Extravagant Mac is not only the all-time leading performance horse in the history of the Palomino Horse Breeders of America, but is also a horse with a big personality.

Bred, raised and owned all his life by Helen Purvis Fleming of Tupelo, Mississippi, Extravagant Mac is a 1997 gelding by Gal’s Last Chance and out of Sallee Mac Rosita. Over the course of his life Mac earned 3,670 points and an extensive list of lifetime achievements, which have helped earn him a spot in the Palomino Heritage Foundation Museum at the PHBA Headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“People said he’d never make a show horse,” Fleming said. “At one point I ordered a pack saddle for him. He’s such a character. He loves to lie down. If we were out on a trail ride, when he decided it was time for a rest, he’d just lie down.”

In the show ring, Mac isn’t a pleasure horse. He’s only 14.2 with a long mane and tail, but he became a star in pattern classes like Reining and Trail.

“He’s also very fast, even though he has short legs. If he had long legs, he could probably go as fast as a race horse,” Fleming said. “Once when I was riding him in a barrel racing class, I realized that the bit wasn’t in his mouth, but we won anyway.”

Although Mac can pour on the speed, he’s also laid back enough for youth to ride, and there have been at least 25 youth exhibitors who have ridden him through the years.

He also seems to take special care of any rider that he considers unable to ride, according to Fleming’s daughter, Amanda Viator.

“A friend of mine is petite, but she rides reiners,” she recalled. “She offered to warm Mac up for me and I told her that he wouldn’t go for her because she’s too small. She thought I was kidding, but he wouldn’t even trot with her on his back. He’s a baby-sitter.”

Viator showed Mac to numerous National High Points, including High Point Amateur and High Point Open Horse. He made the long list for Olympic Reining six times and earned a Register Of Merit in Reining from the American Quarter Horse Association.

Viator recalls being at the World show in Tulsa, and winning second place in the Versatility Class. The sponsors of the class had donated a show saddle for first place and a work saddle for second place.

“The sponsor wanted a photo of the saddle winners with his special needs son. Mac had just run the barrels, but he is always careful around children. I pulled his headstall off, and he dropped his head for the photo with that boy on his back.”

That’s not bad for a horse that in his younger years, had been taken to the Dixie Nationals to compete in a Longe Line class, and managed to clear the judges out of their seats with his antics.

“Mac is smart as a whip,” Fleming said. “The way he’d learn Trail at a show was to stand at the rail and watch it, and he’d go in and do it.”

Not all of Mac’s accomplishments came in the show arena. Fleming has coordinated the wagon trains for the Dixie Nationals since 1981, which has resulted in Mac being ridden in actual parades in addition to being shown in Parade Equipment classes.

“I coordinated both the Wagon Train and the Parade for the Dixie National for over 30 years,” Fleming said. “Mac has been in both, and also been ridden in the Christmas parade in Sherman, Mississippi. He just loves attention.”

Fleming has raised Palominos and Quarter Horses since 1976 at Cedar Grove Quarter Horses. Although Mac is getting a little long in the tooth now, the family still takes him to one or two shows a year.

“He’s just a good boy,” said Fleming fondly. “He may not be the prettiest legged horse, but he’s the best hearted one.”