Marge and Harley Booton are a husband and wife team. Marge is the trainer and horse expert and Harley is the builder and organizer. Marge was imprinting horses and whispering to them long before these were catch phrases. She has a no nonsense approach and believes most problems are man made not horse made. She has been a full time trainer for over 30 years and has a wonderful way of communicating with horses.

 Marge is a professional horse trainer and very knowledgeable about horses. I was raised on a farm and loved animals, so it was very easy for us to develop a mutual interest in horses. It was a natural progression that we would someday want to make a great horse. Marge likes performance and I like halter. In her vocabulary, she likes to ride-um and slide-um, and I like to lead-um and feed-um. Therefore, to satisfy both of our desires we needed a good looking horse that was also a great performer.

There are many great quarter horses, but there are amazing few that can do it all. This is substantiated by there being only 46 supreme champions out of the 3 million horses that has been registered with American Quarter Horse Association. The general requirements for a supreme champion includes two official racing grades of AAA ; two grand championships at class A shows under two different judges; and 40 or more points from class A shows in halter and performance.

We started our effort by looking at the blood lines of the supreme champions. The stallion that quickly rose to the top was a horse called Three Bars, but the funny thing was that he wasn't a quarter horse, he was a thoroughbred. None-the-less it was apparent that we should incorporate his bloodline into our prodigy. Twenty eight of the 46 supreme champions were either directly by Three Bars or was a grandson or great grandson.

We also discovered that two of the supreme champions had the same dam: Spanish Joy. Further that one of her supreme champions; Goldseeker Bars was the only supreme champion to sire a supreme champion, Goldseeker Bud. The mare plays just as important role as the stud and Spanish Joy had be to mare power at its best.

In further research we found that both of the supreme champions foaled by Spanish Joy were still alive. Mach I was thirty years old, but still standing at stud by Linda Pritchett in Cottonwood California. Goldseeker Bars was twenty nine years old, but had been syndicated and was not open to the public. Doug Saunders was advertizing Goldseeker Bars get for sale, so we contacted him and found out he had Goldseeker Bars at his ranch.-My wife told Doug that I had promised her a breeding to any stud she wanted for her birthday, and that she really wanted to breed to Goldseeker Bars. Doug being a very gracious gentleman agreed to let us have one of his breedings for the following year.

The stage was now set: the stallions for our prodigy had been selected. We did not believe that we could take a mare to one of these stallions and make a great horse, but if we bred to both stallions, and then mated the off spring we would have the best of Spanish Joy both top and bottom, with a major influence by Three Bars. Only a few minor details remained: mare selection, transportation of the mares, getting them in foal, and of course getting a male and female.

Although we were operating on a pretty tight budget we were able to select two quality mares; Daydreaming Annie was a Go Man Go mare on top and a great grand daughter of Dandy Doll on the bottom. Dandy Doll was the dam of Doc Bar. We leased Annie from a good friend in Grass Valley Ca.,and since Grass Valley is only about 150 miles from Cottonwood, thought it best to breed her to Mach I. Cheyenne Fever the other mare selected was a triple bred Royal King mare. Fever had a foal at her side and would have to be transported to Doug Sanders ranch just North of San Antonio Tx.

We decided it would be best if we hauled Fever ourselves. I had a 76 Ford, 4-wheel drive, 3/4 ton pick-up that we would use with a Sundowner 3 horse bumper pull trailer. A good rig for local shows, but not for long haul like to Texas. We left the San Fernando Valley just north of Los Angeles on the April 15 at 4 AM. It was over cast with intermittent rain showers. We stopped for gas in the small town of Blythe, California. When I tried to start the truck the battery was dead. We got a jump, but before we went any further thought it best we get a new battery.

We drove all day and reached El Paso by about mid-night. We wanted to get through El Paso before stopping, so drove for about another hour to the small town of Faben. Ken and I were both getting pretty punchy, so when we saw a motel still open we pulled in. The manager said he normally closed at mid-night but for some reason had stayed open late. It was over a hundred miles to the next town. We were really lucky to stop when we did.

