It all started with a dream. It was the dream of a young girl, who wanted to own a World Champion stallion. But when that girl fell in love with a red roan mare, her dreams took a different path, a path that would make a remarkable journey.

That girl was Kristen Glover, before she became Kristen Galyean. And the red roan mare was, of course, Vital Signs Are Good, before she became a legend. Together, they would make history, and together they would create the future.

In addition to their stellar career in the show arena together, capturing titles, and hearts, in western pleasure and western riding, Kristen began breeding the mare, Lucy, to top stallions in the Western Pleasure industry. That was her path to owning a World Champion stallion –  two of them, in fact.

VS Code Red, by Blazing Hot out of VSAG, and Kristen made history in 2009 when Kristen showed him to win both the Non-Pro and the Open 2-Year-Old Western Pleasure Championships at the Congress – as the first non-pro exhibitor to accomplish that feat. Following the sale of Lucy to the Moran family after that Congress, Kristen stepped back from the pleasure world to concentrate on the cutting with her (then) new husband, Wes Galyean, and VS Code Red, known as Waylon, went to stand at stud.

It was Waylon who got Kristen back into the show horse arena, when he showed her his natural ability for the Western Riding. Riding him for fun, she couldn’t resist trying out a lead change on him. His response started a spark and he would return to the arena in western riding triumphantly before retiring to stud, as a multiple Congress Champion and National Snaffle Bit Association (NSBA) World Champion.

VS Flatline, by Lazy Loper out of VSAG, followed in his older brother’s footsteps by winning both the Open (with Jay Starnes) and Non-Pro (with Kristen) 2-Year-Old Western Pleasure Futurities at the Congress in 2012. He followed that up by winning the AQHA 

World Championship in the 2-Year-Old Western Pleasure just a few weeks later. His success in the major arenas propelled him into standing at stud as a 3-year-old. “Kobe” returned to the 

Congress as a 3-year-old and captured both the Open and Non-Pro 3-Year-Old Western Pleasure classes as well.  He retired as a multiple Congress Champion and World Champion.

Back to the Future

Kristen found a yearling filly by VS Code Red out of the great mare, Cool Krymsun Lady, bred and owned by Susan Knapp. She sensed something special about the filly and purchased her from Knapp. This granddaughter of Vital Signs Are Good would prove she was indeed something special.

As a 2-year-old, Lady became Waylon’s first Congress Masters Champion and AQHA Reserve World Champion in Two Year Old Western Pleasure. Kristen showed her to win the World Championship in Amateur Western Pleasure in 2017.

At the 2019 AQHA World Show, Kristen and Lady won the Level 2 Championship in Amateur Western Riding. The Reserve Champion was Cool Cruzen Lady, by VS Flatline. Kristen and Lady returned to the arena a few days later to win the World Championship gold globe in Amateur Western Pleasure (Level 3).

“She loves to show,” said Kristen of her mare, who reminds her so much of Vital Signs Are Good. Lady is reminiscent of her granddam, with Congress, AQHA, NSBA and multiple futurity titles to her record. “My favorite thing about her is how much she loves my girls,” referring to her daughters, Gracelyn and Aislynn.

Pleasure + Versatility

The Pleasure Versatility Challenge at the AQHA World Show has been an excellent opportunity for all around prospects by VS Code Red and VS Flatline to showcase their talents and abilities.

At the inaugural Pleasure Versatility Challenge in 2018, KM Flat Out The Best, sired by VS Flatline, bested the stiff competition to be crowned the first versatility champion. Another Flatline, Florida Georgia Line, finished third overall, with an impressive win in the pattern portion. The 2019 champion was Snap It Send It, a gray mare sired by VS Code Red, who glided to wins in both the pattern and pleasure portions for the $10,000 win as the overall champion. 

Sharing the Dream … The VSAG Legacy.

Drama was high at the 2019 AQHA World Championship Show when the two year old western pleasure class entered the Norick Arena. Line Up Behind, by VS Flatline, was shown by Cole Baker for Capital Quarter Horses. He rode out of the arena with the sixth place ribbon. They were met at the gate by Kristen Galyean and Debbie Glover, with the big check for the $25,000 VSAG Legacy Incentive Bonus as the highest placing entry sired by VS Code Red or VS Flatline.

“I think incentives like this are just what the industry needs,” said Hillary Roberts, of Capital Quarter Horses. talking about the VSAG Legacy Incentive award they earned. “The Western Pleasure just does not pay like it used to, so seeing such a prominent breeder and family in our circuit give back and create an incentive like this is very encouraging. It is very expensive to show horses, as we all know, and even more expensive to breed. Of course, we do it because we love it first and foremost, and though breeding and raising your own is very rewarding. I hope that we can all support great ideas and others like it, and that it gets our industry’s creative juices flowing to come up with more fun ways to promote the western pleasure horse.”

Kristen Galyean explained the mission of the program.

“The incentive was designed to bring excitement to the Western Pleasure industry, while giving back to the mare owners, breeders and trainers to continue to make champions by VS Code Red and VS Flatline, carrying on Lucy’s legacy,” she said of the incentive named to honor Vital Signs Are Good.

Looking ahead, the 2020 incentive has some changes, with location of the class to be determined. Owners with a paid-in-full 2020 breeding to either stallion will get an entry. Owners who do not have a breeding for 2020 have an option to make their 2-year-old eligible with a $3,500 entry fee to enter the program.

Kristen’s goals for her incentive program include expanding it by reaching out to invite other stallion owners to join her in making pleasure great again, by building an incentive futurity to promote Western Pleasure, and eventually Western Riding – two events that are special to her.

Another Dream

Kristen Galyean found another dream in 2019 at the NCHA World Championship Futurity, with a chestnut mare in the cutting arena. Trained by her husband, NCHA Hall of Fame Rider, Wes Galyean, Coureygous is owned in partnership with Kristen’s parents, Jim and Debbie Glover.

Kristen, second in the finals draw order of 20, marked a 222 to post the score the rest would chase. In the end, one horse would match the 222 and Kristen won the coveted Non-Pro Futurity title as a co-champion.

“To win a World Championship with Lady and the Non -Pro Futurity with Janie, who Wes trained, within just a month of each other, was so special to me,” said Kristen.

With the NCHA Futurity overlapping the AQHA World Show, Galyean has had to juggle show schedules and travel between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth to meet practice and show schedules.

VS Code Red and VS Flatline stand at EE Ranches in Weatherford, Texas. The state-of-the-art full service breeding facility, situated on 1,300 acres in the heart of horse country, offers mare owners red carpet customer service.

“It’s extremely important to me to make sure we provide the very best customer service to our mare owners,” explained Galyean. “We want their breeding experience to be the best in the business, whether you are breeding your mare on the farm, need cooled shipped semen, or even frozen semen.”

Both stallions stand at a $3,500 fee, which includes the chute fee and first shipment of cooled semen. In addition to on-farm breeding, both cooled and frozen shipped semen will be available for both stallions. Select Breeders handles the international frozen semen shipments. For breeding contracts contact EE Ranches at (903) 564-3692 or visit the websites: www.vscodered.com and www.vsflatline.com for more information.