Smart Little Lena (June 29, 1979–August 30, 2010) was an AQHA registered
Quarter Horse
The American Quarter Horse, or Quarter Horse, is an American breed of horse that excels at sprinting short distances. Its name is derived from its ability to outrun other horse breeds in races of a quarter mile or less; some have been clocked at ...
, an
NCHA Triple Crown
The NCHA Triple Crown comprises three major cutting horse aged events beginning with the NCHA Futurity for 3-year-olds, followed by the NCHA Derby for 4-year-olds, and NCHA Super Stakes for 5-year-olds. All three events are held at the Will Ro ...
Champion cutting horse, and sire of champion cutting horses. He was inducted into both the
AQHA Hall of Fame The American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum was created by the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), based in Amarillo, Texas. Ground breaking construction of the Hall of Fame Museum began in 1989. The distinction is earned by people an ...
and
NCHA Horse Hall of Fame The NCHA Horse Hall of Fame was established by the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) to recognize the accomplishments of outstanding cutting horses based on their lifetime earnings in NCHA approved championship cutting horse competition. I ...
Doc O'Lena
Doc O'Lena (1967–1993) was a Quarter Horse stallion, a champion cutting horse and a sire of champion cutting horses.Thornton, et al. ''Legends 4'' pp. 190–205 He was inducted into both the AQHA and NCHA Halls of Fame, as was his dam Poco L ...
and out of the
mare
A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than f ...
Smart Peppy by Peppy San, who was the first NCHA World Champion to sire an NCHA World Champion.
Smart Little Lena was a dark
sorrel
Sorrel (''Rumex acetosa''), also called common sorrel or garden sorrel, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Polygonaceae. Other names for sorrel include spinach dock and narrow-leaved dock ('dock' being a common name for the genus '' ...
stallion with a blazed face and white socks on both hind feet. He was a small horse, standing only . Hanes Chatham bred and raised Smart Little Lena, broke him and started him on cattle as a two-year-old. The late Bill Freeman of
Rosston, Texas
Rosston is a small farming and ranching unincorporated area, community in southwestern Cooke County, Texas, Cooke County, Texas, United States. It lies along Farm to Market Road 922, FM 922 along Clear Creek, midway between Forestburg, Texas, Fore ...
trained and showed Smart Little Lena throughout his career.
Chatham created the Smart Little Lena syndicate in 1982, co-managed the syndicate with Freeman, and sold the initial shares for $5,000.00 each. Smart Little Lena was the first cutting horse stallion to be syndicated prior to ever being shown.
Career
In 1982 Smart Little Lena won the
National Cutting Horse Association The National Cutting Horse Association (or NCHA) is a non-profit equestrian organization headquartered in the US. Their primary purpose is to promote and sponsor cutting events.Futurity. He later won first in both the NCHA Super Stakes and Derby as well. These three events compose what is now known as the NCHA Triple Crown. Lena won the Triple Crown in 1982 and 1983. Smart Little Lena has lifetime earnings of $743,275 in US dollars in just eight shows. He was No. 4 all-time per Equi-Stat records. As of 2010, he still held the record for most money earned as a 3- and 4-year-old cutter at $643,275. Lastly, as of 2010, he was still the second-leading sire in the NCHA. He was also a National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) $1 Million Dollar Sire in 2011. As of June 30, 2019, his produce earnings as a sire were $1,214,960.01.
Due to his earnings of over $39 million, Smart Little Lena is in second place for all-time cutting horse sires. With a total of $57 million of foal earnings, he is first place as the leading maternal grandsire. The stallion sired 17 world champions, 11 reserve world champions, and 110 register of merit world champions.
He was inducted into the
American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame The American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum was created by the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), based in Amarillo, Texas. Ground breaking construction of the Hall of Fame Museum began in 1989. The distinction is earned by people and ...
(AQHA) in 2015. He was also inducted into the
NCHA Horse Hall of Fame The NCHA Horse Hall of Fame was established by the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) to recognize the accomplishments of outstanding cutting horses based on their lifetime earnings in NCHA approved championship cutting horse competition. I ...
.
Smart Little Lena Syndicate
Hanes Chatham syndicated Smart Little Lena in 1982 prior to the horse being shown. Chatham co-managed the syndicate with his trainer Bill Freeman. The initial shares were sold for $5,000.00 each, but with each leg of the NCHA Triple Crown that was won by Smart Little Lena, the value of the shares increased exponentially; some of which sold for as much as $75,000. As a breeding stallion, Smart Little Lena spent his life at Manion Ranch in Pilot Point, TX under the supervision of Quarter Horse trainer and breeder
Tommy Manion
Tommy may refer to:
People
* Tommy (given name)
* Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film
* ''Tommy'' (1975 f ...
.
In 2004, Bill Freeman's former wife, Karen, filed a lawsuit in the 181st District Court in Amarillo, TX against Bill Freeman, the Smart Little Lena Syndicate and its co-managers, and Jill Freeman, who was Bill's wife at the time. The lawsuit was over property Karen was awarded but had not yet received from the divorce settlement. Judge John Board, who presided over the case, was made aware of the conflicts within the syndicate, and ordered a mutually agreed upon third co-manager to work with co-managers Hanes Chatham and Bill Freeman. Mike Kelley, a former NCHA Executive Director, was selected. The presiding judge also ordered a meeting of the syndicate shareholders to be held as part of the settlement dispute.
