Chics Magic Potion and Bob Avila

Following his impressive win Aug. 22 at the National Stock Horse Association’s Golden Hills Auto Center World’s Richest Stock Horse Competition in Paso Robles, Calif., Bob Avila reported that Chics Magic Potion, his long-time partner in competition, is officially retired. That evening, the two worked to the beat of loud speakers and an enthusiastic crowd to earn a 225 in the fence work, which when added to the scores of 222 in the herd work and 224 in the reined work, secured the Championship with an impressive 671-point composite.

“He’s my buddy. He gives me everything I ask for – he’s done it for six years," an emotional Avila said immediately after the performance. "I want to give him the respect he gives me – that’s the biggest thing. He’s been a great winner and I want him to go out a great winner.”

The $20,000 win pushed the earnings for Chics Magic Potion (Smart Chic Olena x Remedys Magic Potion x Remedys Reply), who is owned by Kenneth Banks, Schulenburg, Texas, over the $300,000 mark. He is the reined cow horse industry’s all-time leading horse. See the results

Avila, one of the performance horse industry’s most accomplished professionals, was emotional following the ride.

“It was just letter-perfect for him,” Avila said as he leaned down to pat the striking 9-year-old stallion. “It was a good as it gets. He’s my buddy – he’s just a nice horse. There’s no mean part about him. He gives me everything he has.”

Chics Magic Potion and Avila were situated with a 446 score after the herd and reined works on Saturday evening. That put them in first, but only 1 ½ points ahead of Shady Lil Starlight (Grays Starlight x Shady Little Cat x High Brow Cat) and Jake Telford; and two-time NRCHA World’s Greatest Horseman Champions, Topsails Rien Maker (Topsail Cody x Jameen Gay x Toby Gay Bar) and Russell Dilday.

“You’re never too far ahead in this,” Avila answered when asked if he was comfortable going into the cow work round. “There are so many great horses and great riders in it. The best of the best are here – riders and horses.”

The early position in the cow work didn’t bother Avila.

“I really don’t mind drawing up first because if you go out there and grab [the judges] right now, you get what you deserve and sometimes you get the benefit of the doubt, if there is a doubt,” he said. “Then all of sudden the judges hit their grove and get in there. If you jump out there and surprise them, sometimes it goes in your favor.

Working full blast to the Guns N Roses’ tune “Welcome To The Jungle” in the loud speakers, Chics Magic Potion and Avila tried their first steer but the horn sounded. Door No. 2 opened and that second critter was good for a productive performance at the end, then Avila pushed it down the fence. It was one strong turn to the left and then one to the right – followed in short order by a beeline to the middle, where they wrapped up with tight, picture-perfect circles in both directions.

No doubt about it, the outdoor venue at Paso Robles is wide-open and big.

“When you head down to that corner, that middle marker is so far – you keep going and going and going and going. You think, ‘It’s gotta come up somewhere here!” Avila said with a laugh.

This World Richest Stock Horse win is right at six years after Chics Magic Potion and Avila made their debut appearance at the Santa Ynez Valley Cow Horse Classic in 2003, where they won the Open with a 655.5 total, which included a chart-topper 223 score in the cow work round. After that, Chics Magic Potion and Avila continued to the National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity, where they won the Championship with a 660-point composite (herd/214.5, reined/224, fence/221.5). At the National Reining Horse Association Futurity in November 2003, Chics Magic Potion and Avila finished fourth in the Intermediate Open and tied for 10th in the Open with a 220-point score.

From there, this horse-and-rider combo had one consistent win after another. Chics Magic Potion is an AQHA World Champion, NRCHA Stakes Champion, Magnificent 7 Champion, and multiple NRCHA Hackamore Champion. As a sire, Chics Magic Potion is off to a good start. According to AQHA records, he started with 11 foals in 2006, followed by 23 in 2007 and 12 in 2008. Interestingly, there are a few of his offspring scheduled to compete in the final cow work round at Paso Robles on Sunday.

Reserve Champion
It was Shady Lil Starlight and Jake Telford, Caldwell, Idaho, who finished in Reserve in the World’s Richest Stock Horse event. They wound up with a level-good 666.5 score (herd/222; reined/ 222.5; cow/222). The win was thrilling, yet bittersweet, for owners Bill and Nancy Hall, Santa Ynez, Calif., who own Holy Cow Performance Horses.

