Kids Classic Style
The world champion sire and two-time AQHA world champion died December 5.
By Tara Christiansen
The American Quarter Horse Journal
December 6, 2012
At the time of his death, AQHA world championships earned by Kids Classic Style get totaled 33, plus 36 AQHA reserve world championships. (Photo courtesy of K.C. Montgomery)
A rear ligament injury summer 2012 sidelined Kids Classic Style. Since then, veterinarians at Iowa State University had been rehabilitating the 16-year-old buckskin stallion, but despite their efforts, Kids Classic Style continued to decline. The world champion sire was humanely euthanized at 10 a.m. on December 5 at Iowa State University.
“I absolutely hated to do this, but he was deteriorating in health to the point where I didn’t want him to suffer,” owner Thomas Scheckel told the Journal.
“The real deal” is what they called him, and Kids Classic Style was that indeed. At the time of his death, AQHA world championships earned by Kids Classic Style get totaled 33, plus 36 AQHA reserve world championships. His most recent champions include JF Skip N Style, the 2012 aged stallions world champion; Kid Forever In Style, who won amateur and open aged stallions reserve world championships in 2012; and A Classic Edition, the 2012 amateur performance halter mares reserve world champion. In addition to world titles, Kids Classic Style also sported 13,949 total points garnered by his offspring.
“I think Kids Classic Style has over 350 world and reserve world titles between all associations,” says Thomas, who calls Bellevue, Iowa, home. “By the time we get all of these weanlings and 2-year-olds on up and showing in the next couple of years, Kids Classic Style could real easily have 500-600 world and reserve world titles on his offspring.”
Before he hit the breeding shed, Kids Classic Style made quite the name for himself in the show pen. “Bucky,” as the stallion was known, secured his first title with the 1997 yearling stallion reserve world championship; he then returned to Oklahoma City as a 2-year-old to take fourth. From there, it was nothing but up as Kids Classic Style won 3-year-old stallion and aged stallion world championships.
By Kid Clu and out of Tootsy Rolls Redford by Rolls Redford, Kids Classic Style was bred by Zumbrun Quarter Horses in Greenville, Ohio. Over the years, Mike Murray, Margaret Scott and Kenneth Mills have all called Kids Classic Style theirs, but in 2008 he was purchased by Thomas.
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A longtime exhibitor and breeder of halter horses, Thomas’ first AQHA world championship came in weanling stallions at the 2011 Adequan Select World Championship Show in Amarillo. Homebred Designed To B Clasik, by Kids Classic Style and out of Ms Re Designed by He Is Re Designed, is Thomas’ first AQHA world champion.
For the last several years, Kids Classic Style stood stud at Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center at Iowa State University in Ames. Of Iowa State University, Thomas says, “They gave him the best care out there anybody could ever give a horse. They did a great job with him – maintaining his health and his condition.”
Recently, Thomas purchased Execute, a 2004 sorrel stallion sold during the dispersal of horses that formerly belonged to Rita Crundwell of Dixon, Illinois. The son of Mr Touchdown Kid stands at Abraham’s Equine Clinic in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
“I hope Execute does the same job that Kids Classic Style did for me the last four and a half years,” Thomas says. “Execute is such a great horse, too. I think he’s got 56 foals on the ground and 26 world and reserve world titles right now, which is unreal for percentage-wise.”
As much as he looks forward to the future with Execute, the loss of Kids Classic Style is a devastating one for Thomas. To keep the stallion near and dear, Bucky will be buried on a hillside near the Scheckels’ mare barn.
“Bucky was one of a kind; he’s the greatest horse I’ve ever seen in my life and he had the greatest disposition of any horse I’ve ever seen, too,” Thomas says. “And his offspring carry that through; his offspring are so easy to train and so easy to work with because of their great disposition.”
Article reprinted with permission by Tara Christiansen, writer, American Quarter Horse Journal
