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Gina's Interview Series: Famous People From Around the World

Horse Trainer

Ann Stockstill

Welcome, Ann!  

Rancher and horse breeder, Ann is internationally known for her Homozygous Paint Horses....

Where is Coyote Creek Ranch?
 
Coyote Creek Ranch is located in Winona, Texas, USA, which is a small country town in East Texas centrally located between Tyler, Longview, Gladewater and Kilgore.  I am approximately 100 miles from Dallas and Shreveport, Louisiana. I have 165 acres of rolling land with 110 acres of pasture, 5 ponds and a spring fed lake that is 7 acres and stocked with catfish and perch. The remainder is in timber (a mix of Pine trees and hardwood).
 
Tell me about your life as a rancher and your horses…

I lived in the city all my life and taught middle school and junior high English and Science along with other subject areas for Pine Tree ISD in Longview for 29 years and later for Winona ISD for 7 years.   I had no aspirations to be a rancher but it rather fell in my lap when I married my second husband in 1993.  He owned cattle and liked living in the country so we sold my house in town and moved to the present location.  I bought my first horse, a Palomino gelding, about that time.  I had always wanted horses but never had a place to put them or the opportunity to own one.  My first horse, Skipper,  was a sweet natured horse that had been ridden by kids and then put out to pasture.  He was about 13 years old and gentle enough to ride bareback.
 

About 6 or 8 months later, we went to Idabel, Oklahoma and bought Peps Last Lady (AQHA own daughter of Mr San Peppy) to keep Skipper company and allow both of us to ride around the ranch and check cattle. About the time I bought Lady, I started noticing black/white paint horses and thought they were absolutely beautiful.  There were not many available so I started looking for one to buy and found a man in the Gladewater area that had a black and white stallion for breeding services.  I had never heard of a homozygous horse but found out that it meant they only threw paint offspring regardless of what they were bred to.  I decided to bred Lady to Sparky and the resulting foal was a black and white filly which I named Stormy. Not very original but she was born in February on a freezing night in the rain.  Lady was quite confused to have a black/white baby since all of her previous foals had been sorrel quarter horses.  It was really odd to see a sorrel quarter horse with a beautiful black/white filly.  I still have them both.  Lady is about 20 years old and Stormy is close to 14 years old.
 
In the next few years I began to look for other black and white paints and go to auctions in Shawnee, Oklahoma and Lufkin.  I bought several black/white paints including Color By Chick which had been bred to a double homozygous stallion, Summers Half Moon, owned by Dana James in Gladewater. The resulting foal was my multiple APHA/PtHA World and Reserve World stallion, Summers Chico Bandito Chico was the horse of my dreams.  Not only was he black/white but also homozygous for tobiano and the black gene.  He was splashy colored with one blue eye and one brown. Chico has such a sweet nature and athletic ability that I decided to send him to a trainer when he was two.  
 
Summers Chico Bandito has won World in steer stopping, heading and heeling and top honors and superiors along with thousands of points in heading, heeling, steer stopping, tie down roping and a few pts shy of superior in working cow horse. He has produced numerous offspring that have also won APHA World and PtHA World Championships in cattle events.  His foals have been sold internationally to Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela, Ireland, Sweden, Belguim, Canada and Mexico.  I ship cooled and frozen semen and hope to start exporting frozen semen to Australia in the
near future.
 
Out of the offspring winning World championships, I have Chicos Bandelero being shown in cattle events and standing at stud in Sanger, Texas. I have also owned World and Reserve World champions Chicos True To TexasChicos Delta Flyer Gold Bar, and Chicos Blonde at the BarChico's offspring are also being shown in reining, working cow horse, barrels, trail and other events.
 
I chose broodmares to bred to Chico that had World Class pedigrees and many have points and winnings of their own.  I look for own daughters of World Champions to get the best chance of getting athletic, good looking horses.  Chico's offspring have been blessed with his good nature and willingness to learn and perform.  Everyone is surprised to find that even with 100 horses at my ranch that they come to you wanting to be petted and groomed and we have no problem catching any of them.  They have been easy to train and even have been able to put as many as 10 stallions together with no problems.
 
I have also started breeding Chico to quarter horses with great pedigrees, such as, Shining Spark, Grays Starlight, Peppy San Badger, Hollywood Dun It, and Nu Chex to Cash to name a few.  I have a 8 month old filly out of a Chico filly that has World Champions top an bottom including Shining Spark and Nu Chex To Cash and she is already athletic and is has been a joy to start training.  She is bay and white with
one blue eye and one brown like her grandsire.
 
Chico has also been bred to Holsteiners to produce splashy colored dressage horses and hunter jumpers.  They are show stoppers in a ring with solid brown or gray horses.
 
In your opinion, do paints have a different disposition than other quarter horses?
 
In my opinion, paints have a better disposition than most of my quarter horses.  Their foals will come to you wanting attention where the quarter horse foals tend to be a more reserved and they take more time to come around wanting to be handled.  I think it is ridiculous for many cowboys and ropers to state that paints aren't as athletic or fast as quarter horses.  You can’t find a single paint horse that doesn’t have 
quarter horses and or TB on their pedigree.  The major difference is color.  I love to look at a pasture full of loud colored black/white or bay/white horses.  Their color adds so much to a parade or rodeo events than looking at sorrel or bay solid horses.  I think more should be used for mounted police work to help stand out in a crowd and they are great in movies; Hidalgo being one of the great paints in movies.
 
Where is your favorite place to ride?
 
