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  he
American Quarter Horse Association's #1 All-Time Leading Breeder
of Performance Horses and a perennial NRCHA and NRHA breeder,
Carol Rose has bred foals earning more than 28,900 AQHA
points, averaging 69 points per foal and 94
points per point-earner, including 49 AQHA World and Reserve
World
Championships, 13 AQHA National All-Around titles, and
earners of more than $3,400,000 (NCHA earners of over $1,000,000,
NRHA earners of over $580,000, and NRCHA earners of over $700,000).
An intense supporter of the AQHA Incentive Fund from
the very beginning, Carol is the leader in all Incentive Fund
categories: foals bred, nominated and owned; total money
earned, and nominated sires’ earnings.
She owned and stood the AQHA’s #1 Leading Sire of
World Champion Performance Horses, Zan Parr Bar, whose
phenomenal record continues to escalate despite an early
death, and she has been the leading breeder or owner at the
AQHA World Show five times.
Foals bred by Carol Rose have earned more than 290 ROM
awards, as well as 184 Superior Awards in halter, cutting,
calf roping, heading, heeling, reining, western riding, trail,
western pleasure, barrel racing and working cowhorse, and more
than 530 AQHA All-Arounds. |
  n 2001 Carol was inducted in the National Cowgirl
Hall of Fame, honored as a role model and groundbreaker for
women in the equine industry. In 1998 Carol Rose was named the
AQHA's Professional Horsewoman of the Year, receiving additional
recognition for 30 years of continuous breeding. The third (and
first female) inductee to the National Cutting Horse Association's
Non-Pro Hall of Fame, she was inducted into the Texas Cowboy
Hall of Fame in 2004, and is among the honorees on the California
Rodeo Heritage Museum's Wall of Fame. An American Quarter Horse
Association approved judge for 14 years, Carol was the first
female member of the AQHA judges' committee; she is also a recognized
judge for the National Cutting Horse Association, National Reining
Horse Association and American Horse Show Association, and a
National Director and select committee member for the American
Quarter Horse Association. Carol's personal credits include
four NCHA Non-Pro World Champion titles--she was the first woman
in history to win an NCHA World Championship--many CRCHA titles,
AQHA Reserve World Championships in Cutting and Reining; the
NRHA Limited Non-Pro Champion title at the 1999 NRHA Derby;
Limited Non-Pro and Reserve Non-Pro Champion titles at the 1999
National Reiners Breeders' Classic, and the NRHA Non-Pro and
Limited Open Championships at the 1993 NRHA Lazy E Classic. |
  f
course, all this didn't begin just 15 years ago. Born in Palo
Alto, California, Carol Alison Ramsay, the second of four daughters,
inherited an intense love of horses from her mother,  Elizabeth.
As a youngster, Carol's favorite pastime was working as a regular
ranch hand on her grandfather's cattle ranch. Carol also exhibited
horses in almost every discipline, winning the first of countless
horse show trophies at age 8 and joining the American Horse
Show Association at age 10, going on to be crowned the San Francisco
Cow Palace Livestock Queen at age 17. The Castilleja High School
yearbook sums up her youth: "missed so much school every year
and still passed." Today Carol's mother Elizabeth--lifelong
coach, mentor and personal cheerleader--remains Carol's biggest
fan. |
 arly
adulthood found Carol devoted to competition in the California
Reined Cowhorse  Association
(CRCHA), which evolved
into today's National Reined Cowhorse Association. The CRCHA's
leading female exhibitor through the early sixties, Carol was
the third woman in history to win the Cow Palace Stock Horse
Championship Stakes, placed in the CRCHA Stock Horse Top Ten
from 1960 through 1965, and was the 1965 Grand National Cow
Palace Open Stock, Heavyweight Stock and Ladies Open Stock Horse
Champion. From the late 1950's through 1965, Carol won numerous
year-end awards in the youth, ladies and open divisions of the
CRCHA. |
 arol
set another precedent by becoming the first woman to win the
National Cutting Horse Association's Non-Pro World Championship,
in 1967 on Genuine Doc's mother, Gay Bar's Gen.
Now a Texan, having moved from California in 1966, Carol went
on to claim that title three more  times,
the fourth time on Peppy's Desire, who is still represented
in her broodmare band. Carol also won the NCHA Non-Pro Finals
twice, and placed in the NCHA Open Top Ten in 1969.
he
first woman to compete in the NCHA Futurity, Carol rode Doc's
Leo Lad to fourth place in 1969, one of three rides to the
NCHA Futurity Finals, thereby setting another record by becoming
the first woman finalist. But the history-making didn't stop
there. Carol was first going into the 1969 Finals, and upon
their conclusion, the first, second and third place riders
were none other than Matlock Rose (then Carol's husband),
Shorty Freeman and Buster Welch! Incidentally, that 1969 NCHA
Futurity marked the first year foals sired by Doc Bar were
shown--and they placed second, third and fourth, beginning
the Doc Bar phenomenon. Carol's electric NCHA Futurity experience
began a new crusade that ultimately resulted in the famous
NCHA Futurity finalist buckles now awarded each year.
