If you told me in November my greatest fear for Top Spot would come true, I would’ve sat down and cried then. The morning of 9/11 I got news that my Grandma Jacobs’ partner for 24 years had to be put down, and I was devastated. It wasn’t a cutesy chick flick cry, it was me dropping to my knees and curling up in fetal position for close to two hours just sobbing uncontrollably. I collected myself to pass my condolences on to my Grandmother, and took a shower which just uncorked more tears.
Top Spot was the last of our family’s bloodlines from Hy-View Horse Farm (Sultzer’s Pintos). For about 50 years my family bred actual champions and they walked the Rose Parades nearly every year from what I can tell while my great grandfather Clarence Sultzer was alive and breeding. I have also seen all three sisters (my Grandma included) in the parades as well, both on horseback and in newspaper clippings one of which is pictured below.
Top Spot to be quite honest was a bit genetically challenged by the end of the lines and unfortunately passed on undesirable traits to his offspring. When I first met Top Spot, his daughter Jubilee was still alive. She had the same immune system struggles to a lesser degree that Toppy did, which prevented him from having the average horse life. When he was living in the orange orchard (barn tour in my Instagram highlights here) Top Spot had a full fly mesh system strung up in his stall because he was allergic to them. The system itself was attached to the stall windows with a metal bar and a covering, and Mr Wise Guy Toppy decided it was the perfect place to crib and exercise his overactive nose while in fly jail. He pulled it out just enough that the tip of my index finger could fit under it and it was flapped up and out to fit where his mouth would rest. I vividly remember Canon (my cousin) feeding him some frozen watermelon rinds on the stall mat and one of the other younger cousins whooshing by so Top Spot pulled his head up real quick. Typical Saddlebred fashion, unfortunately the little ones didn’t catch that he had caught the flap with his eyelid and gave himself an slash eyeliner job. Chase (my older cousin) pulled him out of his stall and wet a clean rag to press to his eye. Grandma had gone in to talk to my great Aunt Helen (mentioned in the clipping), and she told us she would come seal it with superglue, I was literally in shock. SUPERGLUE?? Chase and I rode Ace and Hollywood bareback in the arena while she sealed him up and ultimately decided to call the vet out for an eye flush and the needed suture. Somewhere I have the photo of the wound, but it was my first ever equine vet experience. Top Spot was a horrible drunk under sedation, but he was the funniest floppy lipped boy.
When he turned ~17 I started questioning his mind a little bit. He would cross his back legs to sleep and would forget he did that when he woke and would topple over often. And pictured above he took 2 tumbles in the trailer with me over the years. This time pictured it was pretty bad. We had just invested in a brand new three horse trailer with a great tack room and the works. It had shiny chrome partitions, nice mats and lead hooks. Unfortunately we took the left turn onto the residential street the family barn was on and we felt the trailer give a bit as we did so. Grandma immediately pulled over because Chase and I heard clanging and knocking coming from inside. Top Spot was trapped under the partition and was kicking at it to free himself and get up, but there wasn’t much space with it all sealed up and full of ponies to do that. We’re so lucky we didn’t lose him that day to a broken leg with all his scrambling.
He was my buddy and best friend for the last visit I had with him in 2016. Looking back I’m glad we connected so much that trip or I wouldn’t have had him doodled to keep him nearby forever. I will never forget the heart to heart conversations he was a part of on my solo trail ride with my Grandmother, the secrets I whispered into his mane as I groomed him in the peak heat (~112 degrees in AZ) and the resilience he showed me we both had deep inside. I miss you so much Top Spot, but I know you’re not suffering and at peace, rest easy. We only had a handful of special moments together over the dozen years I’ve been a Svec, but they will stay with me forever.
His passing made me realize there’s a whole set of genetics connected to him out there and I’ve made it my mission to uncover and find as many of his relatives as I can. I’ve already found about 15-20 horses for sure that were ours and where their offspring ended up. I’ve located one barn in the Carolinas somewhere that used Society’s Hy Genius as their main stud and he was registered to my great grandfather directly so that’s very good news for me for the future. It would be a dream come true to bring these horses back to life and restart the bloodlines.
Grey2Bay 