In 2006, 51 shareholders owning a total of 80 shares comprised the syndicate. At the time, the largest shareholder with 10 shares was L. Leedy of Duncan Investments in Oklahoma. Freeman had 7 shares, Manion had 5, St. Nick’s Pines had 3, Freeman's former wife Karen had 3, Irene Ayres had 2½ and the remainder of the shareholders owned 2 or less. On September 22, 2006 a shareholder's meeting was held and resulted in the following resolutions:
*Bill Freeman was removed as syndicate co-manager;
*Freeman's wife Jill was removed as syndicate secretary;
*The Freemans’ lost signature rights on all stallion business and syndicate accounts;
*the syndicate was to be represented by legal counsel;
*Bill and Jill Freeman were to immediately reimburse all misappropriated and/or misused syndicate funds;
*action would be taken to restore the devaluation of shareholders’ investments in the syndicate, and those responsible for the devaluation would be held accountable.
Bill Freeman died on July 29, 2008. A different settlement was reached during a meeting of shareholders and an agreement was signed on Thursday, October 16, 2008 as part of the overall settlement for the ongoing litigation. On October 20, 2008, the case in Amarillo's 181st District Court was dismissed with prejudice against future lawsuits or claims of wrongful death. The syndicate members were awarded $447,500.00 ($310,000 going to attorney's fees). The balance of $137,500 was paid to Manion in exchange for him dropping the libel and slander claims against the Freeman parties.
Offspring
Smart Little Lena's descendants have competed in every discipline in AQHA competition, and have earned 9,744 points and 22 world championships. In
National Reining Horse Association
The National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to promote the reining horse.
History and mission
The NRHA was founded in 1966 in Coshocton, Ohio, and later moved its headquarters to Oklahoma City, Ok ...
competition, his get have earned $1.8 million. In the
National Reined Cow Horse Association
The National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) is an equestrian organization in Pilot Point, Texas, United States, that began by promoting and staging Working cow horse events.
History
The National Reined Cow Horse Association (formerly kn ...
they have earned $2.56 million. In the NCHA they have won over $50 million dollars.
His
offspring
In biology, offspring are the young creation of living organisms, produced either by a single organism or, in the case of sexual reproduction, two organisms. Collective offspring may be known as a brood or progeny in a more general way. This ca ...
have earned $1,033,534,.03 in NRCHA competition. Lil Miss Smarty Chex was inducted into the NRCHA Hall of Fame in 2012. Two Smart Little Lena's sons, Smart Chic Olena and Very Smart Remedy are also NRCHA $1 Million Sires.
Genetic preservation
From 2004 - 2007, semen was collected from Smart Little Lena, and then frozen in an effort to preserve his genetics. The frozen semen is maintained at a facility in Aubrey, TX. Veterinarian Whitt Byers provided a 2008 report that contained an inventory of Smart Little Lena's frozen semen, and consisted of 163 conventional doses and 3,473 ICSI (
Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI ) is an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure in which a single sperm cell is injected directly into the cytoplasm of an egg. This technique is used in order to prepare the gametes for the obtention of em ...
) doses. The ICSI doses are single ½ ml. straws, and require special preparation of the mare which involves follicle aspiration and ovary dissection. The mare is flushed of
oocytes
An oocyte (, ), oöcyte, or ovocyte is a female gametocyte or germ cell involved in reproduction. In other words, it is an immature ovum, or egg cell. An oocyte is produced in a female fetus in the ovary during female gametogenesis. The female g ...
(eggs) which are then in vitro-matured, and fertilized by direct injection of sperm into the oocyte. The typical cost of an ICSI procedure in 2018 was approximately $8,000 per mare.
Death
When Smart Little Lena was 31 years old, he was
euthanized
Animal euthanasia (euthanasia from el, εὐθανασία; "good death") is the act of killing an animal or allowing it to die by withholding extreme medical measures. Reasons for euthanasia include incurable (and especially painful) conditio ...
in 2010, after he apparently suffered a stroke. Smart Little Lena was home on Manion Ranch in Aubrey, Texas, on Monday, August 30, 2010, when this occurred. The horse had been suffering balance problems for a few days prior to this incident, according to the breeding manager. The syndicate who owned the stallion indicated that he would be cremated and then his remains placed into a box in a trophy case at the ranch. However, he still sires foals through
artificial insemination
Artificial insemination is the deliberate introduction of sperm into a female's cervix or uterine cavity for the purpose of achieving a pregnancy through in vivo fertilization by means other than sexual intercourse. It is a fertility treatment ...
.
Pedigree
†Denotes
inbreeding
Inbreeding is the production of offspring from the mating or breeding of individuals or organisms that are closely related genetically. By analogy, the term is used in human reproduction, but more commonly refers to the genetic disorders an ...