YEARLING GELDINGS

2005 WORLD CHAMPION WEANLING GELDING ONE PERFECT CLU IS NOW A WORLD CHAMPION YEARLING.

BY  TONYA RATLIFF-GARRISON, JOURNAL FIELD EDITOR  

Charlie and Leasa Haselden were on the lookout for a gelding they could show in halter. They didn’t have to look further than their trainer’s barn.

AQHA Pro Horseman Gene Parker of Orrum, North Carolina, had One Perfect Clu, the 2005 amateur and open weanling gelding world champion.

“Another customer of mine had him, and Charlie and Leasa saw him and bought him in July of this year,” Gene said. “The horse was already qualified because he won the amateur and open last year, but I had to get Charlie qualified.”

Charlie showed “Leroy” in amateur yearling geldings November 10, placing seventh in a class of 17.

“This was Charlie’s first experience here (at the World Show), and I think he was a little nervous,” Gene said. “He didn’t get him shown as good as he could have, and that just happens. He did a nice job, though, and he’ll learn and get better.”

Gene Parker leads One Perfect Clu up to receive the world championship trophy for yearling geldings.

Charlie had to leave to go back to work in Atlanta and was unable to see Leroy take the open yearling gelding world title November 16. However, his wife, Leasa, was on hand and was thrilled with her and her husband’s first world win.

“Now that I’ve composed myself and quit crying, it feels real good,” she said with a laugh. “I wasn’t really surprised, though, because I knew Leroy was capable of doing it. He’s a really good horse. He’s really good-minded. And Gene does a great job showing him. So today I had a feeling that he was going to do really well.”

What attracted Leroy to Leasa and Charlie was his sire, Silent Clu, a 1999 sorrel stallion that Gene led to the 2003 aged stallion world championship. Leroy was the first of the sire’s offspring to win a world championship.

“We had some other Silent Clu horses that we really liked, and we’d seen him as a weanling, and we really, really liked him,” Leasa said. “And when we were looking for a good show horse this summer, we were just really pleased with the way he turned out and the way he was maturing and just decided that he would be a good horse for us.”

And at next year’s World Show, it will be Leasa at the shank with Leroy in amateur geldings.

“My husband gave him to me for a Christmas present this year, so he’s mine now,” she said with a smile.