The Sky's The Limit
When it comes to breeding Paint reining, cutting or working cow horses, Len and Linda Schultz
are shooting for the stars
In many ways, the Schultzes personify the American Dream.

Born and raised on the bottom rung of the middle-class ladder in a gritty industrial town northeast of San Francisco, they met, married young, started a family, then a business, worked hard, retired early-then moved to the country to enjoy middle age and the tranquility of rural living.
But instead of playing bridge, taking cruises or pursuing other recreational pleasures usually associated with the good life, Len and Linda decided they were going to use their free time and life's savings a little differently.
"By the mid-'90s, we had pretty much raised our family of six boys and one girl and thought it would be a good time to sell our carpet and upholstery-cleaning businesses and move to a warmer and drier part of the state," said Linda. "Our plan was to raise a few horses, relax and just slow down a bit."
In November of 1996, Len, Linda and their youngest sons, twins Brent and Derek, moved from Corvallis, Oregon, to their new home on a 71-acre ranch located in Oregon's high-desert country between Bend and Sisters. After years of dealing with the endless rain and mud endemic to the intermountain Northwest, the warm, drier climate was a welcome change.
"But then Linda went crazy," Len said with a grin, "and began buying every horse in sight. By the spring of 1998, we had 15 pregnant mares, a 4-year-old black and white homozygous stallion, another 2-year-old black and white homozygous colt, and a green-broke 2-year-old overo gelding.
"All of a sudden, our little hobby had turned into a second career."
Linda, who has taken this good-natured ribbing from her husband before, wastes no time defending herself.
"Listen," she said, "buying horses is my only vice. I don't smoke, I don't drink, and I don't run around with other men-it could be a lot worse."
Wise man that he is, Len smiled in silent agreement.
Taking stock
Although Skyview Ranch's breeding program is relatively young, the cutting and reining horse world is beginning to take notice. This is not because of Linda's penchant for buying well-bred tobiano mares, but for the kind of foals that those mares are beginning to produce.
But it wasn't always that way.
"Our program didn't have much direction when we started," Linda admits. "We just wanted to raise a few foals to sell, and to keep a few saddle horses to ride. I guess we fell into this breeding business the same way a lot of people do.
"We were looking for a roping horse for Len to ride while we were still running our businesses in Corvallis. Our son Mark was beginning to rope and Len wanted to rope with him.
"We found this really nice breeding stock Paint mare that had been roped on," Linda continued. "The only catch was, she was pregnant. At the time, we weren't looking for a mare, certainly not a pregnant mare, but we liked her and figured we'd sell the foal and that would be it."
Neither Len nor Linda knew much about delivering a foal, but they read up on the subject and even built a little birthing stall in their small barn.
As luck would have it, their first foal was a big, healthy bay overo colt.
"Right then and there, we got the Paint breeding bug," said Len. "We had so much fun raising that little guy that we knew we wanted to raise a few more once we had the time and place to do it."
Although the Schultzes had owned and ridden horses for many years, those horses were mostly Quarter Horse geldings. Living next to a large forest north of Corvallis, the couple used their saddle horses to escape the pressure of running a thriving business and to get away from a houseful of kids.
"Not long after the foal was born, we moved to our new property," said Linda. "The 71-acre ranch was ideal for raising horses -it had several large, cross-fenced pastures and a good water supply. With this beautiful facility, we felt it was time to get a few mares."
Reality strikes
In the fall of 1996, Linda saw an ad for a black and white homozygous stallion in the Paint Horse Journal. But when she called the owner, Linda was told that the horse had been consigned to a Paint and Quarter Horse Sale in Shawnee, Oklahoma, the next January.
Len and Linda decided to go to the sale.
"Since we had a few mares by then, it made sense to us to buy a stallion rather than pay for breeding fees," Linda recalled. "But when we got to the sale and saw the colt, we didn't like him as much as we thought we would."
Instead, they bought DD Docs Sugar Bars, another 3-year-old black and white homozygous stallion who caught their eye. DD Docs Sugar Bars became the anchor of their fledgling breeding program for a short time.
