They say the journey is the reward and what a journey it has been. In fact, Dr. Candice Hall and Dr. Cory Seebach, of Black Creek, British Columbia, Canada, say a bay stallion by the name of Machine Made, absolutely changed their lives.

The first time Hall and Seebach ever laid eyes on “Hershel” was at the Southern Belle Futurity and the late Carl Yamber was about to show him for the first time in the Novice Horse Western Pleasure Slot Class.

“It’s like it was yesterday,” Hall said. “He took my breath away. My heart started pounding. I looked at Cory and said ‘I have to have him.’”

The funny thing about Hall and Seebach, who recently celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary, is that there’s one personality trait they share and that’s when they believe in something so strongly (like has always been the case with Machine Made) they become single mindedly, absolutely committed to embrace the journey.

That’s the way it is with the 2007 bay stallion by A Good Machine and out of Gypsys Little Image, who not only brought them tremendous success in the show pen but now has been the AQHA Leading Sire of Western Pleasure horses for the past four years.

“Carl Yamber told me this horse will change the Western Pleasure industry and Machine Made can take credit for doing just that,” Hall said.

Machine Made’s offspring have now recorded over three million dollars in earnings.

“We knew we loved Hershel as an individual and as a show horse, but he has been such a strong breeder, stamping his babies with talent and heart,” Hall said. “It would be near impossible for me to ride anything else. They just have something my heart needs.”

And so they go in search of promising Machine Made offspring and sometimes the youngsters just find them.

Take Queen Ov Hearts. From the first moment they watched her lope around, effortlessly with self-carriage and the softest legs, they knew they wanted her.

“When you see one with that slow, deep hock and pencil flat front leg that profiles so beautifully, you can’t take your eyes off it,” Hall said.

Arkansas trainer Darren Putnam had the 2020 bay mare out of HP Only The Best (by RL Best Of Sudden) along to ride around at the 2022 Madness, for her breeder and owner Marianne Harrington.

Before they even arrived in Wilmington, Ohio, Hall and Seebach had gotten “the call” from their trainer AQHA Professional Horseman Gil Galyean.

“He told us to ‘get here,’” Hall recalled.

It was a call they had gotten before.

“We received a similar frenzied phone call when he found Made By J for us in 2015, just before she won the Virginia Maiden 3-Year-Old & Over Western Pleasure with Taft Dickerson,” Hall recalled.

The 2012 bay mare out of Dark Jasmine, has numerous AQHA, NSBA and Quarter Horse Congress Championships and Reserve Championships in both Open and Amateur Western Pleasure. In fact, she was the Reserve Congress Champion in both Junior Western Riding and the Open Western Pleasure Maturity with Galyean the same year (2017).

Galyean said even though both mares are individuals, they are similar in their ability to lope with little difficulty. With both Made By J and Queen Ov Hearts, it was clear immediately to him that both could lope and carry themselves.

Galyean said when he first spotted Queen Ov Hearts, it was a situation where when you know, you know.

“When you see one that has the ability that she has, that elegance and presence, even at that early stage in her career as a 2-year-old, I could just tell she had the ‘it factor,”  Galyean said. “I know that if you don’t jump on those opportunities quickly somebody else will.”

Galyean was aware that Hall and Seebach had been looking for quite a while for the “right one” and since this mare was sired by Machine Made, when the opportunity presented itself, he knew they needed to act quickly.

“I had not seen anything in a long while I thought had her combination of movement and elegance and presence all together,” he said. “That’s why I knew we needed to get in gear.”

It was love at first sight for Hall and Seebach.

“Even before we had the chance to ride her, she reminded us of her daddy so much,” Hall said. “Once we rode her we absolutely knew she had to become part of our family.”

But by the end of the show circuit Candice had not only a new show prospect in Queen Ov Hearts but also discovered a very personal connection she shared with Harrington.

Queen Ov Hearts’ dam, HP Only The Best had been Harrington’s very succesful show horse, as was her dam, Only Ms Ashwood.

“This is the part where the hair stood up on my arms – exactly like the day I saw Carl Yamber enter the pen at the Southern Belle on Machine Made,” Hall said. “In the 1990s I showed a big beautiful sorrel mare in the all-around named Ms Ashwood Flash (by The Master Flash), who was a maternal sister to HP Only Ms Ashwood.  Both Only Ms Ashwood and Ms Ashwood Flash were out of  Ms Flamin Ashwood.”

As Hall and Seebach know all too well, mare lines are so important when it comes to producing successful show horses. The conformation , talent, movement and willingness to be trained need  to come from both sides of the pedigree to create a great one.

“This special bond that Mariann and I share with the granddams’ connection  made it a feel good’ change of ownership,” Hall said.

Queen Ov Hearts returned to Oklahoma with Galyean after the Madness and he immediately starting prepping her for her show debut at the 2022  Quarter Horse Congress.

“She’s been real good,” Galyean said. “She’s a real kind horse. And I think part of it, when it comes to training, is that when one has as much natural ability as she does it makes it so much easier because we are not asking a horse to do something it maybe physically can’t. That’s the special thing about her. It’s so easy for her to do the maneuvers that we ask her to do.”

By October, Queen Ov Hearts was ready to show. She and Hall won the 2-Year-Old Limited Non-Pro Western Pleasure Stakes at the Quarter Horse Congress and Galyean followed that up the following month with an AQHA World Championship on Queen Ov Hearts in the Level 3 division of  the 2-Year-Old Western Pleasure.

Galyean says it’s the way Queen Ov Hearts completes her stride when she lopes sets her apart from other contenders.

“It’s such an effortless look,” he said. “Some horses, you look at them and man it looks like it’s hard for them to do what they’re doing. You look at her and it all looks so effortless.”

