American Quarter Horse Association World Champion producer Gota Lota Potential passed away on March 9, at his home in Bremen, Indiana.

“We will truly miss him,” said Richard Carr, who along with his wife Betty, has owned the kind stallion they affectionately called “Webster” since 1999. “I usually don’t get attached to our horses, even the ones I have shown. Webster was different. He was really a special horse in so many ways.”

The Carrs purchased the 1996 bay stallion by Potential Investment and out of Assets from Steve Heckaman as a 3-year-old.

“Rick Cecil was our trainer at the time and he was searching for a horse for me to show,” Richard recalled. “On a trip to Texas he found what he thought was the perfect horse at Steve Heckaman’s farm. We weren’t really looking for a stallion but Rick thought this was a good horse and it turns out he was right.”

No one thought Heckaman would sell Webster because he was the first foal out Assets, a very special mare Steve’s (late) wife, Mary Carole won the Congress 3-Year-Old Non-Pro Western Pleasure on in 1994.

“But sometimes things are just meant to be,” Richard said. “When Betty went to vet check the stallion, she met Steve and they got to talking and realized that Steve’s family once lived in our hometown of Bremen, and his ancestors are buried in the Bremen cemetery. Not only did Steve sell us a wonderful animal but a great friendship ensued.”

Heckaman expressed an interest in showing Webster in futurities during the colt’s 3 and 4-year-old years. That decision proved a wise one as the team captured a seventh in the Congress Western Pleasure Derby; a Reichert Open Western Pleasure Derby Championship; Reichert 3-Year-Old Open Western Pleasure Reserve Championship; Whistle Stop Open Western Pleasure Derby Reserve Championship; Lonestar QHA Breeders Western Pleasure Derby Championship and 3-Year-Old Open Championship; Nebraska Silver Classic Open Western Pleasure Derby Co-Championship; and the Southern Belle Open Western Pleasure Derby Reserve Championship. 

“We learned a tremendous amount about showing horses from Steve during that time,” Richard said. “I became fascinated with Steve and his knowledge of the horse business and his philosophies about the business, but more important was the knowledge he shared about his philosophy on life.I love listening to Steve any chance I can get.”

By 2001 the Carrs had begun training under the guidance of Troy Oakley.

“He (Oakley) knew Webster came along with us but I don’t think he was crazy about him at first,” Richard recalled. “I remember the first time he showed Webster. I think it was at the Reichert Celebration. Troy came out of the pen and announced, “this is a show horse.’”

In 2001 Oakley showed “Webster” to a 10th place finish in Junior Western Pleasure at the AQHA World Show. And, Richard Carr earned an AQHA Amateur Superior on Gota Lota Potential and placed seventh aboard him in Western Pleasure at the 2003 Amateur Select World Show. In all, Gota Lota Potential earned 163 AQHA points and recorded $24,044 in earnings, during his vast show career.

Webster stood most of his career at BSB Quarter Horses in Sturgis, Michigan. Although in his lifetime he sired only 124 foals, many of them earned AQHA World Championship titles and Congress Championships in both Western Pleasure and Hunter Under Saddle. Some of them include:

• Lazy Loper, a 2010 bay stallion out of Hint Again, is an AQHA Top 5 Leading Sire. An AQHA World Champion in Junior Western Pleasure and a Reserve Congress Champion in both the Open and Limited divisions of the 3-Year-Old Open Western Pleasure Derby himself, Lazy Loper’s foals have earned over 70 World Championships, Congress Championships and Reserve Championships.

• Big League Potential, a 2003 bay gelding, out of Kizzy Nostra, earned over 400 performance points, was the 2009 AQHA Reserve World Champion in Amateur Hunter Under Saddle and in Senior Hunter Under Saddle; the 2009 Congress Senior Hunter Under Saddle Champion; the 2010 AQHA World Champion in Senior Hunter Under Saddle; the 2010 Congress Senior Hunter Under Saddle Champion; the 2011 AQHA High Point Open and Senior Hunter Under Saddle Champion; the 2011 AQHA Reserve World Champion in Senior Hunter Under Saddle and the 2011 Reserve Youth World Champion in Senior Hunter Under Saddle.

• Gota Be In Fashion, a 2006 bay mare out of Dynamic Fashion, earned three Congress Reserve Championships in 2012: the Markel NSBA Maturity Open Western Pleasure Futurity; the Limited Western Pleasure Maturity $10,000 Limited Horse Open Western Pleasure Stakes and the Limited Maturity $10,000 Limited Horse Open Western Pleasure Stakes. 

In 2014, the Carrs brought Gota Lota Potential home to live the rest of his life out at their own farm. 

“I remember after bringing him home telling people that Webster was so gentle that he would probably lay on your living room floor,” Richard said. “One day, Betty went out to the barn and Webster had gotten his stall door open. It was wide open and there was Webster standing inside his stall.”

With his breeding days behind him, Gota Lota Potential settled nicely into his new retirement routine. 

“He liked to go out in the morning for three to four hours and then he would come to the gate and in his quiet, soft voice, he would whinny as if to say, ‘I am ready to come in, please come get me,’” Richard explained. “We would go get him and as we walked to the barn you could just walk at a normal pace and ask Webster to trot. He would jog beside you at this perfect little pace. He did that until the day he died.”