Mares N More

y dictionary defines the word “fate” as the development of events outside a person’s control, regarded as predetermined by a supernatural power. This definition of fate fits the life of a mare named Harlans Bobbi Jo, a 1998 buckskin mare owned and bred by Benny and Susan Scarberry of Clinton, Arkansas. This mare earned 344 AQHA roping points earning superiors in heading, heeling, and tie-down roping to become an AQHA Performance Champion. She will be our Mares With More topic for this issue.

Benny and Susan recently told me the story of how their life with Harlan horses and Harlans Bobbi Jo unfolded, and as they describe it, the role fate played in their life. Susan started the story this way, “I was raised in a family that really wasn’t into horses, but apparently, I was born loving horses. Other little girls wanted dolls, and I had little plastic horses that I played with. Now Benny’s folks, they all had horses, and he rode when he was growing up. But I didn’t till I was in the third or fourth grade, and I wanted one so much that dad went to the cattle sale and bought one for me. So they did try to help me have horses.”

She continued about how Harlan came into their life, “When Benny and I got together and really how we got into the Harlan business started with I wanted broodmares, and he wasn’t as interested in that. He was still training horses. He would go buy prospects, and he would make roping horses out of them: calf horses, that kind of thing. We had lucked into a couple of geldings that had Harlan in their pedigree. They were big stopping horses making great calf horses.

Benny recalled one of those Harlan bred geldings this way, “The first Harlan bred horse we had was a Zan Parr Bar/Harlan cross. We used to go to Shawnee to buy horses. Bring them home and try to make a rope horse out of them. If they didn’t, I would sell them or trade them. One time when we went to Shawnee, there was a palomino three-year-old. He was a nice horse. And Sue said, ‘I think I will go bid on him, and I told her to not bid over so much for him. I was in the back watching the bids, and when he got past the spot that I told her, I guessed we didn’t get him.’ So I go back in there, and here she comes with the horse. She said, ‘I got him.’ I said, ‘My gosh, you must have given quite a bit more for him than I thought we were going to give for him.’ She said, ‘Yes!”

Benny continued, “To make the long story short. When we brought him home, he made the best calf horse to ever be on this place. He was amazing. I sold him to a PRCA guy in Utah.” Benny recalled their conversation about Harlan bred horses, “We had never heard of Harlan. I said, ‘What is this horse?’ She said, - Well, he’s a Harlan. I said, ‘What is that?’ She said, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ I said, ‘This is the stoppinest colt we have ever had around here. Why don’t you find out about them?” Susan continued, “So I started to look, and the first ones I found had been crossed on the halter horse bloodlines, and that wasn’t what he wanted. So I kept looking and got in touch with the AQHA, and they put me in touch with Bob Robey. (He was the owner of the dam of the Harlan bred gelding they bought at the Shawnee Sale.) Mr. Robey was living out at Perkins, and I called him told him who

