2022 AEPA Spotlights

AMERICA’S MOST THRILLING

Arabian and Half-Arabian English Pleasure Horses

by CHRISTY EGAN

There’s no denying the amazing staying power of the top Arabian sires of English Arabian horses in America today. At 20 years of age, the leading AEPA sire is Afires Heir, son of Afire Bey V, bred by Marty Shea and now owned (since last August) by Joseph Kinnarney. Joe won the inaugural 2007 AEPA Championship with Sin City (by Baske Afire) and was 2022 Leading AEPA Owner by payout ($111,000). Afires Heir has been the Leading AEPA Sire seven times, more than any other Arabian stallion.

All-time Leading Breeders of AEPA winners to date is Maroon Fire Arabians, Inc. Their partners, Marty and Tim Shea are second and tied in numbers at 20 winners each, respectively. By payout and by points they are also first and second.

Seven years after his passing, Maroon Fire Arabians’ legendary sire, Afire Bey V continues to exert an extraordinary influence at the National shows in America. Many of his immediate sons and daughters still compete regularly in National competition and bring home impressive numbers of national championships and reserves. Afire Bey V grandget and great grandget currently almost completely dominate the Arabian English show ring. Of the 2022 AEPA Leading Sires, after the number one Afire Bey V son Afires Heir, those remaining on the list, Black Daniels (a son of IXL Noble Express+ [also a Maroon Fire Arabians stallion]), and the balance of the top listings including SF Aftershoc, HA Toskcan Sun, VJ Royal Heir and Prosuasion . . . all are Afire Bey V grandsons.

Dave and Gail Liniger of Maroon Fire Arabians and Marty and Tim Shea of Shea Stables were also represented by many winning horses owned or bred by them at the 2022 Youth, Mid Summer and U.S. National Championship shows. These national winners accumulated 14 National Championships, 13 Reserve National Championships and 129 Top Ten awards. Of the farm’s many great broodmares, 29 were represented at the 2022 National Championship shows, 11 with two or more national winning offspring to their credit. Stellar examples included broodmares LBC Nobelinda with five winning get shown this year, Rimone GW with three, and the amazing Dutch Harness mare, Ritida with eight sons and daughters among the winners, half of them claiming one or more national championships.

Of this year’s 20 AEPA English Pleasure Arabian and Half-Arabian winners, all the purebreds and well over half of the Half-Arabians had Afire Bey V and/or IXL Noble Express+ represented in their pedigrees. Now, the Maroon Fire Arabians’ junior sire, Inception (IXL Noble Express+ x Bonita Afire, by Afire Bey V) has joined his illustrious sire and grandsire as both a four-time National Champion (unanimously) and as a sire. His first (2018), second (2019) and third (2020) foal crops are making their initial, successful forays in the national arenas. In 2022 Inception had four get win seven national awards. RGT Rubberband Man (x RGT Glory Days), bred by Rick and Laura Gault and owned by Stephanie Roberts, won three top tens at two national shows and was a National Champion at the 2022 Youth and Mid Summer National Championships. And Bourbon Street SHF (x Merry Magnifire, by VCP Magnifire), owned and bred by Tom and Elizabeth Moore, was 2022 U.S. Reserve National Champion in the English Pleasure Futurity. Other top ten national winners included KT Square One (x Completely By Surprize), bred by Joel and Ashton Kiesner and owned by Texie Lowery, and In Quest (x Quintara Afire, by Afire Bey V), bred by Maroon Fire Arabians and owned by Shan and Molly Wilson and Chris Courtney. n

THE REIGNING U.S. NATIONAL ENGLISH PLEASURE OPEN CHAMPION

Multi-Program Nominated Sire | For breeding information contact Ashton Kiesner 865-556-0412

Take A res Heir, for example.

He already owns a perfec show record. Not just accomplished, but perfect: four straight U.S. National Championships in English Pleasure (one in junior competition, three in open), all unanimous. Two championships at Scottsdale, unanimous. He never entered the ring that he didn’t win, and if there was more than one judge, they all agreed on his excellence.

