BY CHRISTINE HAMILTON, FIELD EDITOR
 |
| One Quick Cookie and trainer Todd Grant in the first-ever performance halter mares class. The mare earned a racing Register of Merit. |
One Quick Cookie earned her racing Register of Merit in 2004. She has a high speed index of 92 and more than $12,000 in earnings at California’s Los Alamitos racetrack.
She also qualified for the performance halter mares class at the 2007 AQHA World Championship Show. And it’s a neat story as to how she got there.
Melissa Ann Miller and Teresa Dwyer, D.V.M., both of Belton, Texas, wanted to partner on a racing broodmare.
“She’s my veterinarian, and we are friends,” Melissa said.
Teresa has a background in racing and Melissa grew up with a father who raced Quarter Horses. In fact, Melissa’s first show horses were always off-the-track geldings her father raised.
“Teresa and I had partnered on a racing broodmare before, and she died from colic,” Melissa continued. “We had some breedings and were looking to purchase another mare to use on those paid breedings.”
So they picked up the sale catalog for the 2007 Heritage Place Winter Mixed Sale in January, and marked some mares to look at.
“We flew up to Oklahoma City,” Melissa said. “We only had three or four hours because Teresa had to go on call foaling out mares.
“We looked at all the mares and nothing fit what we wanted. I was looking at them from a show aspect, so they had to be put together right, and she was looking at pedigree. We were very discouraged, down to our last horse to look at, and it was her.
“We were just bowled over,” Melissa said. “She had the pedigree and a record, she had done something. This was it.”
The big, pretty and correct bay mare was a 2002 daughter by top racing sire Royal Quick Dash and out of One Slick Cookie, a Dash For Cash daughter of the good mare Pfeffernusse by Tiny’s Gay. And she was in foal to two-time champion racing Quarter Horse Separatist.
The mare was 20 away from selling when Melissa and Teresa saw her. They talked it over, headed to the auction ring and a short time later the mare was theirs, and they were racing to make their flight home.
Once she got the mare home to her ranch, Melissa got to thinking about showing. Melissa shows “a little bit of everything,” from all-around to speed events. She made her stallion, Skip N Jay, into an AQHA Champion, and raised six Champions by him.
“When I saw (One Quick Cookie) I said, you know, this mare is good enough – because that’s what I do, I show – this mare could halter in the regular halter,” Melissa said.
“When we foaled her out, I had some other horses I was showing in performance halter. I just kept thinking, for fun; let’s just do this (with her).”
Melissa convinced halter trainer Todd Grant of Whitesboro, Texas, to come look at the mare just to get another opinion, and he agreed with her.
“We weaned the baby in June, and I sent her to Todd,” Melissa said. “He had her a week and we went to the Boom Circuit in Amarillo, and put her first points on her. The next weekend we took her to Odessa, Texas, and finished qualifying her. We hadn’t had her in the barn two weeks.
“It was so funny, because she hadn’t been in public life like that since the track,” Melissa continued. “When we led her from the stall to the arena, it was like she was going to post time. She sucked up and looked like a racehorse; you would swear she lost 200 pounds just walking from the stall to the arena.
“The very first time we had to set her up it was a little new. She had to learn – we just had to get her close. But now she’s showing like a halter horse.”
After the World Show, Melissa and Teresa might continue showing One Quick Cookie long enough to get her halter Register of Merit. But the mare is in foal again to Separatist for a 2008 foal, and they hope to breed her back to racing champion Feature Mr Jess.
“I’m very proud of her,” Melissa said. “The main objective was to buy her for a racehorse broodmare. But this is fun, and I wanted to say I was a part of the first performance halter world championships that they had. And that a good-looking race mare can hang in there.
“From my standpoint, an athlete is an athlete, I don’t care what they’re doing,” she continued. “Halter, pleasure, racing – they’re all supposed to be put together the same. And the good ones all have that look, regardless.
“We may be still on the wall when it’s all said and done, but it’s all about fun.”
One Quick Cookie and Todd were never left on the wall, and they ended up fifth for the class. The class included 34 top mares from every discipline, but the crowd gave a special round of applause when her placing was announced, welcoming the race mare to the show pen.
Click here for the performance halter mares winning run story.
