself and everybody
loved him. He was this cute little bald faced horse with floppy ears and they loved him.
When he walked in the pen, when Clint was showing him, when Bryant Pace both were showing
him, the crowd went crazy when they walked into the pen. He was pretty popular. My neighbor
across the road, Dell, when we first got Gunner, he said "I don't know, I don't know."
Well we went through the one sale, the first sale that we had the Gunner colts in and they
sold real good and he said, "You know what, you did it again. You've found one that people
are going to like." It's been true. It was a different look, a different breed, but it
sure did work.
My career with Gunner was a little bit different. Everybody remembers him winning. Well, I was showing against him and I had a really nice
horse that I showed against him at that time and probably my first memory was our first
NRBC in 1998, I was showing Mister Boomer Jack and Gunner won the first go around, and
I was second in the go around. I drew up, in the finals I was drawing number 3, I marked
a 226 and guess what, Gunner was the last one to go and so when Gunner walked out, he
had a really nice run and they marked him a 225. 5, the crowd booed. The crowd booed!
Because they thought Gunner should win it. Well I ended up winning and it was my first
major event win and that's just how my career went. I showed against him and every time
out, I'd win one and he'd win one, it was back and forth. I can remember when they inducted
him into the Hall of Fame, it kind of made me mad. "Why is he so dang famous? Why is
he going into the Hall of Fame?" But when you think back, he was a very,
very famous horse.
You know, I think Gunner's impact in the industry is greater than any other stud that we've seen. As much as anything because any practice
pen you go to around the country, you look out there and you see white faces and white
legs. It's changed the industry completely and then he's done enough, outside of what
they look like, he's done enough with the actual product of how they go perform.
He's turned into the go to sire. The question is, if you've got a really great mare, okay who
are you going to breed her to? If you're going to get 2 or 3 embryos out of her, who you
going to breed her to? The answer is almost always Gunner and somebody else and somebody
else. It's always Gunner and ... he's always the first horse you think about, at least
for us. I manage probably 30 of the best brood mares in the country for various clients throughout
the world and that's our go to stud. We try to have as many of them here as we can because
we've never seen anything like it. There's 7, 8, 9 horses in the finals every year by
Gunner. We've never had a stud do that. The industry is going to miss him terrible.
I was not even close to being ready to have Gunner go. I just wasn't prepared for it.
We haven't saved any ***. It just happened way too fast. He was fat and happy and getting
along fine and then, boom, he was gone. We've bred a lot of mares this year, it was a great
year. It makes me sick because I think he would have taken over the industry as far
as being the leading sire, bar none, but it's going to get cut short now.
Gunner was deaf but I don't think that affected his ability to do anything or what he passes
on to his colts, obviously, because they're winning everything there is to win right now.
He was deaf but it was never really an issue for him and if anything it probably was a
little bit of an advantage to him when he showed sometimes. The day after he passed
away, I just posted on my Facebook, post Gunner and I told a couple of my friends, let's just
post Gunner for the day. Every time I looked at my phone and every time I looked at Facebook
95%, of the people just put Gunner. People I didn't know, people from overseas, people,
there were thousands of them that posted Gunner, Gunner, Gunner, Gunner...all over. It was
unreal that a horse can impact that many people.
He died from laminitis and he got bit by something that started this whole process and it was about a 3-week process. We just couldn't get
it to reverse. I'm not one to make him suffer. You could have been greedy and tried to peg
leg him along. He did his job.
When Gunner passed away, we buried him out front next to Hollywood Dun It and when Hollywood Dun It passed away, we left his stall empty
so we're vacillating on what to do with Gunner's stall. We'll probably put up a memorial to
him at his stall along with where we buried him out front by Dun It. We may just put the
mare that I show may live in his stall. It'll just take special horses to get to live in that stall
anymore. They'll have to earn their right to live in Gunner's stall is kind of what
our plan it from here forward.
We buried him right next to Hollywood Dun It out in front of our arena there and we're building him a gravesite and we'll just put
laid to rest. He made his own legacy and he'll be in the history books.
Steve, I know as a cowboy one of the most important things is the health of the animal
and not only that but the health of you and I as well. Tell us a little bit about the
health pen you've got here. Well, this is what we've got. One version of the herd health
pen. We've got another one, a 10 x 10 behind us. The nice thing about this is by utilizing
one of these, you can help a unwilling mama cow or a young heifer or you can pull off
a sick cow or bull and bring him into here and separate him from the rest of the animals,
keep him close to your house, and be able to take care of him without having to run
out into the pasture. Definitely a safety for the animals and helping
them out. Show us a little bit about how this gate is helpful for you and I.