Add in his career as a sire, which has inspired English enthusiasts to predict that he might replicate *Bask’s in uence in the discipline. It has not been unusual to see his sons and daughters make up as much as half of a championship line-up, and in AEPA competition alone, he has sired 58 titlists to date. In the last 10 years, his youngsters have won the AHT $100,000 Saddle Seat Futurity six times, and in both 2016 and 2021, one was champion and another reserve. Perhaps more importantly, most of his get have continued to build their resumes, accounting for U.S.

National Championships in nearly all of the English divisions, several topping the prestigious open competition.

And as if all that weren’t enough, he’s happy in the environment he has known since 2004 at Kiesner Training Center, where everyone knows him.

So what do you get for a horse like that? When his longtime owners, Bill and Shirley Reilich, made him available, only a new owner. And from the stallion’s point of view, it would be nice if it were one already “in the family,” so that he might not be ru ed by a change in his routine. He didn’t have to look far. One of his biggest fans was already a barn client and a friend, someone he’s known since he arrived. From the beginning, breeder and exhibitor Dr. Joe Kinnarney responded not only to the formidable reputation the stallion developed, but also to him personally, to the critical mix of talent and willing personality that made him who he was. Kinnarney has had several A res Heir’s o spring in his program, elding such national champions as Sin City, Futurama, Enchanted Heir, Movin On Heir WA, and most recently, KT Heir Lord. Generally, they start with Joel Kiesner, and when they are ready, Joe rides or drives them. And there are more growing up out in the pasture, as well as three of the stallion’s daughters in his broodmare band.

by MARY KIRKMAN

So it seemed appropriate that given the chance to own A res Heir himself, Kinnarney was front and center. It was, he says, a natural result of his own history in the breed. “I’ve been in Arabians since as far back as the 1970s,” he re ects. “I remember when *Bask was the most in uential horse in the breed, and so now, to own a stallion with that stature is very special.”

One of the keys to success for “Captain,” as A res Heir is known around the barn, is his user-friendly personality. Despite all the awards, Joel observes that the stallion’s greatest legacy may be how happy he has made people, and as a signature achievement, that is as valuable as his electric, exciting show ring persona. “He has sired so many show horses that people have exhibited successfully and enjoyably,” Kiesner observes. “ at is a contribution in itself.”

Perhaps the stallion’s biggest challenge is reproducing a son as good as he is, but with several national champion sons on the ground, his team enjoys looking forward to the future. Already he has a daughter writing history. Heirs Noble Love’s show record, with ten national championships (four in open English Pleasure) is even more stellar than her sire’s, and her breeding career looks like a capsule version of his, with a growing list of nationally decorated progeny, which reveals an intriguing fact: A res Heir daughters are being seen o en now as the dams of some of the English division’s top competitors, a rare and valuable attribute for a stallion. Astute horsemen o en point out that as incandescent as a top sire is, o en supplying the brilliance in his get, it is the dam line that anchors a pedigree. Characteristically thorough, Captain has both sides covered.

Now there is a special appreciation in the air when he is in the barn. “I’ve always had a relationship with him,” Joe says. “I don’t think he knows the change, but I certainly do. To have this great horse who made so many of my dreams come true, and to be able to do that for others, was one of the thoughts [when I bought him].” It won’t change his breeding strategy, he adds; he’s already been using the stallion for years. But it is de nitely a new chapter in his life. “We’ll move on together, and I think it will be fun for all of us.” u

Prosuasion

Prosuaded by Love

Heirs Noble Love

Mz Kitty

by MARY KIRKMAN

Check out the photo of Prosuaded By Love’s victory pass in the 2022 AEPA $100,000 Saddle Seat Futurity, and the rst thing you notice may not be his elevated trot or rhythmic high hocks—although both are pretty close to a 10 on the scale of English performance. Instead, what you see rst is the kind, con dent expression in his eyes. He’s enjoying his triumphal procession out of the ring. It’s not arrogance; he just knows he’s good, and even the demanding class has not dented his delight at showing o .

