Obvious Conclusion
Obvious Conclusion (1981-2005) was an American Quarter Horse, regarded as one of the greatest halter sires of all time. He began his legacy in the show ring when he became a Two-Time AQHA World Champion. He then established his dominance of the halter horse industry by siring 63 World/Reserve World Champions over the next 20 years.
His genetic production capability is recognized as a premier cross on every major contemporary halter bloodline. Own daughters of Obvious Conclusion have produced 40 World/Reserve World Champions. Sons and grandsons continue to disproportionately populate lists of All-Time and Leading Halter Sires. Arguably the most significant is The All-time great sire, Kid Clu.
Obvious Conclusion was born on February 26 1981 to the mare Buz's Baccarat, sired by the stallion Conclusive. Gail and Harold Taylor, retired RV business owners, bought Obvious Conclusion when he was 5 months old. Cindy Buchanan, a manager at Joe Edge's ranch, continued to be involved with "Obvious," and told her friend Patty Woods AbOUT the colt. Patty and her husband, Des, took one look at Obvious and knew they wanted to be a part of the horse's promising future too. The Woods-Taylor partnership would last for well over a decade.
"I don't believe we even showed him until he was a year old. Jerry Wells took him and started showing him when he got him ready," Gail said. "And then he started winning."
That year, Obvious won at the Congress and went on to fulfill Harold's dream of "one of those little iron horses" when he won his first world championship as a yearling in 1982. From there, Obvious rose to fame in the halter horse industry and acquired his own fan club.
"We took him to the Congress when he was a 2-year-old and put him on Stallion Avenue," Gail said. "He was so popular that The Fire Department and some of the other stallion owners asked us not to bring him out as often because when we took him out of his stall, so many people gathered around that you couldn't get through there."
Obvious won a Grand Championship at that Congress and later in the same year earned his second world championship. Before his show career was over, he won six grands and one reserve grand championship. He won 21 of his 24 shows and never placed lower than second.
"Harold and I were so naïve that we didn't realize the impact that horse would have," Gail said. "We had been showing palominos and Quarter Horses but nothing on that scope. It was thrilling, absolutely thrilling. People would say things like, 'He's America's horse,' and it was wonderful."
Besides having outstanding confirmation, Obvious' personality was kind and quiet; he loved to be around people. After his second world championship win, the crowd waiting to see Obvious was so big that even the Taylors couldn't get to him right away. They had to wait to congratulate their own stallion. Judges came up to them and said Obvious' picture should be used to demonstrate the ideal Quarter Horse type.
When the Woodses and Taylors retired Obvious from the show ring in 1983, Patty bought out Cindy Buchanan's share of the horse and had a 150-acre patch of her husband's rice farm in Katy, Texas, transformed into a breeding facility waiting for him. She named it Woods Quarter Horse Ranch and hired Danny Salsman to be the breeding manager. Salsman had first become involved with Obvious when he was a manager at Glen Cantrell's ranch in Lone Grove, Oklahoma, where Obvious stood as a 2-year-old. Salsman was the person who first worked with Obvious to begin his breeding career.
Obvious' time in Katy lasted until the partners sold him in 1997. After Obvious left, the Taylors phased out of the horse business completely, and Patty continued to work with other stallions from reining and [...] backgrounds.
Jerry and Brenda Peterman of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, bought Obvious and moved him for a time to Lazaro Mata's place in Ocala, Florida, and then to Doug Tallent at his ranch in Whitesboro, Texas, for a season. Mike Murray and Cindy Peak owned Obvious for a few months before he arrived in the hands of Brenda Ann Smith and returned to his former home at Woods Quarter Horse Ranch in Katy for two years.
Salsman had been Obvious' manager for most of the stallion's life, and when he worked for Woods Quarter Horses in Katy, he dreamed of one day having his own ranch and breeding facility. When Obvious was 20 years old and Patty was looking to retire from the stallion breeding business, Salsman moved him to his 37-acre facility in Aubrey, Texas.
Meanwhile, across the country, Brian Thomas had been one of Obvious' fans for years and like so many others, he had had pictures of Obvious on his wall as a teenager.
Thomas' dream of owning Obvious became a reality when Will Callari approached him with an offer he couldn't refuse: a place in the five-member Obvious Conclusion Holding Group.
The group, based in Ocala, Florida, moved the then-23-year-old Obvious to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he became part of a halter breeding program in 2004. The group understood Obvious' power in the halter horse industry and gathered broodmares to breed the next generation of champions.
Obvious sired more than 1,400 foals that have earned 18,452 points in the halter and performance horse arenas.
"If you are looking to establish a fundamental balance in your breeding program, it would almost be impossible not to have Obvious Conclusion in your pedigree one or two generations up," Callari said.
In Colorado, Obvious was surrounded by veterinarians, professors and students, and he could be part of the school's live cover, shipped and frozen semen program.
"In his move to Colorado State, he settled in very well," Callari explained. "A lot of the people that were close to him knew that the fastest way to that horse's heart was vanilla wafers."
The morning of October 17 2005, Obvious was found by Colorado State employees after the 24-year-old stallion died of a heart attack during the night. Up until the time of his death, Obvious had shown no signs of illness or fatigue; he died peacefully.