Diamonds Sparkle not only glittered in the arena, but her get have lit up the boards in reining and other events for more than a decade.
The 1974 palomino filly was sired by Mr Diamond Dude and was out of Pollyanna Rose. Bred by Jerald Freeman, the filly was bought by Coloradans Jerry Smith and Dick Steward. Freeman showed Diamonds Sparkle to second place in an Oklahoma halter futurity and then shipped the weanling to Colorado.
Steward bought Freeman’s half-interest in the palomino, and continued showing her in halter her yearling year. With the help of Sunny Jim Orr, Diamonds Sparkle was shown as a 2-year-old, earning 23 points in halter.
Orr started the filly under saddle the next winter and showed her in western pleasure. She earned 31 pleasure points her first year under saddle, earning a performance ROM. Diamonds Sparkle made her reining debut in 1978 at the National Western Stock Show, and earned her AQHA Champion title that year.
In 1979, Diamonds Sparkle proved she was a good roping horse, and was crowned the 1979 AQHA Superhorse. By this time, Steward was looking for a good stallion to cross with his golden mare and decided on Carol Rose’s Zan Parr Bar.
The cross produced Sparkles Rosezana, who won the senior heading at the 1988 AQHA World Championship Show. Other horses from the Zan Parr Bar – Diamonds Sparkle cross include Sparkles Suzana, Zans Diamond Sun and Sparkles La Zanna.
Diamonds Sparkle was bred to Genuine Doc, Doc O’Lena, Zans Last Light and Zan Parr Express. These crosses produced Shining Spark, Genuine Redskin and Spark O Lena, to name a few. Out of 18 foals, 12 are performance point earners, and have earned a total of $323,235.76 in the National Reining Horse Association.
Diamonds Sparkle died in 2002, and was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2007.
Biography updated as of March 2007.