"While at the sale, we met Max Hanson, a cutting horse trainer from Canada," said Linda.
"He had a couple of well-bred black and white mares at the sale, and even though we weren't interested in buying his mares, he spent a lot of time visiting," Linda recalled. "During one of our conversations, he gave us some advice that changed our entire breeding program: 'If you are going to raise horses, raise the kind of horses that you are really going to enjoy.'
"Well, that didn't sound revolutionary at the time, but the more we thought about it, the more we realized all we were doing was accumulating mares and stallions-we had also just purchased a yearling black and white colt to eventually breed-but without any real purpose other than to produce more horses."
For several years, Len and Linda had been going to National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA)-sanctioned events in the Northwest and were fascinated by the athletic ability of the horses and the skill of their riders.
"We used to watch those classes and think, 'Wouldn't it be great to raise horses that could do that,'" said Linda. "But those were Quarter Horses and we wanted to raise Paints. It never dawned on us that we could raise Paints that would be competitive at that level.
"On the way home from the sale, we decided we needed to spend more time studying pedigrees and talking with people who knew more about breeding reining and cutting horses than we did."
Charting new ground
If Linda Schultz is nothing else, she is tenacious. After returning home with her new stallion, she and Len went about breeding the 12 mares she had acquired. She had also purchased three mares already in foal. The following spring, she had 15 foals to sell, as well as the mares that no longer fit their program.
"When it came time to sell, I put ads in the Paint Horse Journal and the local paper," said Linda. "With the help of beginner's luck, we managed to sell our new stallion, most of our mares and all of our weanlings-and still come out ahead."
While the Schultzes were in the middle of selling most of their herd, Linda began looking for Paint mares that would help them achieve their new goals.
"We didn't have unlimited resources, so I knew we couldn't afford to go out and buy money-earning mares or mares with a proven production record," she said. "I decided to buy young mares that had proven pedigrees, then breed them to the very best Paint and Quarter Horse stallions we could afford.
"Among the first good mares that we bought were three 2-year-old Q T Poco Streke daughters. Maureen and Eber Christopher, who own the stallion, were promoting him pretty aggressively. When I saw their ad, I said, 'Well, here we go. Here is a black and white tobiano Paint that is really doing something.' He had just won some pretty major reining events competing against good Quarter Horses, so I called to learn more about him.
"Maureen Christopher was very helpful. She spent a lot of time with me on the telephone, talking about pedigrees-both Paint and Quarter Horse.
"I knew if we were going to raise good performance horses, we needed daughters of horses that had accomplished something significant.
"One thing I learned early on: If you want to sell a colt that people will take seriously and spend good money on-not only to buy but to train and promote-you've got to have a lot of Quarter Horse on their papers or the people aren't interested," said Linda.
Although that type of prejudice bothers some Paint breeders, it's understandable when you consider that the vast majority of horses competing at the highest levels in cutting, reining or working cow horse events are Quarter Horses.
"While this is changing, Paints at these events are the exception, not the rule," Linda said.
For the Schultzes then, developing a Paint breeding program that contained not only proven, but also the most popular Quarter Horse bloodlines, while still maintaining a high percentage of color production, presented the greatest challenge.
"It doesn't do any good to take a Paint mare to a top reining, cutting, or working cow horse sire and come up with a breeding stock colt," said Linda. "You probably won't be able to recover your stud fee, let alone make a profit. For that reason, we decided early on to breed tobianos-in part because the chances of getting color are better than when breeding overos.
"Besides, overos have always had the benefit of cropouts. If you look at many of the successful Paints in cutting or reining, quite a few were cropouts or had a cropout close up in their pedigree."
Len added, "During the black and white craze, we looked at a lot of tobianos that were pretty, but didn't have much substance nor a pedigree that would enable them to be competitive performance horses at the highest level.