mares witH more| Harlans BoBBie Joe

I was and what we were looking for, and why we were looking for M it. He said, ‘You know Harlan is buried here in my backyard.’ We had no idea at that time that he had owned Harlan most of his life.” She interjected about what transpired next, “We struck up a great friendship with the Bob and Joan Robey. I got to go with them more than Benny did, but we went all over looking at horses and had the best time. He knew where some of the good old mares were, and he helped us track them down so we could lease some of the mares or buy some of the mares and raise babies. They were great friends, and enjoyed visiting with them so much. My mother and father are great parents, and I love them, but Bob and Joan very became special like my horse parents.” Susan went on to describe how the trips were so much fun because they knew the history behind so many horses and the people associated with them. “It was like every town we went in they had a racetrack, and he knew the stories about the horses and men that ran them.” So the Scarberry’s were in the Harlan business when they found a Harlan mare that would change their life. Susan then told us about that mare, “Mr. Robey had helped us find several of the good mares. But he was not involved with finding Shesa Texas Risk, which was Bobbi Jo’s dam. But when he saw her pedigree, he got so excited not so much about the Harlan, but she had some horses that I had never heard of, Possum and Tony. I had never heard about those horses, and he got so excited because he knew about those horses. And when we bred her to Jodie Bob Harlan, he was excited about her as anything we had owned. He was right; it was a magic cross; first, we got Bobby Jo, right after that, we got her full brother Harlan Tony, and then JB (Jodie Bob Harlan) died. We tried to breed her to some other Harlan stallions, and it was not the same; they were not as special as that JB cross was. It was absolutely amazing.” Benny will fill us in on how they got Shesa Texas Risk, “I went to Fort Worth to sell a head horse, and then I bought a drop-dead gorgeous mare. They were roping on her, and I think I gave like $3500 for her. Well, I started home, and I dropped her off at Jess Elrod’s and told him to get a ROM on her, and then we would bring her home and breed her.” He continued, “Well, about two days later, he called me and told me to come and get the mare. She was dangerous and crazy. Well, I tried to rope on her, and she was dangerous. We had a friend that lived near Kansas City named Jan Switzer. She knew a horse trader that had just traded for a Harlan bred mare that she thought we might be interested in and that we might be able to buy her. So I called him and visited with him, and I told him about this mare. He said to bring her. So I cleaned her up real good and put a blanket on her, and went up to Kansas City. When I got there, he brought out this ole mare, and she was starved to death. The little bitty long-haired mare looked awful. He said, What do you think? I said, ‘Well, I will tell you what I am going to do. I am going to trade you even, and I am going to give you a chance to back out. Boy, he jumped all over that, and we swapped, and I brought the mare home. She ended up being the mommy of Bobby Jo and Tony.” He then added, “I heard through the grapevine that he gave up on the mare too and got rid of her.” Bobbi Jo Harlan was born in 1998. When she hit the ground, she

appeared to be special from the beginning, “When Bobbi Joe was born there at Bob’s place, her eyes were a blueish color, and I thought they might be blue, but he said they would not be blue, but they turned to almost a golden color. They are still that way; it is a non-color.”

The following year Harlan Tony was born to the mating of Sweet Texas Risk and Jodie Bob Harlan. Here is what took place next, “Mr. Robey’s horse JB (Jodie Bob Harlan) died. He went to bed for a week after that. So we took Harlan Tony out there and gave him to Mr. Robey and told him this is your next stud. We eventually got Harlan Tony back from Mr. Robey, who had Young Bert Harlan to use.

They had plans for Harlan Tony when they brought him home, but they opted to take a different route with him, “We were wanting to show him, and he was actually more athletic than Bobbi Jo. But we had all these mares, and I couldn’t train one and breed one at the same time.”

Harlan Tony has sired good horses that show the versatility, including CD Harlan with 63 AQHA points earning his ROM. He is an open and amateur world show qualifier in barrels, pole bending, heading, and heeling. He was a world show finalist in heading in 2009. Harley Quinn One, a daughter of Harlan Tony, is a barrel mare that was a finalist for the NBHA Youth Teen World Finals in Perry, Ga, in 2017. His daughters are producers as well. They include Harlasuzan, the dam of Zoe Harlan, a competitor in the Western Dressage Classes in the Equine Trail Sports Obstacle Trail Challenge Events. This challenge event has a two-part process. The horse and rider do an arena obstacle class, and then they go on a trail where they go to an obstacle and get judged and then on to the next obstacle. The length of the trail is between two and six miles.