Well, the nice thing about this health pen, you've got the safety latch, you've got a
split gate on both this gate and the other gate on the opposite side of the animal so
once you get the animal in here as you swing this around the safety latch here will hit
each one of these stops and keep it from coming back on you. So as you push that animal in
here, ease him into the automatic head catch, the nice thing about that is it automatically
catches them. You don't have to be up there to operate that head gate. So as you push
this around, this will act as a squeeze so you can squeeze that animal in there, keep
him from bouncing around. If you need to kick this bottom gate out to bring in that calf
Welcome to Yukon, Oklahoma, home of Garth
Brooks and the Express Clydesdales. You know Garth always said "those wild horses keep
dragging me away." These horses are also known as the gentle giants. Six of these magnificent
animals hitched together, definitely bring the house down.
Today we have the pleasure of Tabitha, the events coordinator, is going to show us around
the barn and maybe tell us a bit about the Express Clydesdale. The first question is
about the names. This is Prince here. Every stall had a different name. Did you come up
with those names or where did they come from? Some of them come from the breeders that we
get them from but occasionally we pick a name. The next one is Rocky so I wonder if he...
I think Rocky came with his name. We actually got him from some Amish men about 5 years ago.
Is there a story behind that?
Not really, he's just an awesome horse we found at a sale.
The first question you have with Prince, wasn't there a pretty famous couple you got to meet
last year? There was. We actually named one of the horses
Duke after doing that deal. Last year up at the Calgary Stampede, we got the privilege
of hauling Prince William and Kate on our stagecoach that we have here. We have two
of the horses in the barn today that were part of that deal.
What is the average age of the Clydesdales in here or is there a certain age that they
start going to shows? To have one that is hauling royalty, they need to be seasoned
workhorses? Right. We used some of our older ones on that
one but they range in age from 4 years old to probably their mid-teens. We usually start
them here about 3, maybe 4 years old. They've hit their full height, they may have some
weight to gain but at least they're matured enough to start driving.
For one of these Express Clydesdales, how tall are they?
They're measured in hands so they're going to be anywhere from 17 1/2 hands to our tallest
is 19.1. He's a big boy. What is the world record?
I'm not sure but Jack is probably in the top 25 in the country probably. An 18 hand horse
is 6 foot just to their withers. That is how you measure it, to their withers?
Not how high they can hold their head? No, because that would probably be 9, 10, 11 feet.
Wow, what a barn!
Yeah, it's pretty neat, huh? When was this barn built?
It was originally built in 1936 and then was restored by the Amish in 1998 so when Mr.
Funk bought it, it had over a 4 foot lean to the north. The Amish men got it straight
within a day and a half. And then put it together board by board.
What kind of events do you have here at the Express Clydesdales?
All kinds of events. We have tons of birthday parties, weddings, baby showers, anything
you want to have a party for, we can help you out.
Is there a special ration these Express Clydesdales are on? How many pounds a day do they eat?
They're on a pretty strict diet but they eat 10 - 12 pounds of their grain a day. And about
35 pounds of hay so that's about a half of one of those bales back there.
Wow, they have an expensive little eating habit there!
Thankfully, I don't get that bill. We feed them a nice big scoop.
I'll help you out here. Then we mix some other things with them.
Ah, healthy! Is this to help their coat or what?
Yeah, it'll help keep their coat nice and shiny and keep them healthy.
They eat protein for their hoofs as well? Yep, we use The Patriot and then I just mix
it up a little bit. If you don't mix it up are they picky eaters?
They'll kind of pick around it, take the fattening stuff and not the vitamins?
Every horse is different. They all eat different.
Tabitha tell us just a little bit about the history of the Express Clydesdales. We're owned by Bob Funk and he owns Express
Employment Professionals. He was introduced to the Clydesdales back in 1998 at a show
called Agribition. He just fell in love with them. He decided to have the black and white
Clydesdales which are a lot more rare. They are about 10% of the breed. He purchased the
hitch in '98 and has since used them as a marketing ambassador for his company.
So Tabitha, these horses are work horses so do you exercise them?
About 5 days a week. Wow, they get a better workout than I do.
This looks like a king-sized merry-go-round kind of. I'm going in. I'm going in.
How long do you put them on the walker? They'll go anywhere from 45 minutes to an
hour, hour and a half. Kind of a toning exercise to keep a little
bit of fat off them? Uh huh. It just conditions them.
So this is the big trailer you haul them all in? Let's look inside and see what you've
got. Okay.
Nothing's going to jump out is it? I hope not.
Wow, look at all this stuff in here. What all can you pack in this semi trailer?
We either hold our show wagon or our stagecoach, all the harness we need, and then up to 9 horses.
This is the harness here. I want to see if you can lift one of these collars.
You'd have to lift it up over the horse's head. Which is 6, 7 feet high.
This is the collar, huh? Oh, I could carry this around all day long! This thing is heavy and fancy.
They probably weigh up to 75 lbs. At least 75! I'm going to put it back on the
rack before I break something. I don't want to mess Rio's collar up.
Thanks for showing us around today. Sure, it's been a lot of fun.
This is where the cowboy rides away. This way's west right?
Uh, yeah. I'm going to ride off into the sunset.
Thank y'all. See you next week.