For those who observed him as a foal, the image just reconrms what he told them then. Owner/breeder Karlton Jackson remembers that moment as if it were yesterday. “Most of the foals, when I see them at a week or a month old, are so timid that they don’t want to get more than a few feet from their surrogate mother,” he says, adding that in his small breeding program, they breed via embryo transfer. “ e rst time we all saw him, instead of staying close to the mare, he got 10 or 15 feet away and looked around as if to say, ‘there is a big, wide, wonderful world out there.’ He started trotting around the mare, and then stopped, with a perfect pose sideways, and looked around as if to say, ‘Hey, look at me! I’m something special.’ He just had that attitude of ‘I’m special and I know it and everyone else should too.’”

Already the colt’s pedigree told the story: by Prosuasion (winner of six national championships in the English division) and out of Heirs Noble Love (who accounted for 10), he comes with gilt-edged English bloodlines. And he exhibits the willing demeanor o en seen when a horse nds that doing his job comes easily. “He’s an all-around good guy,” trainer Joel Kiesner reports. “We bred him only once the rst year because we didn’t want to interfere with his showing, but he handled it so well that we have a few more due for next year.”

Even Joel, who rarely watches videos of his classes because he over-analyzes the slightest mistake, was impressed when he saw the one of the futurity. All along, he’s seen Prosuaded By Love—“Karlton,” as he’s known in the barn—consistently improving, but this time he had to be impressed with how well the young stallion was putting himself together.

He’s quite simply extraordinary. He has the best timing and cadence of any purebred Arabian I’ve ridden. e balance of his motion, front to back, is extremely rare—in a good way.

“He’s quite simply extraordinary,” Kiesner says. “He has the best timing and cadence of any purebred Arabian I’ve ridden. e balance of his motion, front to back, is extremely rare—in a good way. So, his legs work beautifully, and his neck does too. On top of that, he has a beauty and an intense look from his eyes and ears that is charismatic like only a handful of horses I’ve ever seen.”

It’s easy to trace the champion’s athletic ability in his pedigree; his attitude, however, is also part of the package. Karlton Jackson, who bred Heirs Noble Love, prioritizes a good temperament in his horses; he got into Arabians when his daughters showed them as junior riders, and began breeding when they aged out. “One reason we wanted to show Heirs Noble Love in amateur was to demonstrate that it doesn’t take a Joel Kiesner to ride that bloodline,” he says.

“And we were thrilled when our co-owner, Emily Shippee, teamed up with her [in 2020 and 2022]—the world could see that her star shone as brightly as ever.

I think Prosuaded By Love is going to be a good example of that, and he could pass it along as a sire.” at in uence, both he and Joel say, relates not only to A res Heir, but also to EA Aphroditie, who became the foundation mare for the Jackson program and has since been designated an Arabian Horse Times Dam of Excellence. She too was kind; her barn name at Kiesner Training Center, where she lived until she passed away recently, was “Abuela,” Spanish for “Grandma.”

Abuela’s great-grandson, Prosuaded By Love, represents the fourth generation in his owner’s contribution to the Arabian breed. Having won the 2021 U.S. National Championship in the English Pleasure Futurity, and the 2022 AEPA futurity, he now will face his biggest challenge yet, as he graduates into the open ranks.

“He was everything we hoped he would be this year,” Jackson re ects. “He still has things to learn and more growth to come as a show horse, but he’s what we’re working for with the whole breeding program.”

Joel Kiesner agrees. “He’s an all-around great horse, and he’s just coming into his own. I can’t wait to see his babies—if he passes himself on, we are in for a treat!” u

For select breeding opportunities with Prosuaded by Love or Heirs Noble Love, contact Ashton Kiesner 865-556-0412.

SEE HIM IN SCOTTSDALE!

Sweepstakes Nominated & AEPA Enrolled • Introductory Stud Fee $2,750 For Breeding information contact Kiesner Training Stable Ashton Cell: 865-556-0412 • ashton@kiesnertraining.com

Proudly owned by Black Majik Arabians Cindy High-Fischmann & Rob Fischmann Cell: 585-319-9901 • rpf1981@live.com

SF DESTINATION VICTRY

SF DESTINATION

SF Specs Shocwave x Aparty Girl

Specs Shocwave x Aparty Girl

Strawberry Banks Farm is a proud sponsor of the AEPA and has celebrated success for decades, displaying examples of our dedication to specializing in beautiful and talented Englishbred Arabian and Half Arabian athletes.

Decades of AEPA Futurity Winners

AEPA Future Contenders