The location was the T. Ed Garrison Arena, Clemson, S.C., Oct. 1, 2011 – The occasion was the Palmetto Paint Horse Club’s Fall Futurity and Paint-O-Rama, and the class was Green Hunter Under Saddle.

An elegant 2-year-old sorrel overo colt navigated effortlessly through the 18-horse field. Although it was the youngster’s first time out in a crowded pen, his demeanor was calm and quiet. He remained supple and collected throughout the class and never lifted or bowed his neck.

The colt’s name was Living Large and although literally a “babe in the woods” from a show horse standpoint, his trio of owners – Tim and Shannon Gillespie of Gainesville, Texas; and Julie Marweg of DePere, Wisconsin – are not. In fact, the partners have spent a lifetime getting to where they are now; and it has been a colorful and varied journey.

A Different Home Environment

Tim Gillespie was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, on June 9, 1962. His parents, John and Jan Gillespie, met while attending the same one-room school house that John’s father and grandfather had attended.

The couple was married in 1947, and ultimately became the parents of two boys – Steve, born in 1958; and Tim. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, John Gillespie launched a successful architectural business designing subdivisions and golf courses.   In 1965, the Gillespies left the traditional business world and founded Rawhide Boys Ranch with the vision of helping troubled and at-risk teenage boys. They moved to a 714-acre parcel of property along the scenic Wolf River, south of New London, Wisconsin.

The Gillespies realized early that they would need financial help to turn the vision into reality. With this in mind, they approached Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame quarterback Bart Starr, after looking him up in the phone book. Upon hearing the initial idea, Starr invited the couple to visit with him and his wife at their home. Afterwards, the two-time Super Bowl winner agreed to join in the venture.

What began as one home with eight boys has grown into a nationally-recognized residential care facility, featuring seven boys’ homes, a state-of-the-art high school, a therapeutic horseback riding program and numerous work experience facilities that have been a home to more than 2,000 boys.

In 1993, John Gillespie made the switch from management to fundraising and he continued to serve in that capacity until his retirement in the spring of 2000. Both he and Jan continue to serve as spokespersons for Rawhide from their home in Appleton.

As for Tim Gillespie, the youngest member of the Gillespie clan, the seeds of his ultimate career path were planted at a young age.

Born to be a Horseman

“My mom was always horse crazy,” he says. “I was told that she went riding two days before I was born, and she had me on the back of a horse by the time I was six months old. For as far back as I can remember, we had a summer camp with a 20-horse dude string. On Sundays there were public trail rides and I was encouraged to tag along.”

Tim’s involvement in showing horses also began at an early age.

“I started in 4-H in 1972, when I was 10,” he says. “Then, in the fall of 1977, I traded my go-cart for a registered Paint named Rio Von Don Juan. I earned state high-point youth honors with him, and won some classes at the World Wide Congress. As a team, we earned two Register of Merits and 54 points in 10 events.”

He showed as a youth for six years – from 1977 through 1981. “My most-accomplished youth mount was Super Skip Bar. We were the 1981 High-Point Youth at the National Show and also the 1981 American Paint Horse Association High-Point Youth,” he says. “I graduated to the Amateur division in 1982 and teamed with ‘Skip’ to earn High-Point Amateur honors at the 1982 National Show.”

Over the course of a 21-year amateur career – from 1981 through 2001 – Tim showed more than three dozen horses.

“I would have to say that Zips Heaven Sent was one of my all-time favorite amateur mounts,” he says. “He was my last one and I only showed him in western pleasure. In 2001 we earned 355 points and a Superior award.”

Throughout much of his adult life, Tim followed a career path that wasn’t connected in any way to horses.

“I started modeling in college,” he says, “and was under contract with the New York-based Ford Modeling Agency.

Tim worked for companies like Gucci, Versace, Ralph Lauren, Guess, Macys, Sears, J. C. Penny and Kohls, and traveled worldwide to locations in Australia, South Africa, Japan, France and Italy.

“The years I spent modeling gave me a lot of great experiences and memories, but my heart was always with the horses,” he admits. “I’d spend a lot of my on-the-job time just thinking about the next time I could go to a horse show.”

In 2004, while exhibiting at the Tulsa March Mania Paint Horse show, Gillespie met a fellow exhibitor by the name of Shannon Watters. The attraction between the two was instant and mutual, and they were married in Appleton, Wisconsin in on Sept. 25 of the same year.

Like Tim, Shannon Gillespie comes from a rich and varied equine environment.

A Third-generation Horsewoman

Shannon Watters Gillespie was born on Aug. 19, 1974, in Rocky Ford, Colorado; and was raised as a third-generation horsewoman in Northeast Iowa.