We left about 6 AM and had only gone about fifty miles when all hell broke loose. The engine just died. We had lost all electrical power, which included lights and the electrical brakes on the trailer. Plus, when the engine quit we also lost power steering, and the power boost to the truck brakes. Fortunately it was light and we could see to get the truck and trailer stopped. I can only imagine what would have happened if that motel had not been open and this would have happened in the dark. The alternator had burned up and had blown the fusible link. I was able to wire around the fusible link and took the belt loose from the alternator. We were able to keep going by driving on battery power, but it was still a 100 miles to the next town. Thank goodness for that new battery.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful and when we arrived at Doug's ranch he was there to meet us. He said we could stay in his guest room in the show barn. It turned out that this guest room was nicer than most motel rooms. I made myself a promise that if I ever had a great stud, I was going to have a show barn like his.

The next thing was to take a look at Goldseeker Bars. A twenty nine year old horse that has done it all shows his age, and Goldseeker Bars was no exception. He had one eye sewn shut, a large front knee, a sunken rear hip and a fiberglass rear hoof. In addition his teeth were so bad he could only eat mush. Doug was doing a marvelous job just keeping him alive. My friend Ken took me aside and said your not going to breed to him are you ? I assured Ken that Goldseeker Bars foals would be as good as if he was a three year old. We left the rig at Dougs ranch and flew back to L.A.

They got Fever in foal and we picked her up about the middle of June. The return trip was pretty uneventful except for the heat, it sure would have been nice to have air-conditioning in that truck. They also had got Annie in foal and our friend Lynn had picked her up and took her back to Grass Valley. Later Lynn brought Annie down to our facility for foaling. The first to foal was Annie. It was nice and quick birth. It was a beautiful filly, that we named Spanish Joy Ann (barn name: Missy),she has won every halter class that we have showed her in, including standing Grand Champion at the Equestrian Trails Convention.

About a month later Fever went into labor. The tension was really great because now we needed a colt. The first minutes were normal, her water broke and the bubble presented itself; but then we noticed that there were no feet showing. After a few minutes we knew something was wrong and Marge got on the phone to the Vet. He told her to reach up into the mare and see what she felt. She did and got back on the phone and told Dr. Bradley she felt feet. He asked, did you pull them out? NO! she said, you didn't tell me to. Anyway we got the feet out, but one leg was still hung up. Fever had now been in labor an hour and half and was getting exhausted. Marge told me to pull on the legs whenever Fever would have a contraction, I remember her yelling harder and then I heard a crack and I just knew that I had broken a leg, but the leg came free and we were able to complete the birth. At the time , I was just trying to save the mare she was so exhausted. It was a colt and still alive. The leg looked normal and later he was able to stand, so I knew it wasn't broken. The colt was a big chested foal and just too big for Fever to have an easy birth. We named him Goldseekin Fever,(barn name:Buddy) and he has turned out to be better than we could have ever dreamed. My wife showed him in several halter classes and he has won every time. She started breaking him at three and says he is one of the best horses she has ever ridden.

At three years of age we bred Missy to Buddy, and after eleven long months Missy went into labor. It was lucky that we were watching so close as it was only 320 days and the baby was slightly premature, but it was a beautiful colt. We named'him Goldseekers Mach I. (barn name:sonny) we had fulfilled our dream. By the way Goldseeker Bars and Mach I both died the following year after we bred to them, but we have our dream horse.

On Friday the 4th 1994 we lost our dream to colic. When we fed, around seven, Sonny was laying down in his stall, and did not appear to be distress. Around seven-thirty I heard a horse cast and it was Sonny. He was in the corner and I had to get a lead rope to get him free. When we got him rolled over he just layed there and I knew he was really sick. We got a halter and got him up and Marge knew something was really wrong and gave him shots of Dipyrone and Banamine. Sonny was unable to stand and when we would get him up just throw himself on the ground. Marge immediately called the Vet.   We lost our little guy. My friend and hope for a world champion is gone, It took years to make his sire and dam, but our dream was gone in a heart beat. Marge would call Sonny and he would whinny and come running. Marge would tell him that she loved him, but because of an accident where Marge was kicked in the face she could not pronounce love , but it came out Dove instead. Her last words to Sonny was I Dove you.

To end on a lighter note Missy had another colt by Buddy ( Mr. Spanish, see stallions at stud), and our dream is still to produce that world champion, but no matter what the future holds we are very thankful that we got to share the life a great little horse called Sonny.