All that breeder Paul Curtner wanted was a sorrel colt, and that is what he got with Zippo Pat Bars.
Foaled in 1964, Zippo Pat Bars was by Three Bars (TB) and out of Leo Pat by Leo.
Curtner sent Zippo Pat Bars to trainer E. R. Beddo in Ruidoso, New Mexico, to get him ready for the 1966 All American Futurity. The sorrel horse never made it. As Zippo Pat Bars was being led out of his stall, he spooked. The stallion flipped over and hit the stall door, breaking two vertebrae in his back and knocking his withers down a couple of inches.
The following year, Curtner took Zippo Pat Bars to Ross Downs in Colleyville, Texas, where he won a race in AAA time. He ran at several other tracks, and finally went to Centennial Racetrack in Denver, where, even after a broken back, the stallion had four firsts and four second-place finishes.
Zippo Pat Bars was retired from racing and became one of Curtner’s top breeding stallions. He crossed the stallion on his Poco Pine mares. One of the first matings of Zippo Pat Bars to a Poco Pine daughter was to Dollie Pine. The resulting foal was Zippo Pine Bar, who was shown to earn a total of 33 halter points, 91 western pleasure points, 19 western riding points and two points in trail.
The crossing of Poco Pine mares with Zippo Pat Bars brought to the industry many other outstanding individuals: Zippo Pine Pat, AQHA Youth Performance Champion and youth all-around winner; Zippo Pine Lady, Superior western pleasure horse; Patty Lee Zip, AQHA Champion; Bar Pat Chris, 1987 High-Point pleasure driving stallion; and True Zip, Superior western pleasure horse.
Zippo Pat Bars was also bred to Hank’s Peppy Lou. The result was The Invester, a 2004 Hall of Fame inductee, and an AQHA Champion and Superior halter stallion.
Zippo Pat Bars sired 476 registered foals. Of those, 199 earned Registers of Merit, nine were AQHA Champions and one was a stakes winner.
Zippo Pat Bars was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2002.