Wimpys Little Nite didn’t even compete at this year’s SWRHA Futurity & Horse Show, but the 11-year-old buckskin stallion is already a big winner. Owned by Courtney Battison of Purcell, Okla., Wimpys Little Nite’s name was drawn to win the SWRHA Stallion Auction golf cart. The giveaway was held during the Smoking Trash Salute to the Sires Exhibitor Party on Thursday evening.
The SWRHA Futurity is known for its large and motorized prizes, and the custom golf carts have become a signature of the event, with several given away each year.
A golf cart is given to the owner of the sire of both the Billingsley Ford Open Futurity and the Custom Made Dunit Non Pro Futurity, as long as the sire was a participant in the Stallion Auction. If not, the golf cart will go to the owner of the sire of the highest placing eligible horse.
Realizing the need to equal the playing field for junior sires, especially ones who have yet to have foals of competition age, the SWRHA also holds a random drawing from all the donated sires for an additional golf cart.
Wimpys Little Nite, with only one foal crop on the ground, was the perfect recipient. “I was looking for places to market him as a new stallion,” Battison explained. “I donated him to the NRHA Auction, and since I’ve always loved the Southwest, I wanted to donate to it, too. I was so excited to hear I won the golf cart, and was disappointed I wasn’t able to be at the Party to accept it in person.”
Wimpys Little Nite, by NRHA $12 Million Sire WImpys Little Step ouf ot Fun It BY Chick, is an American Quarter Horse Association World Champion in Senior Reining. “I purchased him as a 5-year-old and showed him in the derbies for a couple of years, as well as in some of the 7 & Up classes. Thiago Boechat also showed him at some larger events, and now I stand him at my place,” she said. “We have four foals from his first crop, and they look great. We have two buckskins and two palominos.”
Battison, who has a background in hunter under saddle, is no stranger to owning and marketing top stallions. She owned and stood the National Snaffle Bit Association Hall of Fame stallion Hot N Blazing. The late stallion excelled as a show horse, but real legacy can be found among his foals, who have earned more than $1.2 million, as well as 71 AQHA World and Reserve World Championships and 115 Congress Champion and Reserve Champion awards.
“I absolutely thank the SWRHA and everyone who puts together the show and the Stallion Auction,” Battison said. “I also thank all the other stallion owners who donate breedings, the mare owners who buy them, and all the wonderful sponsors of the show.”