     |
 The family at Shipman Spotted Walkers consists of myself, Kenny, my wife Pam, our two children, Kevin and Kelli, son-in-law Robert Doley, daughter-in-law Lauren, grandsons Noah and Eli Doley , two Brittany's, A Golden Opportunity, Playboy's Final Edition and a whole bunch more horses. I am a Certified Public Accountant. Pam works with me and serves in an advisory capacity. She advises me on when to get up, when to go to bed, where to park a car at the mall (like I didn't know to park in the closest space), how to drive (regardless of where she is sitting in the car) and many other very important topics. Kevin is a graduate of Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, TX and is Vice President of Grand Prairie State Bank in Grand Prairie, TX . He's married to Lauren Gostnell, a Wichita Falls/Childress, TX product and graduate of Midwestern State University also. She is an inside sales coordinator for Cummins Southern Plains in Arlington, TX. Kelli is a Midwestern graduate and a third grade elementary school teacher in Wichita Falls, TX. She's married to Robert Doley, a Pasadena, TX native. Robert is a trainer at Wichita Falls High School. Pam and I feel like we've won the in-law lottery. We are located in Seymour, Texas about 50 miles west of Wichita Falls, TX on Highway 82. I rode my first Tennessee Walking Horse at a Brittany field trial in 1976. After riding quarter horses my entire life, I was amazed at the smooth gait and gentle disposition of the horse I rode. We traded a quarter horse filly for our first Tennessee Walking Horse mare in 1982. She was a lit-up strawberry roan mare with a super smooth gait and great disposition named Flash's Betsey Lee. Her name still appears on many of our brood mares pedigrees. In 1985 Pam and I purchased Kaliedescope. He was about 8 months old at the time and had never been handled or halter broke, but he was beautiful. I expected halter breaking Kaliedescope to be quite a chore, but he gave me one of the surprises of my life. The first time I tried to catch him, he let me walk straight up to him and put the halter on. After a couple of tugs on the lead rope, he led like he had been trained for months. Another surprise came when I broke him to ride. I saddled Kaliedescope and let him stand tied for a few days. The first time I stepped on him he rode like a horse with 60 days training. We have raised close to 100 foals by Kaliedescope and have bred him to quite a few outside mares. All his foals have had his gentle disposition, smooth gait and good looks. Over the past 10 years, I have owned several nice black and white stallions, but none quite what we were looking for, which was a horse with the same qualities that we love in Kaliedescope. We have finally found that stallion in Playboy's Final Edition. He is bred well by a Pete's Playboy bred stallion and out of a direct daughter of WGC Pride's Final Edition. We have been breeding him for 10 years and he is homozygous for the black gene. All his offspring have been black or bay base color from all different color mares. His foals are pretty, gentle and smooth. |