The Story of a Legendary Saddlebred Sport Horse
Just as the Americana Sporthorse Registry is gaining momentum a Saddlebred stallion that has already made his mark into the sporthorse world is walking toward retirement.
Flight Time Gold a 16h golden palomino ASB (Golden Shannon Don Juan x Wellington Fair Lady by Flight Time) stallion has sired a legacy of athletic, willing and well conformed offspring. He’s proved through his offspring what qualities the Saddlebred can bring to
the sporthorse world. Flight Time Gold, nick name Flight, is owned by Michael Wakefield of Three Hat Farm in Oregon. Michael has owned and stood Flight at stud since 1995 and in those years Flight has sired many top scoring foals at AWS inspections. Flight’s story really begins in 1992 with Teri Duewer of Waverly, Illinois.
Teri Duewer came into riding later in life and right away developed a strong interest in dressage. She took lessons and longed to own a horse she could bring along herself. One thing for sure she loved palomino horses, but until a fateful morning when she delivered straw to a nearby farm she thought the only horses that came in palomino were the quarter horses. Yet that day when she pulled into the farm owned by Mrs. Bunn (the heiress to the Bunnamatic empire) she saw her first Saddlebred.
Regardless of their color those horses took her breath away: so elegant and so beautifully kept. Teri saw stars that day. Perusing some Saddlebred magazines in an effort to learn more about the breed she stumbled on a picture of a palomino Saddlebred. These beautiful animals came in her favorite color!! She later found out that the breed even had it's own affiliation for palomino members, the Golden American Saddlebred Horse Association, or GASHA. These palomino Saddlebreds she had seen in the magazines were no fluke, there were more out there! It would be many years yet before she would finally buy her first Saddlebred, but now she knew what she was looking for.
Unfortunately, all these horses were trained to be ridden Saddleseat and nothing could be farther from the world of round back and collection of the dressage world that Teri favored. What she needed was a Saddlebred that was not yet trained to Saddleseat so she could bring it along in dressage from the start. While doing research on Saddlebred lines and breeding she realized that the colored lines (pinto and palominos) being less popular in Saddleseat circles, often had more substance and a physique more suited to the dressage discipline.
At that time, and still to this day, horses were very much a hobby to Teri. The priority was the hog farm that was the family livelihood. If a horse was to fit in, he would have to work for a living. Teri started to think that a stallion would be good idea. It took a while but finally she found her horse. He was 9 years old, still a stallion, stood 16.3, was not started in Saddleseat and, of course, he was a palomino! Teri bought him sight unseen.
When Flight stepped out of the trailer, Teri was in for a bit of a shock. The stallion had shrunk to 16h and was in bad condition. Flight was not started under Saddleseat, which was a good thing for Teri, but at 9 yrs old he was not started at all! But there was no turning back. Teri took Flight home. Overall, he was easy to handle but he could be difficult at times and was used to having things his way.
Between her other commitments and Flight being a bit difficult to start Teri sought a partnership with an experienced trainer. She hoped that the trainer would show Flight and therefore increase his value as a breeding stallion. (Unfortunately Flight’s semen proved not to be shippable- but this was only discovered later). Out of time because of other commitments, Teri agreed to sell him. Flight had already sired a purebred colt for her: a beautiful golden palomino she named Flight’s Revolution. Revolution showed well in-hand, medaled at an American Warmblood Society inspection, and won his in-hand class at Devon. He took very well to dressage and Teri campaigned him for many years in dressage. Revolution proved to be the horse Teri had been looking for. Alas like his father’s, Revolution’s semen proved impossible to ship. Disheartened and determined to focus on his performance career, Teri had him gelded. Revolution continued to show and to do extremely well in the dressage arena, until his untimely death in the summer of 2004.
In the meantime, Michael Wakefield and Michelle Binder were looking for a sporthorse stallion. Michelle was breeding Holsteiners and was interested and intrigued by what the Dutch were up to by importing Saddlebreds to breed into their stock.
Michael was raised on a 400 acre farm in Minnesota. Although mechanization had taken hold on the farm earlier, WWII brought restrictions on fuel, rubber and metal which made owning a tractor far more troublesome and costly than a good team of well trained draft horses. Horses were bred to work in those days. The essential list was not: movement, scope and pedigree but rather: sound legs, good feet and good temperament. This way of seeing things has stayed with Michael through the years. In his opinion, a stallion should be of the utmost quality, have flawless conformation, a good tractable temperament and most importantly be pre-potent over a wide variety of mares. If one mare in 10 should be considered as a broodmare then 1 horse in 1000 should be considered stallion potential.
Michael took a class by the well known Dutch breeder Gert Van der Veen on conformation and the sporthorse. Armed with this new knowledge coupled with his high expectation of what a stallion should be, he agreed to go and see Flight Time Gold. From the moment he saw the golden palomino stallion, Michael was smitten. In his own words: “He exhibited all the wonderful traits for which the Saddlebred is known. He had a few faults inherent in the breed, but on the whole he had the substance, breadth of chest, beautifully laid back shoulder, upright humerus, powerful hindquarters, loin connection, and topline I was after.
