We are proud of our foundation stallion, Deck Of Stars.  He was a tremendous individual whose influence will remain part of Pryor Ranch for years to come.

Deck Of Stars was included in the book, Western Horseman's "Legends 5".  This valuable series of books is a must have for any true horseman.  Below you will find an excerpt from the chapter on Deck Of Stars.  Reprint permission pending.

Deck Of Stars, a 1977 sorrel stallion by Skipa Star and out of Opal Deck, by Bent Deck, earned a Superior halter award in 1982.  A highly successful sire in his own right, Deck Of Stars had 241 performers.  As of June 2001, they had earned 56 Superiors in performance and 3 in halter, 9 AQHA Championships, 1 youth Supreme Championship, and 12,018 total points.  Also as of June 2001, Deck Of Stars had $84,631 in AQHA Incentive Fund earnings.

DECK OF STARS--

It amazes me at how often we find that many of the early stallions, that have consistently sired good performance horses, were themselves noted as halter horses.  The great stallion Bill Cody was known more as a halter horse than as a performer.  Although he was a good roping horse, Bill Cody is best remembered as the first horse to earn the AQHA Honor Roll Halter Horse title in 1952.  The great sire Poco Pine won 50 Grand Championships before he was retired as a halter horse.  Although he retired from competition as an AQHA Champion, he is remembered primarily as a halter horse.  Poco Pine is now that second leading sire of AQHA Champions and the broodmare sire of the all time leading sire of performance ROM Zippo Pine Bar.

The idea that good halter horses sire good performance horses is the results of the relationship of form to function.  This means a horse must have a certain form or conformation to enhance his performance qualities.  So when we see a stallion today that is a good halter horse turn around and sire good performance horses, we are going back to the halter class as the starting point for the idea of form to function to produce performance horses.  This certainly seems to be the case with Deck Of Stars.

Deck Of Stars is an AQHA Superior Halter Horse by virtue of his earning 50 halter points, 15 Grand Championships and 9 Reserve Grand Championships.  He won his class 37 times.  This outstanding show record indicates that Deck Of Stars is a very well made horse with the credentials to be a good sire.

The Deck Of Stars sire record tells us that he turned his successful halter career into a successful career as a sire of performance horses.  His sire record includes 541 foals with 178 performers with 130 of his performers being point earners.  His 130 point earners have earned 157 Register of Merit Awards with 144 of the ROM's earned in a performance event.  His get have earned 46 Superior Awards with 43 of the Superiors coming in a performance event.  The success of Deck Of Stars as a sire of performers certainly shows that the right kind of halter stallion can contribute to the performance arena.

THE PEDIGREE OF DECK OF STARS--

Deck Of Stars comes by his good halter conformations honestly.  He is the son of the 1975 AQHA World Champion Two-Year-Old Halter Stallion Skipa Star.  Skipa Star earned his Superior in halter with 82 points.  He won 46 Grand Championships and 12 Reserve Grand Championships.

Skipa Star became a successful sire of halter and performance horses.  His foals earned 112 Register of Merit Awards, 71 Superior Awards, 18 AQHA Championships and 5 World Championships.  He has sired such World Champion Halter Horses as Skipa Linda Streak and Ima Cool Skip.  His performance Champions include Flaming Agnes, World Champion Junior Heeling Horse; Skipastarsky, a High Point Junior Heeling Horse and Skippa Pay Check, a High Point Trailer Horse Stallion.

Let's look at the Superior performance awards earned by the get of Skipa Star.  Skipa Star sired 71 halter and performance Superior Award winners.  Of the 71, he sired 31 Superior Award winners in performance events. When we consider this age of specialization, we see that it is only natural for a stallion like Skipa Star to sire a lot of good halter horses.  But when we see his Superior performers, we see that 46% of them earned a Superior in a performance class..........