When you have parents as decorated as two-time Congress Champion Only In The Moonlite and Congress Masters Western Pleasure Champion and AQHA Reserve World Champion Suddenly A Cool Lady, it can be hard to live up to the expectations of your audience. But that’s not likely the case with Moonrageous, a 2015 black gelding making his show career in the Maiden Horse Western Pleasure Slot Class at the Madness this month in Wilmington, Ohio, with Aaron Moses in the saddle.

“He is very consistent and good minded,” he explained. “The more we ride him the better he gets.”Following Moonrageous’ show debut at the Madness he will continue to be shown in Novice Horse events throughout the year. Moses said he hopes Spider will become a long-term show horse and that Anneene can eventually show him.

“I haven’t had a pleasure horse to show in almost three years so I am really hoping I will be able to show him this year,” she said.

Eventually, Moonrageous will add other events, like Western Riding.

“It is also very important that if we ever do sell a horse that it go to a really great home,” Anneene said. “So far, I think most of ours have ended up with people who really love them.”

Anneene makes sure all the babies they raise get that great start in life.

She and Jim built their current Starland Ranch facility on 160 acres at the crossroads of Route 66 and the Chisholm Trail in the historical city of El Reno, Oklahoma.

About 50 acres are dedicated to the elaborate horse farm, which includes an eight-stall show barn that houses show contenders at various points in their training process and an additional 12 stalls are housed in the arena barn for the horses just starting out. Lush pastures surround the buildings for mares and their foals.

On the remaining 110 acres, Bermuda hay is grown and harvested.

“I am very type A with our barns,” Anneene said. “Everything is immaculately clean.”

Suddenly A Cool Lady

But there have been challenges. Soon after their home was completed a tornado came through and carried away their house and half of the barn.

They are still rebuilding from that.

“One day you’re all set and the next you don’t even have a toothbrush,” Anneene explained. “You can rebuild, of course, but the sense of security you once had is hard to get back. It was a miracle but we did not lose a single animal and for that we were extremely lucky considering just how big of a storm it was. It wasn’t just about what got taken away by the tornado but also the debris that destroyed almost as much.”

Suddenly A Cool Lady lives there. The 2009 black mare by RL Best Of Sudden earned over $146,000 before her retirement. In addition to Moonrageous, she has two foals that are of show age so far. Cool Cruzen Lady, a 2014 bay roan mare by VS Flatline, is a Congress and AQHA World Champion in Western Riding with Blake Weis. To Cool To Be Hot, a 2013 brown gelding by Blazing Hot, is now under the guidance of Jason English Show Horses. In 2016 he was Reserve Champion in the Maiden Western Pleasure Slot class at the Madness with Gil Galyean. Last October, he was Top 5 in the $10,000 Limited Horse Western Pleasure Maturity at the Congress with Jason English and placed fourth in Novice Amateur Western Pleasure there with his new owner, Suzan VonEssen. Already, her offspring have logged almost $50,000 in earnings.

Suddenly A Cool Lady is also the dam of Integritty, a 2016 sorrel stallion by Invitation Only. Moses is starting him under saddle now.

No Doubt Im Pretty

“Jim and Anneene are great to work with and we appreciate their trust in Aaron Moses Show Horses,” Moses said. “Anneene loves her horses and takes exceptionally great care of them at home.”

Although it’s too soon to determine where and when his show career will unfold, Anneene and Jim hope he will someday become the stallion at the center of their breeding operation.

“To have that level of a bottom line is extremely impressive and a very strong producing line,” Anneene said. “We have three different mares with that same bottom side and they all have been doing very well producing.”

The Gustafsons think so highly of that line that they purchased two other mares of the same lineage to round out their powerhouse breeding program.

They are:

• Shes Blazing Cool, a 2011 sorrel mare by Blazing Hot and of Cool Krymsun Lady.

• One Lady Lookin Cool, a 2009 sorrel mare by One Hot Krymsun and out of Cool Lookin Lady. A full sister to Cool Krymsun Lady

Sarland Ranch

The other mare line featured at Starland descends from Anneene’s former show mare, Zipperella, by a son of Zippo Pine Bar and out of Lovely Vision, by Vestor Vision who was by The Investor.

“We have three mares out of her that are the other cornerstone of our breeding program,” she said. “When the industry got more specialized we started gearing the program more toward the Western Pleasure horses. One of my first great foals was Only Girls Invited,by Invitation Only, that Aaron showed for us.”

Jim and Annee Gustafson

In addition, Starland owns five more broodmares and raises five to eight foals each year. They include:

• One Hotsy Totsy Star, a 2012 bay mare by One Hot Krymsun and out of Zipperella.

• Candy Only, a 2010 chestnut mare by Invitation Only and out of Zipperella.

• No Doubt Im Pretty, a 2013 sorrel mare by No Doubt Im Lazy and out of Only Girls Invited.

• Invee Me, a 2014 bay mare by Invitation Only and out of Slow Low and Lazy. 2016 Masters Western Pleasure, third place and AQHA World Show 2-Year-Old Western, Pleasure fifth place.

• Kids Stylish Star, a 2012 buckskin Halter mare by Kids Classic Style and out of Sheza Perpetual Star.

Anneene got her start showing Halter horses as a youth contender back in the 1970s.

“The first mare I raised I sold to Jim Nance and I fell in love with a young filly he wanted to show in Halter,” she recalled. “I led her in Youth Halter classes a few times and my competitive spirit took over. I just loved showing.”

Ziparella

She had caught the bug. From there Anneene began riding and showing more and more.

“Showing horses has been humbling because you have to look at the big picture,” she explained, “especially when you go out there and don’t meet your own personal expectations for your ride.”

But she is determined and keeps focusing on the goals of Starland Ranch – to produce the finest worldclass Western Pleasure horses.

“We are just hard working people,” Anneene said. “Jim is a CPA and I taught school. We do this because we love to raise horses. I try hard to give them the best lives I possibly can.”

Starland Ranch recently hired University of Findlay graduates Erik and Raina Parsons to head training operations at home.

“They are doing a fabulous job getting the 2-year-olds started and ready to move on to their show careers,” Jim said.

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