"We figured as long as we were going to develop a program of our own, we might as well set ambitious goals-not only for us but for the Paint breed as well. We wanted to do what we could to improve the breed by breeding tobianos that had the minds and the athleticism to compete successfully at the highest levels in cutting and reining.
"That's our program in a nutshell."
In order to achieve those lofty goals, Linda began reading everything she could about the Western performance horse side of the industry.
"As I became more aware of the families of horses that dominated cutting and reining, I started looking for Paints that combined the best Paint and Quarter Horse pedigrees," said Linda.
"When I discovered that Delta Flyer was an own son of Peppy San Badger, I called his owner, Floyd Moore, in Huntsville, Texas, to learn more about Moore's breeding program.
"Delta Flyer was the only Paint that had won a major NCHA event at the time. He won the 1985 Super Stakes and also a lot of money in other NCHA events. I knew I wanted to incorporate some of that blood into my breeding program.
"I discovered that people who share the same interest in Paint cow horses will take a lot of time with you, especially if you are interested in buying horses," Linda continued. "But even if you aren't, they will share their years of experience, even when it is obvious that you're just learning the ropes and might not have a lot of money to throw around."
Another mentor who Linda credits for helping her map out her long-term goals was George Jensen of Jacksboro, Texas. Jensen, who owned Color Me Smart at the time, was creating quite a stir within cutting horse circles with his tobiano son of leading NCHA money-earning sire, Smart Little Lena.
"That was the other end of it for me," said Linda. "The only two Paint stallions that I could find that were own sons of the two dominant Quarter Horse sires were Delta Flyer by Peppy San Badger, and Color Me Smart by Smart Little Lena.
"When I bought a breeding to Delta Flyer and a syndicate share to Color Me Smart, I felt like we were finally going in the right direction.
"Jensen had a lot of success crossing Color Me Smart on Doc Doll daughters. Once I became aware of Doc Doll's pedigree-he was one of only four tobiano sons of the great Doc O'Lena-I knew I wanted to incorporate his genetics into our broodmare band,
as well.
"I called APHA and ordered his progeny report, then went through it and marked every tobiano mare under 10 years old. I made a lot of calls before I finally found a man in Utah who had two Doc Doll daughters that he was willing to sell.
"Both mares had good bottom sides in their pedigrees; one mare was out of a Mr Gunsmoke daughter and the other was out of a Peppy San mare."
Striking gold
As the Schultzes began bringing some of the most successful cutting horse bloodlines into their program, they began studying the National Reining Horse Association's (NRHA) leading sires list. After reading many magazine articles and searching countless Web sites, Linda decided she had to breed a mare to reining's legendary sire, Hollywood Dun It.
In 1986, Hollywood Dun It scored a Reserve in the NRHA Open Futurity, then went on to win the 1987 Derby and Super Stakes.
But it wasn't Hollywood Dun It's show record that intrigued Linda. It was his reputation as a sire. When his first foal crop reached futurity age in 1992, 19 of his 25 get earned money. A short five years later, Hollywood Dun It, who was 12 at the time, became only the third sire in NRHA history to have offspring earn more than $1 million.
"Once again, I called APHA to ask for a list of Hollywood Dun It's Paint sons and daughters. At first, I thought if I couldn't get a breeding to the horse, I might be able to buy a tobiano son or daughter.
"At that time, APHA had a record of 10 colts and fillies by Hollywood Dun It-all of them breeding stocks. I was incredulous. I told Len, 'Can you believe there aren't any tobiano sons or daughters of Hollywood Dun It?'
"I called Tim McQuay, the owner of Hollywood Dun It, several times, but he wasn't keen on breeding any more Paint mares to his stallion. When I told him I had homozygous daughters of Q T Poco Streke that were guaranteed to produce color, he said he'd like to think about it.
"As soon as I got off the phone, I told my husband, 'Len, I can't wait for the day when somebody calls me and begs me to take their money and I have to think about it.' We knew McQuay didn't want any more breeding stock Paints by his stallion, so we understood his reluctance.
