AFIRES HEIR “He answered every question. Each time we took him to the show, people expected something more of him and he never let them down.”
He was shown for 4 years, twice at Scottsdale and 4 times at the U.S. Nationals. He never lost a class. He was never second on a judge’s card … ever. He was U.S. National Unanimous Champion 4 times, once in Junior Horse and 3 times in Open. Afires Heir was such a special horse that Joel
refers to showing him as a “Mission to Mars”, inferring that showing horses of this caliber qualifies as one of life’s truly great adventures. Bill Reilich calls his and Shirley’s experience of owning Afires Heir like “…catching lightning in a bottle.” Afires Heir loved being a show horse but didn’t much care for show blankets. He tolerated them while he was being shown, but the day they brought him home for good, he took off his blankets himself, tucked them neatly in a corner and refused to ever wear them again. Afires Heir’s offspring began arriving in 2006. Of the 6 registered purebreds in that initial foal crop, 2 went on to become national winners, both in English divisions. His first national winner was BL Heir Supreme, a 2010 U.S. National Top Ten English Pleasure Junior Horse. It happened the same week and the same year that
Heirs Noble Love Afires Heir x Noble Aphroditie
2016 U.S. National Unanimous Champion English Pleasure Open
Proudly owned by Karlton Jackson
Afires Heir took his fourth and final U.S. National Championship. “There are never any guarantees that great show horses will be great sires,” says Joel. “Who could have guessed that within
a decade, Afires Heir’s sons and daughters would embark upon show careers that would put a number of them in the same league as their sire?” Interestingly, Afires Heir’s rise as an Arabian English sire paralleled the arrival and rise in importance of the AEPA classes at the Ohio Buckeye, Scottsdale, and most recently, the U.S. National Championships. Afires Heir’s foal crops have grown larger annually and his dominant presence over a short period of time at the national level has been unmistakable. In the last 7 years, Afires Heir offspring have won the AEPA $100,000 Arabian Saddle Seat Futurity 3 times: 2012 - Bel Heir LR; 2013 - Heirs Noble Love and 2016 - Movin On Heir WA. Three of his offspring have also been AEPA Reserve Champions in that time period, including Afires Heir Apparent in 2011 and Saxton DGL in 2015. In 2016, the Reserve National Champion in this class, Debonheir DGL, is also a son of Afires Heir, as were two others in the Top Ten, Heirs Devotion and Athena SMA. Afires Heir is currently the AEPA leading living sire by payout. He is also the youngest stallion
in the AEPA Top Five Leading Sires.