Shady Lil Starlight, with Jake Telford and daughter Shawny in the saddle, and owners, Bill and Nancy Hall

From the looks of things, it seems as though Shady Lil Starlight is doing his best to fill some big shoes.

“I’m thrilled to pieces. Absolutely,” Nancy Hall said, explaining this was the horse’s fourth time to be shown in the bridle. “He’s still very green at it so it’s very exciting to have him do that well.”

Shady Lil Starlight was bred by Polo Ranch, Marietta, Okla, and was sold as a yearling to Sunrise Ranch, Fayetteville, Ark. Collier found the horse for the Halls, and he moved to California in January of his third year. Nancy Hall calls the horse “Bentley,” – a name that goes back to the moment he arrived at his new home with Holy Cow Performance Horses.

“He was a little on the expensive side, and my husband said, ‘You should have bought a Bentley,” Hall recalled with a laugh. “I said, ‘I have my Bentley!’ ”

And a fine ride this horse is. He was smooth and nice in the herd and reined cow works, positioning himself less than two points off the lead going into the cow work. Even after Chics Magic Potion and Avila put the 225 on the board, it was conceivable that Shady Lil Starlight and Telford could go for the gusto and post a score big enough to win the title. But such was not to be – at least not this time.
They started off in fine form but after making the first turn on the wall, the cow came off the fence and it had to be looped around and brought back in order. Shady Lil Starlight and Telford made a nice right turn on the wall and then headed to the middle for the circles. Their grand effort netted a strong 222.

Even though he didn’t win, Telford was pleased with Shady Lil Starlight.

“It just didn’t fall together quite like I wanted it to, but my horse was really good,” he said. “This horse has not been worked on the fence since the [NRCHA] Derby, which was in June. He’s just a real good, good horse.”


Chics Magic Potion: A Closer Look at the Champion

“This is the nicest horse I’ve ever had to train,” Bob Avila said about Chics Magic Potion, following his win at the 2003 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity. “This is the best mind I’ve ever dealt with, period.”

Chics Magic Potion and Bob Avila in action on a cow.

“I tried to buy her before she won the futurity,” Avila recalled. “She was pretty and kind, all the things she did I liked.”

Remedys Magic Potion was a 1989 double-bred Doc’s Remedy mare. She was by Remedys Reply, a Doc’s Remedy son and out of Remedys Magica, a Doc’s Remedy granddaughter. The filly was bred by M.L. Snyder or J.T. Itwasaka, San Jose, Calif., and was then owned by Ramona Giuliani, Morgan Hill, Calif. In March of her yearling year, Remedys Magic Potion transferred to Dina Monaghan, Raymond, Calif., and nearly a year later the mare was sold to Kim Dooley, Scottsdale, Ariz.

After a year or so of training with Hinton, Remedys Magic Potion debuted at the Great Northwest Reining Futurity in Oregon.
“That was a pretty big show in that part of the country,” Hinton recalled. “She was the only horse outside of the Avila training barn to ever win that futurity.” Indeed, at that 1992 show, Avila rode SR Hometown Girl to the Reserve Championship.

On to the Congress and then to Oklahoma City, Remedys Magic Potion and Hinton had great success before making the Open Finals at that year’s NRHA Futurity. Hinton showed the mare exclusively for one more year, and then in 1994 Dooley stepped aboard and showed the mare as well. Shown aggressively through 1998, Remedys Magic Potion accumulated $37,568 in reining earnings and finished among the top-10 at the AQHA Amateur World Show two years in a row, in 1996 and 1997.

Embryoed during her show career, Remedys Magic Potion produced two foals: A Royal Remedy by Boomernic; and Smart Remedy, a Smart Peppy Playboy stallion that earned $5,323 in reining winnings, made the finals with Hinton at several major limited age reinings and qualified for the AQHA World Show multiple times.

That was well and good, but Remedys Magic Potion was saving her best for last.

“In my opinion you could put her 20 years in the future and she’s still a good horse,” Hinton said about Remedys Magic Potion. “She was a beautiful horse and was such a natural stepper in her turns. She had stop, she had style and had all the parts to be a broodmare—hip, body, mind, looks, talent, there wasn’t one thing that was missing.”