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 he
unparalleled success of Gay Bar's Gen led Carol and Matlock
to breed the mare to Doc Bar, resulting in Genuine Doc, whom
Carol rode to an AQHA Reserve World Champion Cutting title;
he also placed third in the NCHA Open Super Stakes, and won
the prestigious Atlantic Coast Non-Pro Cutting Futurity with
Carol up. An All-Time Leading Sire of both Reining and Cutting
Horses, a Leading Paternal Grandsire of Cutting and Reined Cowhorses,
and one of the first Doc Bar sons to become a leading reining
sire, Genuine Doc helped establish today's standard of the Doc
Bar cross on the foundation reining pedigrees. He is an AQHA
World Show Superhorse Sire whose foals include AQHA High Point
All-Around Champions of the Nation, with World Champions in
Reining (both AQHA and NRHA), Heading and Heeling, as well as
NCHA Bronze Award holders. In the tradition of his powerful
dam's family, Genuine Doc has achieved the status of a legendary
broodmare sire: in 2002 he was the Equi-Stat #14 Leading Maternal
Grandsire of Reined Cowhorses and a Leading Cutting Maternal
Grandsire. So far his daughters have produced Champions of both
the NCHA Open Classic and NCHA Open Classic/Challenge; an NRCHA
Open Derby and NRCHA Open Stallion Stakes Champion, the 2003
RHAA National Finals Superhorse; AQHA World Champions in Calf
Roping and Heeling; the 2003 World's Greatest Horseman Reserve
Champion; the 2003 NCHA $10,000 Amateur Reserve World Champion,
and top ten finalists in the NRHA, NRCHA and NCHA World Championship
Futurities. |
  ith
the purchase of Zan Parr Bar in 1976, Carol's career assumed
a new direction once again. One of the greatest all-around sires
in the history of the breed, trained and shown to his great
career by Billy Allen, Zan Parr Bar took Carol to the halter
arena, the roping arena, and back to the reining, cowhorse and
even the show horse arenas, initiating Carol's extreme involvement
in the American Quarter Horse Association that endures today.
At a time when specialization within the breed was becoming
the norm, the 12 crops sired by Zan Parr Bar literally did it
all, earning nearly 25,000 points in almost every AQHA approved
event. Many of his most famous sons and daughters were shown
by one of the many trainers Carol has helped make famous: Bobby
Lewis, who would train for Carol Rose for 21 years. The success
of the Bobby, Carol and Zan Parr Bar team shattered all previous
records, at which point they commenced to break their own records,
with the aid of what would become some of the greatest producers
in history, each mare hand-picked. |
  ut
it was Zan Parr Bar’s famous nick with Diamonds Sparkle, an
AQHA Superhorse herself, that would exert the biggest influence
on Carol's future, which again was headed for a change.
 ust
when Zan Parr Bar was on his way to breaking all records as
a sire, he died of Colitis X on November 25, 1987. Though
heartbroken over his death and shaken by its financial implications,
Carol rallied and chose his son, Zans Diamond Sun, to replace
him. "Sunny" was truly his daddy's boy. Out of Diamonds Sparkle,
today's All-Time Leading Producer of AQHA World Champions
and a member of the NRHA Hall of Fame, Zans Diamond Sun had
been named the High Point All-Around Champion of the Nation,
World Champion Reining Horse, High Point Champion in Calf
Roping, Heading and Heeling, and was third in the NRHA Open
Futurity. Moreover, Carol had an instinctive faith that, over
all the stallion prospects she had access to, Sunny would
be the sire to follow most closely in his father's footsteps.
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  nbelievably,
with one crop on the ground and another breeding season not
quite completed, Zans Diamond Sun tragically died on July 25,
1989. This time Carol was devastated. Sunny's first crop, only
weanlings, told her she had lost an incredible sire of athletes,
and once again her assessment was sadly correct. Zans Diamond
Sun has become the sire with the highest percentage of AQHA
World Champions and World finalists in history. His 95 foals
have earned 64 ROM awards, 47 Superior awards and 7,962 points,
along with 21 World Champion, Reserve World Champion or High
Point titles and $236,000 in Incentive Fund money.