“I grew up in the Waterloo, Iowa, area,” she says. “My grandmother, Marian Watters, showed Halter and pleasure horses dating back to the 1950s. Karen Watters, my mother, trained and exhibited Quarter Horses for years; and for almost as long, she has been a carded judge for the APHA, American Quarter Horse Association, Palomino Horse Breeders of America and National Snaffle Bit Association.

As a youth, Watters won the 1969 AQHA Honor Roll Reining title on a gelding named Diamond Norfleet. She won 25 All-Around awards with him and 42 out of 47 Reining classes.

“In those days, the all-around horse was the standard bearer,” she explains. “Later on, mom trained a Quarter Horse stallion named Shustring that she showed in Halter, Western Pleasure, Hunt Seat and Western Riding.  At the same time, she also ran Barrels with him in both AQHA and rodeo competition.”

“I showed Quarter Horses extensively as a youth,” she says. “We showed mostly in Iowa, but did hit some shows in Minnesota as well. And we tried to attend the All American Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio, every fall. I did well there with a trio of youth horses – Skip Brightly, Jaguar Super Sport and Heir O Win.”

Following graduation from high school, Shannon attended the University of Northern Iowa at Cedar Falls. She graduated in 1997 with a degree in Business Management and spent the next seven years in the corporate world – first as a pharmaceutical representative, and then in marketing.”

Even after officially entering the work force, Shannon continued to show as an amateur.

“Heir O Win was a big, pretty gray gelding that I showed as both a youth and amateur,” she says. “Mom and I both showed another stallion named DKS Braveart; mostly in Hunter Under Saddle and Pleasure Driving.

Then she met Tim.  “We got married, I began showing Paint horses as a professional and Living Large came into our lives.”

A Potent Top-side Pedigree

Living Large, a 2009 sorrel overo stallion by the AQHA stallion These Irons Are Hot and out of  the Thoroughbred mare, Quit Staring, was bred by the 3D Partnership of Blue Grass, Iowa.

These Irons Are Hot, a 2001 brown stallion by Duplicated Deck and out of Georgia Rabling (TB), traces to such foundation pleasure horse sires as Big Step, Deck Of Stars and Mr Impressive; and such black-type Thoroughbreds as Jet Pilot – winner of the 1947 Kentucky Derby; and Vertex – earner of $453,000.

A top competitor in his own right, These Irons Are Hot was the 2004 AQHA High-Point Hunter Under Saddle Stallion, and the 2004 NSBA High-Point 3-Year-Old Hunter Under Saddle Horse. In addition, he won the 2004 All-American Congress 3-Year-Old Hunter Under Saddle Open Futurity and earned 123 performance points.

As one of the top young sires in the pleasure horse industry, he has sired the winners of such prestigious futurities as the Tom Powers Triple Challenge, Southern Belle Invitation,  NSBA  Breeders Championship Futurity and All American Quarter Horse Congress Masters Hunter Under Saddle Champion.

Living Large – the Gillespies’ flashy cropout colt – doesn’t get his color from These Irons Are Hot, however; he gets it instead from his Thoroughbred dam – Quit Staring.

Royalty with a Twist

Quit Staring (TB), a 2002 brown overo mare by Racey Remarque and out of She’s Got A Look, was bred by Nancy McEachern DVM of Glendale, Arizona. Dating back to the early 2000s, McEachern has crafted a truly unique Paint horse breeding program that has featured Jockey Club-registered Thoroughbreds that carry and express the frame overo gene.

Racey Remarque (TB), Quit Staring’s sire, is a 1997 brown frame overo by Sonnys Solo Halo and out of Patchy Lassy. His pedigree includes such leading sires as Bold Ruler and Halo; and such top money-earners as Secretariat ($1,116,808); Bold Ruler ($764,204); and Bold Bidder ($478,021).

Like Living Large, Racey Remarque’s frame overo color gene comes from the distaff side of his pedigree. Patchy Lassy (TB), a 1989 sorrel overo mare by Pesty Axe and out of Torchy’s Rainbow, produced four double-registered fame overo foals – Racey Remarque (1997), Red Hot Remarque (1999), Ellusive Quest (2000), and Regal Regalia (2003).

So Living Large, through the bottom side of his pedigree, is a study in what is arguably the most potent line of Thoroughbred fame overo genetics ever known. But color is not the colt’s only attribute. As related by one of his breeders, he is also possessed of a certain amount of potential.