Susan recalled about what happened when they brought Harlans Bobbi Jo home as a weanling, “We brought her home, and we had a tremendous crop of babies that year. She was so mean that Benny put her up in a stall by herself to bring her to her senses. She was okay after that. When they started to break that bunch of colts, and Benny is a pretty good horseman, he was so impressed with her when he started to ride her. “ We will let Benny tell us what it was like and what he was thinking, “Just before she was two, we started riding all of them. I rode her about a week, and I told Sue she was so special everything was so easy for her. She was entirely different from anything we had had before.” He further explained, “We would take the mares to get their ROM and then breed them so they would have a little show record. But I told Sue if we are ever going to show one for real, we should send this one to Bobby Lewis or somebody and see what happens. So we took her to Bobby’s. I had ridden her two or three weeks before we took her. So he basically broke her and trained her. She spent her two, three, and four years down there. He did all the training and work on her.” He continued about her show career, “She was the circuit champion at every show that she went to in one event or other. That includes Houston, Denver, Fort Worth, all those shows. We showed her in heading, heeling, and tie-down roping. She was in the lead for the high point in I think it was 2002, and she was way ahead of everybody for the year. They had always given a truck for the high point, and that year they gave a two-horse stock trailer. So I told Bobby it was going to cost me more than what the trailer was worth, so we brought her home. We 54 Working Horse Magazine Winter 2021 showed her from December to July that year. After the break, he took her back to the world show that year and finished third in heading. Then they added some tie-down roping points, “I told Bobby she was about four or five points from having her Superior in calf roping. So in December, he took her to Tulsa, and she won the calf roping to earn her Performance Championship. She was circuit champion at the next show they went to.” Despite the long break in the 2002 show season, she still finished second for the High Point Junior Heading and Heeling Horse. She was fifth in the High Point Heading and sixth in the High Point Heeling as well as fourth in the High Point Junior Tie-Down Roping. She would qualify for the World Show in 2003 in her three events. She finished her AQHA career with 344 AQHA points with 161 in heading, 126.5 in heeling, and 56.5 in tie-down roping to be superior in all three events and an AQHA Performance Champion. The Scarberrys then sold her to Tylan Campbell as his roping horse, and then Brandon Harris showed her in the IFR finals. They were the high-point team roping average winners at this event. By this time, the Scarberrys had a chance to get their mare back, and so they brought her home. This time she was home to stay but not the end of her show career. Benny and his son Casey showed her. Casey rode her in high school rodeos, and Benny rode her in jackpot ropings.

Then Benny and Susan made a change in their program for the mare. Benny explained it this way, “I was showing her at these little ole jackpots, and finally one day Sue said, Aren’t you going to breed her? I said I like riding her.’ She then asked, ‘How much do those little ole five-dollar roping’s paying you?’ I said, Hmm, Maybe we better breed her.”

Harlans Bobbi Jo started her career as a broodmare in 2008 with Mc Harlan, an AQHA unshown gelding by Miss N Cash. Her next foal was Harlans Money Talks by Meradas Money Talks in 2009, also unshown in the AQHA.

The third foal for Harlans Bobbi Jo was Harlans Top Gun by Real Gun in 2010. This colt was sold to Mary Maxom as a breeding stallion for their MP Performance Harlan breeding program. Real Gun was the 2004 AQHA World Show Superhorse and an AQHA Performance Champion. He was Superior in tie-down roping, heading, and heeling. She was an AQHA point earner in cutting, reining, and working cow horse with 453 AQHA Points.

Some of the colts Harlans Top Gun has sired include Harlans Lucky Seven, Yamini Harlan, and Top Guns Two Step. With trainer and owner Becky Amio in the saddle, they have each won the Ranchers Quarter Horse Breeders (RQHBA) Two-YearOld Ranch Horse Versatility Futurity. Harlans Samba, owned by Ashley Secrest and another full sister to Yamini Harlan, and Top Guns Two-Step won the Three-Year-Old Division of the 2021 RQHBA Versatility Futurity. Harlans Lucky Seven, the winner of last year’s two-year-old division, was second in the three-year-old. Becky also rode Harlans Red Fox, who was second the year he competed in the RQHBA Versatility Futurity. Tragedy struck when Harlans Bobbi Jo lost her next foal, and they almost lost her. So they quit breeding her until Bobby Glo Harlan was foaled in 2016. Susan explained it this way, “We didn’t breed her after she lost that colt, and then we decided to try it again. Benny talked to Bobby about it. They actually talked about breeding her to Dual Spark. But Benny was afraid to do that because she is a buckskin and Dual Spark was a buckskin, and she had thrown a lot of color in her foals. So Bobby suggested his son CSR Dual Glo

and that is who we bred her to and got Bobby Glo Harlan. He is a chip off the ole block. He has done an amazing job for us. We are so proud of him.”

