August 12, 2011
By Larri Jo StarkeyThe American Quarter Horse Journal
Sawyer Seago waits for his header, his father Jimmy, to pull his steer past him in the heeling finals August 12. (Journal photo.)
Just call him a family legacy.
Three generations of Seago men have ridden Golddust Dee Doc at world championship shows.
At the 2011 Built Ford Tough AQHYA World Championship Show, it was 11-year-old Sawyer’s turn.
“Yellow Dusty” first carried Jimmy Seago of Skiatook, Oklahoma, to glory at the 1992 Youth World – then a function of the American Junior Quarter Horse Association.
“I had him qualified three or four years but we won the world that last year I was in youth in ’92,” Jimmy says.
That’s the year Jimmy and Yellow Dusty won world championships in heading and team penning and were reserve champions in heeling.
A few years later, Jimmy’s dad, Jim Seago, took the 1982 palomino gelding to the Palomino Horse Breeders of America world championship show, where he was world champion in amateur cutting in 1999.
The gelding has been a trusted partner in the family’s rodeo pickup business for years, in addition to his time in the spotlight, but the bright lights of showing have always had a special place in the gelding’s heart.
“I could take him to a $10 jackpot and he’d ride like a burro , (but) you take him to a world show and that was his lick,” Jimmy says. “He had his own personality there. He liked everybody to see his pretty yellow color and his pretty white mane.”
Yellow Dusty is by Mr Dee Bar Chex and out of Touch O’ Fame by Fame Pay Gold. He was bred by Ed and Joan Morgan of Duncan, Oklahoma. Jimmy owns the horse, and about seven years ago, Sawyer started riding him.
About three years ago, they started roping, and Jimmy and his wife, Amy, trusted Yellow Dusty to keep Sawyer safe, even when he misses, as he did in his heeling preliminary run August 12 at the Ford Youth World in Oklahoma City.
“We finally got it where (Sawyer) could get qualified (to show) on (Dusty), and I just thought that was kind of a neat deal that he’s been there three times,”Jimmy says. “We were hoping the outcome would be a little bit better but we’re here and I thought that was pretty neat deal that he got to be here.”
Getting the 29-year-old horse qualified to show was a goal that many riders don’t pull off, Jimmy points out.
“You get to come here and compete with these quality of horses, and if your horse gets his name called in this caliber of show – that’s why I like to show,” he says. “Your horse is doing something.”
Giving back is part of Jimmy’s goal, in addition to making sure Dusty gets one more shot at the spotlight.
“I’ve never seen anything (at horse shows) but a bunch of people who want to help you and do everything they can,” he says. “I’m on the Oklahoma Quarter Horse board now, and trying to get Sawyer involved. We enjoy it.”
Jimmy still sports his 1992 world championship buckle on his belt.
“That’s the last world champion buckle I won, so I’ll wear it until I win another one,” he says. “I’ve got three horses qualified for amateur World this year, so hopefully we’ll get one.”
And despite Sawyer’s hard luck at the 2011 Ford Youth World, Jimmy thinks Sawyer will be back with Dusty in 2012
“Of course it’s been hot at the house, and (Dusty) kinda mopes around, but when we ride in (the Jim Norick Arena), he still has that bit of fire,” Jimmy says. “I think he enjoys it. He always did when I showed him.”