A Promising Prospect

Renae Dudley of Bentonville, Arkansas, is no stranger to the pleasure horse industry. In the early 1980s, she and then-husband Jim Dudley of Latimer, Iowa, purchased a relatively-unknown Quarter Horse stallion named Scotch Bar Time and developed him into an AQHA and NSBA Hall of Fame Horse and an All-Time Leading Sire in both the Quarter Horse and Paint Horse industries.

“I was sitting with some friends at the 2007 AQHA World Show sale,” Dudley says. “I had recently done a lot of research into the AQHA’s double-registered rule and I was intrigued by it. Quit Starring, Living Large’s dam, was consigned to the sale. When they led the mare into the ring one of the announcers said, ‘This is a collector’s item; there’ll never be another one like her.’”

Dudley had not looked at the mare beforehand but was attracted enough to turn to her friends – Tim and Barb Delf of Blue Grass, Iowa; and Dennis Deisher of Oak Grove, Missouri – and announce: “We should buy this mare.”

“At first they thought I had lost my mind,” she says. “But then they could all see that she really was a beautiful individual and we made a collective spur-of-the-moment decision and bought her.”

The ‘3D Partnership’ was established and plans were made to breed Quit Staring with the goal of raising a top hunt seat horse.

At the time of the partnerships’ acquisition, the 5-year-old mare had been lightly shown in APHA Novice Amateur and Amateur classes. Exhibited by owner Carolyn Lee Schulte of Dewey, Arizona, she had earned points in Hunter Under Saddle and Showmanship.

“Star’ was a nice mare to be around from day one,” Dudley says. “The only problem we ever had with her was that she was sort of a ‘prima donna.’ She had been born and raised in stalls and dry lots in Arizona, and I doubt that she’d ever seen grass. It took us about six months before we could convince her that open pasture and grass were actually pretty good things.”

Early in the summer of 2008, Quit Staring was bred to These Irons Are Hot.  Living Large, the result of the partnership’s first breeding venture, was foaled in Kentucky on May 3, 2009.

“I didn’t see the colt until several weeks after he had hit the ground,” Dudley says. “When I did see him for the first time, I realized that he was something special. And, in all the years that Jim and I were promoting Scotch Bar Time, I’d seen enough newborn foals that I felt like I could evaluate one.”

A couple of months later, she was attending the Reichert Celebration in Tulsa. The partnership had decided to sell the colt, but Dudley was determined that he would go to a good show home.

“There, I ran into Tim and Shannon Gillespie,” she recalls. “I’d know Tim for a number of years and had watched Shannon grow up in Iowa; in fact our daughter Shannon is named after her.”

Dudley told Tim and Shannon about the colt and encouraged them to take a look at him.

“After hearing all about him Tim said, ‘we’ll come and look him over; please don’t sell him before we get there.’ I said, ‘OK…just don’t wait too long.”

Four or five weeks later they did take a look at Living Large and bought him on the spot for a customer.

“Even though I no longer have an ownership stake in the colt, I’ve kept up with his progress,” Dudley says. “I do intend to go out in a couple of years and find a really good mare to breed to him.”

Living Large

When Tim and Shannon went down to Dudley’s place they took along Julie Marweg from DePere, Wisconsin.

“We had known Julie for at least 15 years and she has been involved with Paint Horses for quite a while,” Tim explains. “We hauled Julie’s daughter, Chelsea, as a youth for several years. Chelsea showed both Detailed To A Te and Mr Slow Ride – a gelding with which she earned a Youth Versatility award, Youth APHA Championship, five Superiors and seven ROMs. He was also the 2004 Reserve World Champion Senior Hunter Under Saddle Horse, catch-ridden by Shannon’s mother.”

Dudley delivered Living Large to his new home on her way to the 2009 Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio.

“We sat down with Julie and made a long-range plan for him and what we hoped would be his future,” Tim says. “He is a very balanced colt and a pretty mover. The Paint industry has always put a lot of value on the all-around events and we feel Living Large has the type of conformation that will enable him to compete in a variety of events. He is short-backed with a strong top-line, and has good legs, good bone and a nice hock set.”

Shannon, who has logged most of the training hours on Living Large, is also a big fan.

“He is such a balanced colt and a pretty mover,” she says. “He is so calm and willing that showing him is fun.”

With limited showing, Living Large has multiple World titles and top five finishes in APHA, Pinto and NSBA competition.

“Kevin Dukes will be training and showing him in Pleasure Driving this year,” Shannon says.

Living Large will be standing the 2014 breeding season at GM Stallion Servics, with Jeannie Schneiter as breeding manager.

Marweg also said there are plans for Living Large to show at the Quarter Horse Congress and hopefully at the AQHA World Show.