November 19, 2011

Out on Top

Harley D Zip retires from open competition.

By Christine Hamilton
The American Quarter Horse Journal

The 2011 senior western riding finals November 19 was another one for the record books, filled with multiple world champions, several in western riding.

The end of the class was bittersweet for AQHA Professional Horseman Jason Martin of Highpoint Performance Horses in Pilot Point, Texas. It was his last horse show performance on the legendary Harley D Zip.

“I think this might be my 12th year in a row, showing 'Harley,' ” Jason told the Journal on November 18 in the Highpoint stalls in the Superbarn. “I still enjoy showing him, but 12 years is a long time. It’s just really important to me – he’s such a famous horse – that I want to retire him when he’s still at the top of his game.”

Harley’s longtime owners, the Papendick family of Highview Ranch in Rapid City, South Dakota, agree, he says.

“What I didn’t want was for people to start saying, ‘Oh, he doesn’t change leads like he used to,’ or, ‘Harley’s starting to get old,’” Jason says. “He’s given me so much that it’s only fair to him. I still enjoy showing him, but 12 years is a long time, and I want him to be remembered at the top of his game.”

Jason and then-owner Carrie von Uhlit made the same decision for three-time Farnam Superhorse Acadamosby Award, aka “Oscar,” retiring him at the 2004 AQHA World Championship Show and pulling his shoes in the Jim Norick Arena.

“Most horses in Harley’s and Oscar’s tier just don’t (retire at the top). By the time they’re done, it’s because they’re not placing anymore or are just not at that quality.”

Kerry Papendick and her daughters, Kristina and Ali, plan to continue to show Harley for another year or so, but the horse is finished with open competition.

Jason has enjoyed watching Harley change through the years, maturing as a show horse. Jason originally bought Harley for Harriet Yakatan of Hermosa Beach, California. Harley was a pleasure horse, and Jason began to teach him his leads for trail competition.

Starting out, “he just wasn’t super-forgiving,” he recalls, in how his riders asked for lead changes. As Harley progressed, he benefited first from eventual owner Joetta Bell of Weatherford, Texas, and then the Papendick sisters.

“We’ve been really fortunate that he’s had such great riders,” Jason says. “A lot of times, you might have a novice rider that you’re trying to fix because the horse is getting away with murder. It was never like that with Harley. He always had great amateur and youth riders. He really was never able to get away with anything. It’s always kept him current.

“It’s funny, even now, in the western riding, he just doesn’t cheat very much, try to change leads on his own or lope off. My biggest problem is loping up the center for his stop. It’s just because he’s stopped there so many times, he anticipates, he knows where he’s going to stop.”

Harley and his familiar bay coat and roached mane has become an American Quarter Horse showing icon – the all-time point-earning horse and AQHA Incentive Fund money-earner. But the western riding is where he has become a legend with 13 world championships and more than 3,000 points in that class alone, all divisions combined.

“I think he’s made the sport of western riding better,” Jason says. “I think it’s been a much better class since Harley’s been in it.

“I think western riding has evolved more than any other class in the last 20 years. If you go back and look at the old videos 20 years ago, it’s come from taking front-to-back lead changes to win the world, to correct lead changes, to doing it on a loose rein to now, with this scoring system, to actually trying to get as much finesse – like me getting Harley to point his toe as much as I can.

“I think Harley is still different from most horses (in how he changes leads). It’s how he’s made and how he changes leads. I’m not sure how much it has to do with my training; he was born with that lead change. We’ve just tried to enhance it.”

Get up-to-date on AQHA showing news at www.aqha.com/showing.

Jason thinks his best ride on Harley was the 2009 senior western riding finals at the World Show.

“It was one of those goes that I look back on and think, ‘Wow, that was a really good go.’

“Harley’s just really a consistent horse. I could pull him out of the stall at a regular horse show, ride him for 10 minutes and still be in the top of the group. We try to always peak him for the big shows. We don’t ask much of him through the year. Have him at 70 percent and then at the World Show ask him for a little more.”

Jason planned to just enjoy his last competition day, riding late the evening before longeing the horse a little to let him blow some steam off, and riding him again on the 19th to keep him loosened up. The plans were for Ali to help warm him up for the finals.

“My dream would be that Harley would go out on top,” Jason says. “But if he doesn’t, I really just want to enjoy the day tomorrow and enjoy the class.

“He’s literally a once-in-a-lifetime horse.”

The Journal staff went through its World Show coverage archive and came up with some favorite western riding Harley moments. Remember when …

• Harley won his first world championship in junior western riding in 2000, with Jason in the saddle.
• The 2006 senior western riding that Harley and Jason won in a ride-off against Vital Signs Are Good, aka “Lucy,” and Leonard Berryhill – they both scored a 227.5 in their first goes.
• And 2007 was a repeat ride-off between the two when they both scored a 236.5; Harley won again.
• Harley and Jason won the senior class in 2008, with a 226.
• In 2009, Jason and Harley won senior with a 236; Jason also rode Lucy to the reserve.
• In 2008-09, Ali had back-to-back youth world championships on Harley, with the same record score – a 241.
• And in 2011 … Check the Journal Winning Run to find out.