More About Eddie

In the comments of my last post Sydney asked a very good question--one that made me realize that while I've told Eddie's story so many times that I assume people are sick of hearing it, but on the other hand, I've never really done him any justice on this blog, so all our new friends have no idea who Eddie is and WHY he's such a big deal (at least to those of us who love him :)

Just a little background: Eddie was bred and raised by a guy here in Missouri who used to stand several champion stallions. He's one of those people in the industry that aren't in it for their love of horses. He's out to win, for the "glory" of it and to make a buck. Unfortunately terrible and tragic tales are common place when dealing with people like this. The horses he has are disposable to him and unfortunately Eddie became one of the disposable ones when he broke his leg, even though he won a major futurity for him.


I edited out his breeder from this picture, but plenty of people know who he is without me even mentioning a name, so it doesn't matter. Karma rocks and that's all I have to say about that.

When I got Eddie he was in very poor shape. He was 2 years old, had never had his injuries even looked at, had long, jagged feet, was skin and bones, had rainrot and was anemic from over 50 ticks on his body. I got the vet and farrier out right away and my vet gave me a referral to K-State to have his leg looked at.


I took off from work and drove him to Manhattan where they took Eddie for the day and assessed him. They were concerned about his condition but theirs were the first of many compliments I would receive on his excellent temperament.

I vividly remember driving home that evening with Eddie in the trailer, heartbroken over the surgeon's words echoing in my ears: "severe trauma and subsequent neglect," "closed growth plates," and "not a candidate for surgery." I was told if I had gotten Eddie 6 months earlier his leg could have been surgically altered to grow straighter but now it was too late. They estimated his quality of life would diminish significantly around 5 years of age and he'd have to be put down.

Basically the radiographs showed the truth behind Eddie's ordeal. His right pastern had been completely shattered and left untreated when he was a yearling. As he grew, supporting 60% of his total body weight on his left front leg, the leg bowed. The broken pastern fused and is calcified. One day the bowed leg will give out on him. The surgeon told the students "this is exactly what NOT to do when a horse breaks its leg." It was really difficult for me to hold it together while the cold hard truth was explained to the class at the teaching hospital.

The only thing I could do after that was to get Eddie back into proper shape and try to get a few very nice mares to breed him to in the years he had left. In my eyes he deserved the best life I could give him and I wanted to pass along his excellent genes.

His sire is Ima Hustler Too, APHA Champion and full brother to Red's Hustler, sire of Huslers Ole Man.


His paternal grandsire was the incomparable Red Sonny Dee.


His paternal granddam is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated mares in all of APHA history, Cutie J Bar. She was an APHA Champion herself, and a PRODUCER of 3 APHA Champions. She was not only an amazing mare in her own right but was able to pass along her abilities, which is very rare in horse breeding. She was a crop-out and the reason we were able to get Eddie's AQHA papers (thanks to the help of Kristi Van Etten, final owner of Ima Hustler Too)



Eddie's dam is Fabulous Too. She qualified for AQHA World her yearling year.



She is a granddaughter of the legendary Jackie Bee. Funny story, I used to work with Duane Walker's granddaughter. She was training me when I worked at the Pratt Tribune. We were in McPherson (her office) and we went to lunch and started chatting and I said I had horses, well, she said she did, too, and we got to talking more about that. She said "well, you might not know the name but my grandfather owned Jackie Bee." I about fell out of my chair! I said HELL YES I know Jackie Bee! Just goes to show you never know who you're going to run into!

Eddie's other maternal grandsire is Luck Too but I've never been able to find a picture of him. He placed top 5 at AQHA World and from what I gathered didn't live long after that, but some of his daughters are actually superior western pleasure broodmares!

So, we got the best broodies we could afford, kept upgrading as much as we could and Eddie has some great babies out there now, just waiting for me to get my act together to show them.

My great friend Vicki Morgan took excellent care of Eddie for me for the summer down in Texas. I can't wait to have him home! I miss the big goober so very much. He's now been promoted in Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, Texas, and Oregon. He's appeared in the AQHA and APHA Journals and the Chronicle. He's come so far from that emaciated, anemic, shell of a horse that I brought home (and the other boarders raised a fit about worried that he'd make their horses sick).

Eddie might never be famous, but he's bigger than life simply because he has touched so many hearts and made so many friends. I thank God that I've been blessed to have him in my life and to have great people help me ensure that I keep the promise I made to Eddie the day that I got him, that he would never suffer again.

And by the way, Eddie is now 7 years, 7 months old :)