My favorite place to ride is along a beach or a wooded trail.  Love to hear the sound of waves splashing against the shore or the quiet of a forest with only the sound of occasional birds chirping and the sounds that your horse makes as you move along the trail.
  
Where do you show? 

My horses are usually shown in shows in Texas (Ft Worth, Lufkin, Waco, Athens, Stephenville, Royse City, Katy, Houston) but we have shown in Monroe, Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi,  which also have some good paint shows.  Now that APHA requires paints to qualify for World  there may be a bigger interest in showing than since our economy took turn for the worse.   We show at the World Show in Ft. Worth along with the Stockshows in Houston and Ft. Worth.
 
What are your goals as an equestrian? 

It has been my goal to produce the best black and white horses that I can.  I breed not only for color but performance and disposition. I specialize in black/white double homozygous horses.  Many people do not understand what a homozygous horse is but they are horses that have been tested genetically and shown to only throw the paint gene so their offspring are paints.  Horses that are not homozygous
have about a 50% chance of throwing color and 50% chance of throwing a solid colored foal.  Horses that are homozygous for the black gene can throw black, bay, grulla, and buckskin but do not have the sorrel or chestnut gene. 
 
My international clients are mainly interested in black/white homozygous and preferably double homozygous horses.  They look at performance ability and the ability to throw color.
 
I really wish that our government was interested in helping ranchers with our drought situation.  Many horses are being starved, abandoned and sold for slaughter due to the expense of feeding and caring for them.  Horses have been a part of our heritage and culture for hundreds of years.  They are powerful, majestic creatures and need to be protected and given the dignity they deserve.  Lady ranchers could also use some help and respect these days to make ranching a profitable business to be in. 

Follow Ann


Michael Forester

Michael Forester is 
Chief Executive Officer of Equi-Earth, a division of New World Equine, an aspiring company pursuing excellence in equine care as well as state-of-the-art global equine acquisitions.  Currently surrounded by Arabian horses, Michael is an all-around equestrian.  He is also involved in networking kids with horses, an honorable vocation….
 
Where do you live?
 
I am originally from Western Wisconsin, USA, just across the State border from Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota. My official current residence is Las Vegas Nevada. I am currently looking for farms in both California and Kentucky.

When did you meet your first horse? 
 
Before I could walk. I was introduced to horses through a local friend / local who had horses and showed them in parade with his authentic stagecoach, which is currently in a museum.

How long have you been an equestrian?
 
I have had and worked with horses since I was 9 years old.  I currently represent top quality Arabian horses all over the world. I am putting together a new way to market Arabian horses that will be a game changer, reduce the cost of both selling as well as searching for purchases of Arabian horses (other breeds to eventually follow), the best part is that it would add, not subtract from, what others are already doing ... I am also putting together a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) to purchase LARGE equine related proprieties. I am talking about more than just a farm, taking advantage of the opportunities in the market with respect to value of acquisition which could pay for the acquisition in double quick time.
 
Who is your favorite horse trainer/method?
 
I have many that I like Bob Battaglia, a true horse-person's horseman; Shelia Varian, even though she does not show any more I love the way she never forgets that you need to make room for a horse to be a horse and that includes all of the champions she has bred throughout the decades; Michael Byatt, for the horseman he has become as well as an ambassador around the world that he is for the breed; Jay Allen, for the thoroughness in the job that he does in preparing a horse along with what he has done as the president of the Arabian Horse Association of Arizona.
 
I think Jeff & Jerry Schall do a good job, as well as Sandro Pinha.  Jenna Ball is someone people should consider as she is an up-in-comer in the industry (and I can certainly vouch for her family’s character personally)... so many more...
 
What is your favorite horse breed? Why?
 
The Arabian horse, for it's beauty, purity of blood, it's soulfulness that you can see in the eyes. They raise your spirits, inspire your creativity, and they help people raise their children, making them responsible for an animal they respect and helps them to create a positive identity for themselves in the show ring.

Do you spend long hours in the horse barn?
 
Yes, I am helping a friend take care of 35 Straight Egyptian (Al Khamsa) Arabians, plus one Polish bred Arabian. They were severely neglected for ten months.  They are all healthy now with some of them selling half way around the world.
 
Do you have a favorite horse quotation?  
 
“For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the king was lost; for the lack of a king the battle was lost; for the battle being lost the kingdom was lost and all for the want of a nail.”
 
What are your future goals as an equestrian and horse-lover?
 
  • The REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust)
  • ™The Charity (working with kids and horses).
  • ™Connect buyers and sellers in a way never thought of before.
  • ™Buy, sell, breed and show some of the finest horses in the world.

 
What advice do you have for those who would like to own a horse?

  • Buy or breed for what you like not what is the flavor of the month. Quality is always in fashion and fads are 15 minutes away from being 5 minutes ago.

  • Buy the best mare/mares you can find; the foal is at least 60% of the mare, and invest in old bloodlines.

  • Remember that no matter how much you pay for the horse, the purchase will be the cheapest part of ownership, so the purchase price should not be the primary limiting factor.

  • Have a plan for each horse (show horse, sale horse, broodmare, etc.)

  • Set a limit to how many horses you can handle - in expenses, time and attention. Don't buy more until you have sold one or more. Stay under your limit; if more people did this the market would be much healthier for all breeds.

  • If it were to ever come down to feeding the horse or yourself, the horse eats first, or you should not own.

  • Make time for your horse to be a horse, and not just work to a stall and back again (necessary if you want to maintain the horse’s mental health).

  • ™Most of all, own them because you like what we have in the breed, not because you think you can make a profit, or as a tax shelter.

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