He is like rubber to ride, responding to the seat and leg with a soft yielding to a subtle aid. Forward is not the question with the Saddlebred: it is the answer! They are naturally disposed to push through. At liberty, you can see that energy: from hock to poll and when they launch into trot or canter it will give you goose bumps. You often see them doing piaffe or passage at liberty, because the collection required to do these gaits is natural to the Saddlebred”.
Michelle and Michael agreed they should lease him and bring him back to Oregon-which they did. (They eventually bought him outright) The first year Flight only bred Michael and Michelle’s mares. Since they were both working with and training Flight, they went to shows together and brought his offspring along. Michael was still climbing the learning curve. In reading about various registries, he discovered that the American Warmblood Society was quite open-minded about Saddlebreds. He therefore encouraged mare owners to present their Flight offspring at AWS inspections. Flight himself was not presented because an old injury is making him a little short strided on the right. He passed on the strength of his offspring.
His offspring were, and still are, scoring extremely well at inspection. Michael remembers that at their first AWS inspection Flights offspring took all three medals and the weanlings outscored every adult horse shown that day!
The success continues... in 2004 Flights babies took 5 out of 6 medals and in 2005 it was 2 out of 3. No matter the setting these ASB crosses are scoring extremely well, proof that Flight’s prepotency is quality. However, as it is often the case in subjective judging, prejudice can rear its ugly head. Some judges are quite impressed by the ASB crosses until they learn what they are. A judge went as far as to change his score to avoid placing a Flight’s baby ahead of a TB. But in Michael’s words “we keep winning and what are they to do…?”
No matter what a breed- biased judge might think, people knew what they were looking at and what they wanted. It took a few years but then mare owners came looking for the sire of all these beautiful forward moving elegant crosses. Flight was always happy to oblige even with no advertising budget to speak of. As many as 9 or 10 outside mares came knocking during a typical breeding season.
So after all of these years breeding all types of mares to Flight what quality does Michael see as being consistently passed on.
Number one is the trot. All of his get sit down on their hind end and push off during upward transition. This is impulsion and self carriage; hard to teach but indispensable.
Number two is the quality and purity of all three gaits: good four beat walk, clear two beat trot and steady 3 beat canter.
Number three is his suspension: that floating effect especially seen at the trot.
Number four: the clear over-stride at the walk which signals impulsion and engagement of the hind end. Finally but not least number five is the looseness and freedom at all three gaits. When all the joints are well aligned and connected by good angles the movement is supple and effortless.
His offspring that have scored the highest with AWS were, perhaps not surprisingly, from Holsteiner and thoroughbred mares. One of his offspring out of a Holsteiner (Flight’s Perfection) is currently in training for dressage with Thomas Ritter, the very well known west coast trainer.
Flight has also produced extremely high quality foals from Appaloosa, Arabian, Draft and selected grade quarter horses. Michael contracts to Wells Fargo bank and drives their stagecoach in parades and other promotional events. Three of his hitch horses are Saddlebred draft horse (Shire) crosses from Valley View Supreme breeding. He hopes to cross one of these Valley View mares to Flight.
Flight is nearing the end of his reproductive career. At 24 years old, his semen that never shipped well, is still settling mares by live cover. It is a shame he doesn’t ship because interest in him, his offspring and Saddlebred crosses is on the rise. Michael purchased three outstanding Saddlebred mares and intends on breeding Flight every year to his mares in hopes that one exceptional colt might one day replace his sire. The bar is set quite high and so far no purebred colt has made the cut to “stallion prospect”.
I asked Michael what he thought the Saddlebred brought to the sporthorse world. He admits that he doesn’t have much to add to what renowned conformation expert Dr Deb. Bennet has already said. For reference Dr. Deb Bennett, PhD., analyzed the American Saddlebred in her Applied Conformation series (in Equus 225), and stated:
"For more than 100 years, American Saddlebreds have been produced for the purpose of carrying a riders weight comfortably and efficiently…I have never seen any Saddlebred horse - even a part bred - who did not readily perform the passage … Most have incredibly comfortable and coordinated canters as well … I think they are the most neglected of all breeds suitable for dressage."
It is all about ride-ability, according to Michael, the feeling of suppleness, the responsiveness under saddle, a willingness to move forward, lightness in the bridle and the extreme collectability. In Michael’s opinion, many big Warmbloods so favored by the market are proving too difficult to ride for the average amateur rider. A good dose of lightness and responsiveness provided by the Saddlebred is maybe just what is needed to bring the fun back into riding for some people. Flight Time Gold has certainly proven what qualities the Saddlebred can bring into the sporthorse world. He is a leading producer of American Warmblood Horses in the United States, having sired more AWS National and Regional Medal winners than any other breeding stallion. Thanks to him and Michael we can look forward to more widely accepted ASB and ASB crosses in the sporthorse world.
Thank you Flight, thank you Michael!
Author
Flight Time Gold
The Story of a Legendary Saddlebred Sport Horse
by Veronique Dumas