t
would be a good while before Carol's spirit completely recovered
from the loss of her stallions, and during this period, her
family and friends relentlessly encouraged her to remain in
the business. In that shattering summer of 1989, no one could
have convinced Carol that the palomino colt trotting at Diamonds
Sparkle's flank would make up for it all. Sunny's mother had
been bred to Genuine Doc in the season following Zan Parr
Bar's death, and this colt was named Shining Spark. |
  s
he matured Shining Spark began to show promise of becoming a
bona fide superstar. Perfectly balanced and correct, keenly
intelligent and trainable, and a phenomenal athlete, "Shiner"
possessed an inborn drive to excel that even Carol Rose, with
all her champions, had encountered only rarely. His sixth place
finish out of 408 entries at the 1992 NRHA Futurity--quite an
achievement in itself--was only a warmup. Shiner's performance
in the four classes that qualified him for the 1993 AQHA World
Championship Show cemented the industry's respect for him, and
on the evening of the Junior Reining Finals at the World, he
did not disappoint. In an arena crackling with anticipation,
Shining Spark and the charismatic Boomernic battled to a rein-off
for the World title, and with Tim McQuay in the saddle, Shiner's
flawless final performance culminated in a mighty sliding stop,
eliciting a thunderous roar of appreciation from the crowd and
a record score of 227.5. |
| ust
in case anyone viewed his World performance as a one-time event,
seven months later Shining Spark won the 1994 National Reining
Horse Association Derby, again dazzling spectators and judges
alike with an even more exceptional score of 230.5, once more
bringing an ecstatic crowd to its feet in an earthquake of appreciation.
As Shining Spark executed one of the most dynamic reining performances
ever viewed at an NRHA event, his breeder and owner was being
rushed to an Oklahoma City hospital for emergency gall bladder
surgery. Carol missed it! |
 hen
Shining Spark moved on to his present career–the
business of siring foals earning more $6,600,000 so
far–becoming history’s youngest NRHA Two Million Dollar Sire,
an NRCHA First Two Million Dollar Sire, the 2007 NRCHA #1 All-Time
Leading Sire, the NRHA #4 All-Time Leading Sire and the AQHA
#2 All-Time Leading Living Sire of Performance ROM.
His foals have amassed more than 29,700 AQHA points, 373
ROM awards, 172 Superior awards, and 60 AQHA/APHA World and Reserve World Championships. Now
countless, Shining
Spark’s great performers include the 2008 NRHA Open Futurity Champion, 2008 NRCHA Open Futurity Reserve Champion, 2007 AQHA World Show Superhorse, 2007 AQHA World Champion Senior Heading Horse, and the 2007 NRCHA Non-Pro Futurity Champion, to name a few.
  eedless
to say, Carol's attention has centered on the reining and
reined cowhorse industries for the past several years. Her
extensive promotion agenda, complemented by her celebrity
stallion, has helped transform both sports from a modest
"cowboy's"
competition to an electrifying draw for horsemen and lay people
alike. The senior stallions currently standing at Carol Rose
Quarter Horses are both on the leading reining and reined
cowhorse sires' lists. Her entries have topped the NRHA Futurity
Sales more years than any other breeder's; she has bred champions
of every major NRHA event and nearly every major NRCHA event.
s
the figures establish, Carol Rose's success has not been in
numbers--it has been in great horses, combined with Carol's
resolution to retain the most talented, committed trainers
and staff to attend her operation. Discuss Carol's horses
with her, and she will use the word "cross" often; she has
an innate ability to plan successful matings, and as the saying
goes, no champion from Rose Ranch is an "accident." Obviously,
her instincts for selecting breeding stallions have been especially
extraordinary. Carol constantly tries to raise a better horse,
maintaining her personal requirement of impeccably bred, well-made,
well-balanced and sound individuals. |
 lways
personally overseeing all aspects of her breeding and showing
operations, Carol has a barn name for and intimate knowledge
of every single horse she owns, including a pet or two. She's
a get-to-business, bluntly honest person--perspectives she extends
to herself. She races around her ranch each day accompanied
by her trio of devoted Corgis, personally overseeing her business,
from selecting a promising prospect for an ambitious buyer,
to helping an employee coax a colt into the round pen. At sundown
Carol's fingernails are just as dirty and her body just as tired,
as that of anyone who has ever worked for her. Even as she manages
her operation of 665 acres, several stallions, 60 mares, and
numerous prospects and horses in training with the help of 20
employees, Carol continually seeks new challenges. In spite
of her frenetic pace, Carol extends sincere interest and concern
to her family of employees, associates and friends. |
|
 or
many years, the Carol Rose Ranch moved about 70 miles south
to the John Justin Arena in Fort Worth, Texas each August,
when Carol's entire crew volunteered its time in the production
of the American Quarter Horse Youth Association World Championship
Show. Carol herself could usually be found at the ingate day
and night, working with the kids and crews to create a positive
environment for the youth competitors. Carol truly believes kids  are
the future of the horse industry, and she readily and continually
backs up that belief.
he
years prior to the eighties featured only a handful of women
who were actual forces in the professional horse world. What
did it take for a woman to make it in that predominantly male
arena? Someone supremely confident in her own capability and
knowledge, and literally fearless when she knows she is right.
Carol is a pioneer who blazed a trail in an industry that
now welcomes and appreciates its female members, from trainers
to editors to association executives. She has unquestionably
earned her place at the top. |
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Written by
Robin Glenn & Patti Colbert |
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