"At the same time, that was an eye-opening experience for us. We realized that to be really successful in the horse business, you need to have something so valuable, so rare, that people will beat down your door to get it."

Great expectations
"When Tim McQuay agreed to breed our two Q T Poco Streke daughters, we didn't waste any time shipping them to his ranch in Texas. In a few months, both mares came home safe in foal. Needless to say, it was a long winter as we watched those mares get bigger and bigger.
"One morning, three weeks before the first mare was due, we were returning from town when I looked into the pasture and saw what looked like a little pink lump lying next to one of the mares we'd sent to Texas.
"I ran into the pasture, yelling for Len to come. When the colt stood up, he was a little tobiano buckskin, exactly what we had been hoping for. We named him LS Dun It In Color."
The second Hollywood Dun It foal arrived two weeks later, this one a sorrel tobiano filly.
Hope springs eternal
Establishing a successful breeding program is difficult under the best of circumstances. Raising horses good enough to win at the largest and most prestigious reining or cow horse events requires tremendous resources and a lot of luck.
Complicate that equation by adding a preference for color and the goal becomes formidable.
Nevertheless, that is the mission of Skyview Ranch.
"When we began putting our program together, we discovered there were only a handful of Paint breeders who were taking good tobiano mares to the top Quarter Horse cutting and reining stallions.
"There were a few, but they were the exception, not the rule. I was amazed how many really good, well-known Quarter Horse stallions had no tobiano foals. And I don't mean just young horses, but horses that have been around for a while and appear on the leading money-earning sires lists year after year with NCHA, NRCHA and NRHA.
"Once we figured that out, we began looking at stallions differently.
"For example, Gallo Del Cielo, better known as 'Rooster,' has one of the best pedigrees in the reining and cutting horse world. His full brother, Grays Starlight, appears on every leading sires list and has sired a number of good Paints, mostly overos.
"But Gallo Del Cielo is a bay stallion without any regular registry Paint progeny, even though he has sired champions and reserve champions in reining, cutting and working cow horse events. So we bred one of our homozygous daughters of Color Me Smart to him last year and got a beautiful bay tobiano filly this spring.
"This filly is typical of our program. Here we have combined Peppy San Badger breeding with Smart Little Lena breeding, a magic cross when you study the records, and came up with a one-of-a-kind filly. That is really what excites us about breeding Paints."
Besides breeding to Rooster, the Schultzes also bred a Q T Poco Streke daughter to Mr Melody Jac last year and got a bay tobiano filly this spring. Mr Melody Jac is an own son of Hollywood Jac 86 and was the 1988 NRHA Futurity Champion. He also sits fourth on the leading sires list of NRHA money earners.
According to APHA records, Mr Melody Jac has sired only three Paints, two breeding stocks and one tobiano colt.
And although Quarter Horses play a prominent role in Skyview Ranch's breeding program, the Schultzes also breed mares to proven Paint stallions.
Last year, they bred two mares to Mr Big Heart, the only tobiano son of the great Freckles Playboy. Mr Big Heart was the Reserve World Champion at the 1999 APHA Cutting Futurity and is an NCHA money earner.
This year, they bred a mare to the bay tobiano stallion Mark This Spot, a 1998 NRHA Futurity finalist and the 1998 APHA World Show Reining Futurity Champion.
Although the Schultzes plan on showing LS Dun It In Color in a few futurities next year, showing doesn't play a major role in their program.
"We are geared to selling weanlings and yearlings," said Linda. "Our resident trainer, Victoria Peterson, is great with the young horses, so we will keep a few prospects for her to show. We'd love to see her be the first woman to win the NRHA Futurity.
"It could happen!"
In August, Len and Linda purchased Lenas Diamond Chex, a 9-year-old tobiano son of Doc O'Lena. Lenas Diamond Chex is royally bred and will become the ranch's senior sire next year.
"His oldest foals are just 4 years old, and I think he is going to have a big impact on our industry," said Linda.
"Now, with own sons of Doc O'Lena and Hollywood Dun it, I think we are getting closer to our goal than we ever imagined."