Shining Spark

Joining his dam and a host of ancestors, Shining Spark takes his place in the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.

Of course.

AQHA Past President Frank Merrill says Shining Spark is a shining example of an ideal Hall of Fame candidate. The golden palomino scored major wins on his way to becoming one of the all-time greatest performance sires in the history of the most versatile horse on earth.

“Shining Spark was so versatile and so athletic, and he passed it on to his babies,” says breeder and owner Carol Rose of Gainesville, Texas. “He was so sound, and he passed that on to his babies, as well.”

Bred to the purple, Shining Spark is a stellar paragon of breeding the best to the best and getting the best, a high mark (among so many) of the breeding program of the renowned Hall of Fame horsewoman. By Carol’s homebred stallion Genuine Doc, “Shiner” was foaled January 19, 1989, out of the Mr Diamond Dude mare Diamonds Sparkle, who along with Doc Bar, Lightning Bar and Blondy’s Dude comprise four Hall of Fame horses in the first three generations of “Shiner’s” pedigree.

Under the training of Tim McQuay, Shining Spark scored as AQHA’s world champion junior reining horse in 1993 and took the National Reining Horse Association Derby championship the following year.

Shining Spark grew to become the highlight of further generations. Striking the spark that ignited a bloodline that set new standards in value, Shiner so far has sired 1,411 American Quarter Horse foals, progeny that earned more than 39,000 AQHA points, 40 AQHA world championships and more than $10 million in cash, mostly in the National Reined Cow Horse and National Reining Horse associations. He is also already in these associations’ halls of fame.

NRCHA’s all-time leading sire from 2003 to 2020 and that association’s first $3 million sire, Shining Spark’s offspring dominated in reining, working cow horse, and heading, heeling and tie-down roping, but also performed admirably in cutting, western riding, pole bending, barrel racing, trail, western pleasure, horsemanship, Versatility Ranch Horse and halter. In the NRHA record books, not only is Shining Spark a $4 million sire, but he has also sired two $1 million sires, as well.

Doing equally well with succeeding generations, Shining Spark has been a leading grandsire on both the paternal and maternal sides. A leading broodmare sire of reining horses, the stallion has led QData and NRCHA standings as a maternal grandsire of reined cow horse money earners, including (as of 2021) six of the all-time top-10 earners.

Records are nice, but there is much more to a great horse than what can be simply reduced to numbers written on a page, says Cheryl Cody. Starting as a professional barrel racer and freelance journalist, then as publisher of Stock Horse News and now as owner of Pro Management Inc., which organizes National Cutting Horse Association, NRHA and NRCHA events, Cheryl has had a front-row seat as Shining Spark and multiple generations of descendants rewrote the record books. It wasn’t just records, she says, that made Shining Spark the horse that he became.

“I have seen over the years that as amazing as Shining Spark and his foals are at achieving unbelievable arena success, they are just as skilled at claiming places in the hearts of those around them,” Cheryl says. “If you’ve had one, you’ve likely loved one. I believe that for most AQHA members, the love of the horse is the real reason for getting into the horse business in the first place, and Shining Spark and his foals are easy to love. Like their sire, they give everything and easily earn such high regard.”

One of those was Shining Spark’s daughter Bet This Is A Shiner, whose dam was the First Down Dash mare Better Bet On Me, who earned more than $92,000 on the racetrack and has foaled the race earners of more than $1.1 million. With Cheryl in the barrel saddle, Bet This Is A Shiner won the Pac West Futurity and Bold Heart Futurity, finished top-five at Jud Little’s Futurity, was an AQHA World Championship Show qualifier and finalist, and ran the second-fastest time out of more than 1,500 horses at the Better Barrel Races World Championships.

“Have I mentioned that Shining Sparks are easy to love?” Cheryl says.

Shining Spark died at age 32, two days after Christmas in 2021.

“As a veterinarian, I have worked with this beautiful stallion since 2000, and I can say emphatically that he was the most pleasant and well-mannered stallion that I have worked with in a breeding environment, and I have been in this business for 44 years,” wrote AQHA Director Emeritus Dr. Dickson Varner in 2022. “Shining Spark’s record as an athlete in the western performance horse world is laudable, and his influence on the American Quarter Horse as a sire is nothing short of astonishing…AQHA is extremely fortunate to have a stallion of this caliber in its midst. Shining Spark has been a shining star in western performance horse circles and in many respects is unparalleled as a sire.”

To Carol, Shining Spark is unparalleled as a friend.

“What Shiner means to me, and what he means to the American Quarter Horse industry, is hard to put into words,” she says, pausing to wipe a tear. “It’s actually hard to say what the horse has done and what he continues to do. People talk about him like he’s still alive. And so do I. I love that horse. I have his ashes in a beautiful oak box by my desk, and I still talk to him every day.”

Shining Spark was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2024.

Biography updated as of July 2024.