All those attributes would carry through in a 2000 stud colt, one that was named Chics Magic Potion. By Smart Chic Olena, the bay foal hit the ground healthy and was orphaned just six weeks later. Having already suffered from an episode of colic while pregnant, Remedys Magic Potion succumbed when another bout struck just after her foal was born.

“She is buried on our ranch,” Hinton said, hinting at the special bond he had with the mare. “There is a place right out in front of our house, that’s where she’s at.”

So a little bay colt had his start, a beginning minus the best of circumstances.

Kathy Hinton, Casey’s wife, called the foal “Biff.”

“He was always perfect,” she recalled with a laugh. “He was like a yuppie, country club kind of baby.”

One to always try, always keep in line, Chics Magic Potion grew and was eventually turned out with the other yearlings. He grew, albeit not as fast as some of the others. Doug Carpenter, Sulphur, Okla., first saw the colt in July 2002. When Carpenter returned for a second look a month later, he brought Avila along to see Chics Magic Potion.

Before he laid an eye on the young horse, Avila had expectations. He certainly remembered the dam. Plus Avila knew he could work with the topside of the colt’s pedigree, having already experienced tremendous success on other Smart Chic Olena offspring—including the 2000 Snaffle Bit Futurity Championship with Smart Zanolena and the 2000 World’s Greatest Horseman title and AQHA Junior Working Cow Horse World Championship on Paid By Chic.

But Chics Magic Potion didn’t quite make muster at the time, not in Avila’s opinion. The colt was small for his age, gangly. Avila and Carpenter passed on the opportunity, at least for the time being. They knew what they were looking for, having previously partnered on other talented prospects including, Boomernic and Smart Zanolena.

For the next few months Avila kept thinking about Chics Magic Potion. The colt was being ridden by Martin Muhlstaetter, an Austrian trainer who kept the stallion progressing. Carpenter returned for subsequent visits, and was impressed with the colt’s advancement.

“Every time I saw him, he’d advanced in his training,” Carpenter said. “He just walked right up the ladder.”

In November, Avila took a break from the AQHA Show in Oklahoma City to accompany Carpenter for another look at the 2-year-old. This time, both men liked what they saw. The colt had filled out and was maneuvering nicely.

Chics Magic Potion was making headway in the reining but not been worked on a single cow. It was November of the horse’s second year and if there was a time for introductions, Avila thought it should be sooner rather than later. The trainer loaded the colt into a trailer and hauled him over to Robbie Schroeder’s ranch. As soon as he spotted his bovine adversary, Chics Magic Potion perked his ears and according to Avila, actually quivered with excitement.

“He just wanted to turn around and run off, really,” Avila recalled with a laugh. “He would shake and everything else—I like that. I personally like horses that are about half afraid of cattle because that’s where all the expression comes from.”

The horse was purchased by the triad partnership of Avila and Carpenter, along with Alan and Kay Needle. Chics Magic Potion went to Temecula, Calif., and was immediately inserted into Avila’s training program (he was purchased by Kenneth Banks in November 2003). Though the trainer was thrilled by the horse’s reaction to cattle, Avila admitted that initially he was a little concerned about the colt’s nonchalant attitude. Relaxed and gentle, Chics Magic Potion needed early encouragement in the reining maneuvers. When it came to working a cow, however, the stallion was ready, willing and more than able.

As the horse learned and gained more confidence, Avila saw Remedys Magic Potion in the colt.

“She tried her heart out every time they rode her into the arena,” Avila recalled about the dam. “She walked in there with her tail down and her ears up every time they walked her in there. I loved that mare. I loved her so much and this colt is exactly like her.”
Carpenter agreed. “She was what I call a ‘good ol’ hard knocking show mare,’” he said. “Every time she came to the show pen, she put out 100 percent effort.”

Not once during his training did Chics Magic Potion have to be checked up. Not once did he lose resolve or challenge Avila to a battle of wills. According to the trainer, the colt always tried to please.

“I love riding this horse,” Avila said. “It’s really unusual to have a horse that when you get up in the morning, it’s ‘Wow! I’ll go ride him.’ He’s a really fun horse to ride.”