November 8-23, 2013, Oklahoma City

Weanling Geldings

Congrats to the Osbornes, from afar.

by Christine Hamilton
The American Quarter Horse Journal

Dr. Steven and Kim Osborne of Decatur, Alabama, have not missed an AQHA World Championship Show in years – and certainly never when they’ve had a horse showing. Until 2012.

This year, Steven had to work, and Kim was planning on watching their new horse, Kid Rockster, appear in weanling geldings November 15, until her doctor insisted on a surgical procedure that same date.

So it was that they had their fingers crossed from afar as AQHA Professional Horseman Don Griffey of Pataskala, Ohio, handed over the lead shank of the Osbornes’ Kid Rockster to Tim Finkenbinder of Collinsville, Texas, to show the horse in the class.

But they were no less pleased when Tim led him back out under the Gateway of Champions a world champion – the Osbornes’ first.

“It’s a fantastic feeling to win!” Steven told the Journal over the phone. “You think you’ll never get there, get renewed every year, and then you do! It’s bittersweet, because this is the one time we’ve not been out there.”

“He’s a really nice colt, really balanced, correct and I was really glad that he won it,” Tim said in his Journal Winning Run interview. “He’s a handful! He tried me, but he stood real good when he needed to and got the job done.”

The gelding is by Rockster and out of Creation Of Kid by Ima Concluded Kid, bred by Stephen D. Farley of Sunbury, Ohio.

The Osbornes spotted Kid Rockster at the 2012 Big Money Halter Futurity in September, where he finished second with Lisa Aerne. Kim thought the gelding reminded her of a horse they’d shown years ago, so the Osbornes bought him. They left him with Don Griffey, hoping to aim straight for FedEx Open Week at the World Show.

“My wife thought he was the horse to take us back to Oklahoma City and put us in the game,” Steven said. “So we tried.”

The Osbornes are longtime AQHA exhibitors and breeders; they’ve shown one AQHA reserve world champion and had great success in the Palomino Horse Breeders of America. Steven is an AQHA national director from Alabama and serves on AQHA’s public policy committee. He’s been “a life member since the age of 12.”

“Everything fell into place except for the fact that we couldn’t be there,” Steven said. “Kim had surgery today, but we’re coming as soon as she feels better.

“(Don Griffey) has worked long and hard in the business, and this is his first world champion,” he added. “(Don) had his first (All American Quarter Horse) Congress winner with a horse of ours, and now this one.

“Between Alabama, Ohio and Texas, it was a consortium of people putting it together to make it happen.”

An AQHA and World Conformation Horse Association judge, Tim thought the entire class of geldings was a good one.

“When I looked at it going in, there were five or six colts capable of winning it,” Tim said. “It was an extremely good class.

He added: “(Winning an AQHA world championship) is the biggest thrill in the horse industry. It’s a great honor. You never get tired of it. It gets tougher all the time, the competition is tough. I really appreciate it.

“I’d like to thank AQHA and the corporate sponsors for putting on an event like this to showcase our horses. Without that, it wouldn’t be quite as nice. I really want to thank them.