Benny recalled the day they took Bobby Glo Harlan to Bobby Lewis for training, “We got up one morning to take him to Bobby. He was barely halter broke. It took me about 30 minutes to get him in the trailer. When we got down to Bobby’s and his two-year-old man said to put him in the round pen. I told him I put him in the trailer now it is your turn to get him out. Anyway, we got him out, and we started home.”

“We drove about an hour, and we stopped to eat when I got a text with a video with him loping him in the round pen with a halter on. He had never been fooled with. The colt didn’t even lead, and he was loping with a halter on in an hour.” Bobby Glo Harlan has followed in the footsteps of his dam with 113.5 roping points in two events, and he has outdone his dam with the 2020 AQHA World Championship in Junior Heeling. He has earned 57.5 AQHA points in heading and 56 points in heeling with ½ point in halter and a Reserve Grand Championship in performance halter.

Linebreeding is a common breeding system used in the American Quarter Horse, and that is a good thing when it comes to some of the bloodlines we intend to keep in the breed. We line breed to a keep a high relationship to that common ancestor in our breeding program. We do this to make these bloodlines a viable factor in the outcrossing process with other bloodlines. This is how we outcross within the breed by crossing different families or bloodlines to get hybrid vigor. Over the years, we have seen the development of such bloodlines as the Old Sorrel horses at the King Ranch, King P-234s, the Blackburns, the Joe Hancocks, the Lucky Blantons, and the Driftwoods to name a few. But now, we can add the Harlan bloodline through a group of breeders that are preserving this valuable bloodline. Bob Robey was the original developer of the Harlan bloodlines. When he lost this great stallion, he kept on going by linebreeding to Harlan. A number of breeders have joined in on Bob’s quest to perpetuate the blood of Harlan. Harlans Bobbi Jo has a linebreeding pattern to Harlan. A look at her pedigree will give us an interesting look at not only the linebreeding to Harlan but also his dam Dixie Beach and her full sister Lady Coolidge and how they often appear in the pedigree together. We see a good example of the linebreeding to Dixie Beach and Lady Coolidge through Harlan Okmulgee, her grandsire. Her sire Jodie Bob Harlan was bred by Bob Robey. He was sired by Harlan Okmulgee, who was bred by Harold Hudspeth, a Harlan Syndicate member. He was sired by Harlan and out of Quarter Mulgee by V’s Quarter Boy. V’s Quarter Boy was sired by Bert P-227, a son of Lady Coolidge. The dam of Quarter Mulgee was V’s Miss Okmulgee by Little Jodie, a son of Dixie Beach and making him a ½ brother to Harlan. This gives Okmulgee a breeding pattern of 2 X 4 X 4 to Dixie Beach and Lady Coolidge. Harlettas Image by Triple’s Image is the dam of Jodie Bob Harlan. She was bred by Mr. Robey. Her dam was Red Harletta by Harlan. She was out of one of the great mare families that Mr. Robey had in his broodmare band. She was out of Red River Rose by Roper Boy, and her dam was Oklahoma Rosie, a foundation mare for Mr. Robey. Now let’s look at Shesa Texas Risk and her Harlan blood, as well as the bloodlines that interested Mr. Robey when he saw her pedigree. Her sire was Harlans Te N Te by Azure Te, and his dam was Miss Harlann by Harlan. The dam of Miss Harlann was Leo San Ann by Harlan. This gives Harlans Bobbi Jo a breeding pattern of 3 X 4 X 5 X 4 Harlan.