Queen Ov Hearts got off to a strong start in 2023 by winning the 3-Year-Old Open Western Pleasure at the Arizona Sun Circuit. Then in June, she and Galyean were Reserve Champions in the 3-Year-Old Open Western Pleasure at the Premier in Lexington, Kentucky and Hall rode her to a Reserve as well in the Level 2 Non-Pro 3-Year-Old Western Pleasure.

“She is the sweetest mare, so fun to show because everything is just so easy for her,” Hall said. “She did surprise me by grabbing a snack off the bushes at the edge of the show pen during my Non-Pro Western Pleasure class at The Premier. I just laughed. I love a personality in my horses.”

Queen Ov Hearts will compete in Open Western Pleasure with Galyean at the NSBA World Show, Quarter Horse Congress and AQHA World Show and Hall will show her in Amateur and Non-Pro Western Pleasure.

“She will start her Junior and Amateur Western Pleasure career in Florida in January and will continue to compete at all the majors the rest of 2024,” Hall said. “After that who knows. We may see if she likes to change leads.  My two favorite events are Western Pleasure and Western Riding.”

Looking Ahead

The decision to purchase Queen Ov Hearts was an easy one. But she is not the only Machine Made offspring Hall and Seebach found they needed to own. They wasted no time purchasing Total Knockoutt, a 2021 bay colt owned by Dan and Kathryn Frederick, when they saw a photograph of him at 6 months of age.

“We absolutely love the dam, Congress Champion Knockin It Out, owned by Richard and Betty Carr,” Hall said. “Knockin It Out is sired by No Doubt Im Lazy and out of Zippin The Breeze, making her a full sister to Cool Breeze.”

Total Knockoutt is getting started under saddle by Galyean.

“He’s a real big, strong pretty horse,” Galyean said. “He’s elegant with a lot of eye appeal.”

Hall says she is pleased with the youngster’s progress and if all continues to go well, he will make his debut in the Coughlin 2-Year-Old Open Western Pleasure at the Congress.

“The thing we like best about him is his temperament,” she explained. “He’s got such a quiet demeanor, very trainable and loves to do his job.  He too reminds us so much of his sire. All of our favorite show horses are the best of both sire and dam.”

The same is true of a pretty bay filly out of WhatsUpGoodLookn (by RL Best Of Sudden out of WhatsCooknGoodLookin), Bred by Kevin Griner, that Cory spotted on a Facebook video.

“We had just purchased Queen of Hearts and were not in the market for any more horses but Cory was obsessed with her, immediately messaged Kevin and begged me to let him get her,” Candice recalled. “How could I say no? He supports all of my dreams and crazy ideas. After 26 years of marriage, we do what makes each other happy.”

Look What I Made was sent to Anthony Leier to be prepared for Longe Line classes this year. She made her debut by winning the Premier Sires Breeders Futurity Open Western Longe Line in June with Leier on the line.

“She is a character,” Cory said. “She is super pretty, a fabulous loper and a show horse with lots of presence and expression.”

Look What I Made will be shown in Open Western Longe Line by Leier and in Non-Pro Western Longe Line by Cory at the NSBA World Show and the Congress.

Working As A Team

There’s a lot that goes into building successful partnership between trainer and client. Patience, mutual respect and a commitment to the horses all play a key role.

“We’ve been with Gil Galyean since 2006,” Hall said. “Gil and Becky are family to us. We’ve watched their kids grow up, hit life milestones together and made many lasting memories. We accept each other’s moods, personalities and quirks.”

No one is saying it’s always easy.

“We’ve celebrated and laughed together, had disappointments and cried together and waved our arms and yelled at times,” Hall admitted. “We can have a healthy debate and come out the other side smiling. Our bond with the Galyeans is a lifetime one.”

And it goes two ways.

Building Machine Made’s Legacy

“They are among the finest people we’ve ever been able to work with,” Gil said. “They know not everything is always going to be perfect or that you’re going to win first every time. But they feel like such team members. They are always supportive, even when there are tough decisions to make. They both have a clear vision of what it takes to be successful and they are very honest.”

Hall and Seebach say they are fortunate that their horse trainers – including team Galyean and Kristy McCann, of Graham, Washington – have enjoyed riding and training the Machine Made offspring. They say they have been fortunate as well to have a breeding manager like Cindy McCraw, who along with Dana Eddy believe in Machine Made as much as they do.

“It really has been a team that has contributed to his success,” Hall said.

One thing that is especially satisfying to Hall and Seebach is the fact that Machine Made has crossed successfully on many different maternal bloodlines, which makes him very versatile as a breeding horse.

“We currently have in our barn Machine Made show horse out of such mare lines as Certain Potential, Only In The Moonlite, RL Best Of Sudden, Invitation Only, No Doubt Im Lazy, VS Code Red, Zippos Mr Good Bar, One Hot Krymsun and VS Code Blue,” Hall said. “In every foal crop we have been fortunate to see special prospects that catch our eye.”

Hall and Seebach understand it’s the mare owners who believe in Machine Made and breed to him as well as the trainers and Non-Pro competitors who have taken his babies to the show pen who have helped him rise to his current level of breding success.

“We are just very thankful that we’ve been able to be part of his journey, with the many people who also believed,” Hall said.

            Machine Made stands at Riverside Ranch in Sultan, Washington. His foals have total earnings of $3,122,848. A total of 328 of his foals have earned 38,528 AQHA points, 15 AQHA World Championship titles and 11 AQHA Reserve World Championship tiles. You can find out more about Machine Made by visiting his website at: www.riversideranch.com/machinemade or his Facebook page.