Josh Quintus western, it was at White rock. There he developed into a strong member of the team, and by the time he left two years later, he was pretty much White’s number two man. The opportunities, he says, were amazing; it was a sizeable training operation, and it was turning out stars one after another in all kinds of classes. “it didn’t seem like it would ever quit,” he observes. “The horses there were great; the ones we got to work with were phenomenal.” even so, in 1992, it was time to move again. “mike Villaseñor had just been hired as sales manager at Colonial Wood,” Quintus recalls. rick moser was still there, and the farm, long an industry powerhouse, boasted a top-of-the-line facility. Quintus was to take over the performance division, while moser directed the halter horses. “Colonial Wood, in August 1992, was everything i’d ever dreamed about,” he says. The only trouble was, it didn’t last long. Five months later, Villaseñor and moser took him to lunch and asked him if he’d heard the rumors. “What rumors?” Quintus countered. “i hardly leave the barn.” As it turned out, owners Paul and Dody Wood were closing their operation. in the end, moser and Quintus were allowed to remain at the facility at their cost—but then, a year later, moser left to train for rojo Arabians, and Quintus was on his own.
looking thing,” the trainer recalls. He resolved to let the colt grow up—but then he discovered that the colt was bound for Florida, to be evaluated by moser and sold. Quintus, who felt shampaine had more potential even than medal bey, f lipped. “What will you take today for him?” he demanded of Paul Wood. “Give me $6,000 today,” Wood replied. “i’ll be there in 10 minutes,” Quintus said, and drained his bank account. As a 3-year-old of 1996, shampaine was named a Canadian national Top Ten Futurity Colt, and shown by Quintus’ then-wife, added the U.s. and Canadian national Championships in stallion AoTH. Quintus went on to win the snaff le bit Futurity (then a separate show) with him, and in 1997, shampaine was Canadian national Champion Western Pleasure Junior horse and U.s. national reserve Champion. And then there was the gelding Jazzarado, with whom he won the Canadian national reserve Championship in 1995. in 1997, the same year he went reserve in the junior class with shampaine, Quintus won the U.s. and Canadian national Championships in Western Pleasure on Jazzarado. The third was Cadillac Coy; the Half-Arabian gelding
Building A Reputation being responsible for a large facility was not the biggest challenge of Quintus’ life in the 1990s. That would come later. He and moser had had a business plan, and he knew that he could carry on alone, although he wouldn’t be getting rich at it. in the meantime, he was showing horses who were expanding his reputation at the national level. in the latter half of the 1990s, he had a trio of western pleasure mounts that put his name up in lights. one was shampaine, who had been a yearling in Paul Wood’s pasture when Quintus saw him. Quintus was fresh off winning the 1994 Canadian national Championship in Western Pleasure Junior on medal bey, a gelding by medalion and out of the bey shah daughter, shana bey; the yearling was shana bey’s 1993 Alada baskin colt. “He was a great big, tall, ugly-
Bentlee (Medalion x Basks Maria), 1993 U.S. National Top Ten in Park.
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