Earlier in our discussion of Bob Robey’s reaction to the pedigree Shesa Texas Risk, we heard names like Tony and Possum that he showed enthusiasm for. So let’s look at her pedigree. She was out of Texas Risk, and she was sired by Mr Crest Tex, a son of Texas Dandy. Now this name should ring a bell. Texas Dandy was the sire of Dandy Doll, the dam of Doc Bar. Texas Dandy was sired by My Texas Dandy, and he was out of Streak by Lone Star. The dam of Mt Crest Tex was Dinah F by Rowdy. Rowdy was sired by Tony P-776. The dam of Texas Risk was Lady Risk by Red Risk by Tony P-776. Tony was a ranch and rodeo horse that he ended up with Rancho Jabali, the home of Driftwood in California. He was the sire of horses like Coaster bred by the Rancho Jabali. He sired five AQHA Champions in Coaster’s Pride, Morris’ Crystal, Morris’ Jewel, Morris’ Nick, and Morris’ Sheri. One of the daughters of Tony is Quiz Kid. She was the dam of Doc’s Tule Lu, the dam of San Tule Lu, the dam of San Tule Freckles, the 2001 NCHA Open Futurity Champion. Tony P-776 was sired by Guinea Pig, a son of a son of Possum by Traveler. The dam of Tony was a mare by Bulger by Traveler. This gives Tony a 3 X 3 breeding pattern to Traveler. Possum was out of Jenny by Sykes Rondo, and this makes him a full brother to Little Joe, who sired Zantanon, who sired King P-234. Possum would be a famous Texas runner that once raced against Yellow Jacket, a race he won. He went from Texas to Arizona and to a new name of Possum. We often see his name Possum (King) in the early pedigrees. Possum can be found in many pedigrees today, but he is very prominent in the pedigree of the great roping horse and sire Lucky Blanton who has a breeding pattern of 3 X 3 X 3 to Possum. When we look back at the pedigree of Rowdy, we see his dam was a daughter of Guinea Pig, giving him a breeding pattern of 2 X 2 to Possum and a breeding pattern of 4 X 4 X 4 to Traveler. The full legacy of Harlans Bobbi Jo has to be written yet. She was retired after her son Bobby Glo Harlan was born. Susan will fill us in, “He was her last foal. We tried to breed her to Streak Of Fling but couldn’t get her in foal. She is now living the good life in the Benny Scarberry Five-Star Retirement Pasture.” So now, the next step that Benny and Susan Scarberry will take is as the owner of Bobbi Glo Harlan as a sire. He brings the credentials of his being the son of an outstanding roping mare that has a pedigree built on the linebreeding to Harlan. Then he carries the blood of CSR Dual Glo the 2015 AQHA World Champion Junior Heading Horse, and the 2015 AQHA High Point Junior Heading Horse. The pedigree of CSR Dual Glo is also built on a great performance. His sire is Dual Spark, a three-time AQHA High Point Cutting Horse, and an NRCHA Greatest Horseman Reserve Champion. The sire of Dual Spark is Dual Pep, the sire of horses that have won $26 million in cutting. The dam of Dual Spark is Dolittle Lena, a daughter of the NRCHA all-time leading sire Shining Spark by Genuine Doc, and he is out of Diamonds Sparkle, the 1979 AQHA Super Horse with an AQHA World Championship in the senior heading. The dam of CSR Dual Glo was Look At Her Glo, a show mare that has multiple High Point Awards, including the 2008 AQHA All-Around High Point Award. She has four Superior Awards in heading, heeling, tie-down roping, and working cow horse. She is sired by CD O Cody by CD Olena NCHA Futurity Champion. Look At Her Glo is the dam of horses that have won 2972 AQHA points, with eight horses earning the Superior Award with 22 awards earned by these horses. The mating of CSR Dual Glo with Harlans Bobbi Jo is using the linebreeding to Harlan and outcrossing it with CSR Dual Glo giving the pedigree a good source for hybrid vigor. Susan may have summed up their story this way, “It is amazing about how it all fell into place. I think about it, and if it is meant to be, it is meant to be.” I think it was meant to be!