It was the 2004 NCHA Futurity that launched Marvine Ranch owners Jon and Abby Winkelried into the world of high profile cutting competition. Spots Hot won the Futurity that year and Quintan Blue was reserve champion. Within two years of that Futurity, the Winkelrieds would own Quintan Blue, along with a stellar stable of broodmares and show horses.
Since 2006, Marvine Ranch horses have won 22 major limited age event championships and four major reserve championships. In the same time frame, the Winkelrieds moved from the East Coast, where now retired Jon had been co-president of Goldman Sachs, to Aledo,Texas, 24 miles west of Fort Worth. The original Marvine Ranch is an historic cow-calf operation in Meeker, Colorado that the Winkelrieds purchased in 2000, but they built the stunning Aledo ranch from the ground up.
“We enjoy the whole cutting experience, but showing is the part that we enjoy the most,” said Jon Winkelried. “Our Texas ranch is designed and built to function as a cutting horse training facility. That is the purpose of it and where we spend most of our time now.”
Abby grew up riding horses, while Jon was an adult before he climbed into a saddle. They both enjoyed riding ranch horses in Meeker, but when Ed Buchanan from Wyoming stopped by in 2004 and put them on two of his cutting horses, they were hooked. Staraleno, a Grays Starlight daughter and an NCHA Futurity finalist producer, was one of their first purchases. Not long after, Sassy Shorty, by Shorty Lena, along with I Sho Spensive, by Freckles Fancy Twist, joined the fledgling Marvine Ranch broodmare band, and Sues Barn Cat, by High Brow Cat, became part of their show string.
In December 2005, the Winkelrieds purchased Miss Martini Play, the dam of Copaspepto, who would win five major limited age events at four and be named 2007 NCHA Horse of the Year. Marvine Ranch has bred two major earners from Miss Martini Play, including Stylish Martini, champion of the 2011 NCHA Derby under Roger Wagner.
Marvine Ranch sold Miss Martini Play and Sues Barn Cat privately to Susan Marchant, Queensland, Australia, earlier this year. Marchant also owns 2010 NCHA Futurity champion One Time Royalty, who she purchased from Matthews Cutting Horses in 2011. Staraleno was sold privately to Penny Youngblood, Circle Y Ranch, who earlier this year also purchased NCHA Horse of the Year Boon San Kitty and her full sister, RW Sallycat, from Alice Walton’s Rocking W Ranch.
Roger Wagner became an integral member of the Marvine Ranch team in January 2010, shortly after Jim Vangilder dispersed his Rock Creek horses. It was Wagner who had trained and showed Quintan Blue for Vangilder and would continue to show her for the Winkelrieds.
In 2007, Jon Winkelried showed Quintan Blue, who by then was the earner of nearly $590,000, to win amateur championship titles of the Breeders Invitational Classic and the Memphis Futurity Classic. On October 20, 11-year-old Quintan Blue will go under the auctioneer’s hammer in the Marvine Ranch Reduction Sale. She sells with her embryo by Smooth As A Cat, while her 6-year-old daughter, Dualin Blue, a major open finalist and the earner of $36,212, as well as her 3-year-old colt Blu Ray, paid into the NCHA Futurity, sell separately.
“Managing a very full program requires a lot of time and intensity. In our case that included a broodmare program; the management of young horses as they approach training age; and the training process for two and three-year-olds, as well as show horses. Earlier this year, we took stock and decided it would be more enjoyable for us and therefore more sustainable, if we downsized so that we are managing our program and it is not managing us. Our focus going forward will be to have great horses that we can compete on as non-pros and amateurs rather than on showing open horses.”
“These have been emotional decisions. We’ve gotten attached to these horses in a lot of ways,” said Winkelried. ” For me, Cherry Chex Dually was a horse I had as much fun on as I had on Quintan Blue.”
The Winkelrieds purchased Cherry Chex Dually in 2007, as a 3-year-old. The Hes A Peptospoonful daughter won over $253,000 under her trainer, Eddie Flynn, and captured the amateur championship for Winkelried in the 2010 NCHA Classic Challenge, as well as in the 2010 Brazos Bash, where Jon scored 226 points with her and Flynn won the open.
The Winkelried’s program comes full circle with Cherry Chex Dually’s 2012 colt, who was sired by Spots Hot. The colt also sells in the Marvine Ranch Reduction Sale, as does Cherry Chex Dually with an embryo by WR This Cats Smart.
“Despite the fact that we are not going to have a broodmare band going forward, we have learned a lot from being breeders,” Winkelried noted. “Every part of the process is incremental and we are a lot smarter coming out of it.
“Although we are not going to have an ongoing broodmare operation, we will still try to get some foals from our show horses through embryo transfer and have a nucleus of from three to five foals each year. But we will sell our show horses at the end of their six-year-old season, which will be a great opportunity for someone who wants a weekend horse or a broodmare prospect, and we will also scout around and look for prospects to add to our program that other people have bred.
“Our objective is to have great limited age event horses that we can compete on and that is going to be our focus going forward.”
For information, including a catalog of horses for the Marvine Ranch Reduction Sale, go to www.westernbloodstock.com.