With strong family ties as the backbone of their operation, John and Kathy Yarnelle of Fort Wayne, Indiana put a focus on raising and showing high quality horses. At their full-service state-of-the-art breeding and showing operation, Yarnelle Farms will be standing five stallions in 2015 including one of the American Paint Horse Association’s Leading Sires, Special Invitation, and up-and-coming star, CR Good Machine.

It all started as a hobby. John’s parents, Bill and Susie, bought some show horses for their family to enjoy but as time went on John decided to pursue a career with them. Training his first 2-year-old over 30 years ago, John has never looked back.

“As big as we are, we try to keep a focus on our family,” he says. “My parents are still involved today.”

In an effort to advance their breeding program about 14 years ago, John was looking for a Paint stallion to stand by leading AQHA sire, Invitation Only. He came across a 3-year-old Bay Tobiano stallion in Arizona named Special Invitation and bought him strictly to be a breeding horse. At the time however he had no idea just how “special” he would become.

“We bought him off of a video as a 3-year-old,” he says. “When we bought him in the beginning of April, he had never been saddled. Within 24 hours of having him at the farm, I had a saddle on him. He was extremely laid back so I started breaking him out. I wanted to see how he would handle being ridden and bred simultaneously, needless to say he did not disappoint.”

With his quiet disposition and natural talent, John thought Special might be ready to compete at the APHA World Show, which at that time was held in July. John sent Special to friend and fellow trainer, Randy Wilson. By July with only about 120 rides, Special finished third at the 2001 APHA World Show in the 3-Year-Old Western Pleasure Challenge with Cleve Wells aboard.

CR Good Machine

Special amassed over 125 Western Pleasure points with limited showing and finished 2001 the NSBA High Point Color Horse, but his power as a sire has been remarkable. Now a multiple World and Reserve World Champion sire year after year, Special is currently third on the APHA Performance Leading Sires list.

There have been numerous show horses sired by Special including multiple APHA and PtHA World and Reserve World Champion Western Pleasure stallion, John Simon; multiple World and Reserve World Champion and Reichert Color Classic 2-Year-Old Western Pleasure Champion, Endless Invitation; World Champion, Sum Beach; Reserve World Champion with over 590 APHA points, Invite Matthew; multiple Reserve World Champion and Reserve Reichert Color Classic 2-Year-Old Western Pleasure Stakes Champion, In Stores Only; and APHA Fall World Show Sweepstakes Reserve World Champion, Invite Tanner, to name a few.

“Special is only 15.2 but he sires really big, strong babies. The Invitation Only breeding comes through on a lot of them,” he says. “They make really good 2-year-old futurity horses because of their size and good minds but they also last for a long time and make exceptional all-around horses. He has been a great sire for us.”

Special Invitation

CR Good Machine is a 2005 Sorrel Overo stallion by multiple World Champion producer, A Good Machine (AQHA). He was shown very successfully, earning over 170 Western Pleasure points, but when he was purchased by the Yarnelles in 2011 he only had four babies on the ground. Of the four was Agent Dinozzo, unanimous champion in the Farnam 2-Year-Old Western Pleasure as well as 2-Year-Old Non-Pro Western Pleasure Champion. Another was R Kid Rock, who has over 200 APHA points in a variety of events.

His first substantial crop of colts turned 2-year-olds in 2014 and had an extremely successful year at the APHA World Show and at futurities throughout the country. John calls CR “the new buzz all over the nation.”

“A lot of his babies have been very big and pretty,” he says. “They are also very trainable and have shown to have a lot of potential to do all-around events.”

Both stallions are eligible for the Premier Paint Sires program which John is very excited about for the future of the industry.

“It’s one of the only programs that gives something back to the stallion owner,” he says. “It’s so exciting because it also has all kinds of incentives for the non-pro exhibitors. I think it will continue growing. We already have had people wanting to buy prospects because they are in it.”

Yarnelle Farms is also standing three other up-and-coming stallions whose babies will be hitting the show circuit soon. Guaranteed is a 2010 Homozygous Bay Tobiano stallion by Special Invitation, a granddaughter of Paint Me Zippo. He was never shown due to injury but with the looks of his early foals, John believes his future as a breeding horse looks bright.

Only Krymsun is a double registered AQHA and APHA 2004 Sorrel Overo stallion by AQHA multiple World Champion, One Hot Krymsun out Glow In The Rock, and I Prefer Chocolate, a 2006 Chestnut Tobiano stallion by Zips Chocolate Chip (AQHA) out of My Oh My, a Reserve World Champion mare that John showed.

All five stallions are also available in the APHA Breeders Trust stallion service auction.

Situated on over 100 acres, Yarnelle Farms has a state-of-the-art breeding facility. With a total of 83 stalls situated in five barns, they offer year-round mare care and their foaling barns include 24-hour foaling cameras. They have a full-service breeding lab and prepare semen that needs to be shipped out to mares throughout the country.

In addition, they are one of the only private farms to offer the “sperm vision” breeding system. This system better enables them to accurately assess the stallions’ sperm whether it is fresh, chilled or even frozen.

“We are in the process of getting USDA approved and hope to be able to freeze semen as well to ship overseas,” he says.

Between their horse operation and six children, John and Kathy have little time for anything else. They have three girls: Hannah Mullendore, Sarah and Brooke Yarnelle and adopted three boys: Eli, Luke and the late Seth Yarnelle, from Guatemala.

“Our two daughters Hannah and Sarah have shown some but we have also encouraged our children to do what they wanted to do. They have been active in all kinds of athletics,” Kathy says. “During breeding season we are home so it makes it easier to have a good family life.”

To carry on tradition many years ago, John’s dad began branding horses that they raised and still today they have stuck with it. Yarnelle horses can easily be spotted with their signature “Y” brand.

“It’s always neat to see a horse with your brand on it,” he says. “I always look at horses with the brand and find out what they are and have done.”

In the future, John and Kathy hope to continue raising the bar for their brand of excellence and highly successful breeding program.

“We had up to 60 broodmares at one time but we have cut back to 25 mares of our own,” he says. “We want to specialize on producing the best quality horses we can.”

For additional information on breeding, training or sales contact Yarnelle Farms at (260) 410-7925. You can also visit Yarnelle Farms on the web at www.yarnellefarms.com.