Zippo Pine Bar was one of the most prolific pleasure horse sires in history, sitting atop the leading sires list for more than a decade.
Foaled in 1969, Zippo Pine Bar was by Zippo Pat Bars, a son of Three Bars (TB) and a grandson of Leo. Zippo Pine Bar’s dam, Dollie Pine, was an AQHA Champion by AQHA Champion Poco Pine. Zippo Pine Bar was bred by Lloyd Geweke of Ord, Nebraska.
Norman Reynolds of Lexington, Nebraska, purchased Zippo Pine Bar as a weanling on September 13, 1969, at Geweke’s dispersal sale. The rancher/farmer needed a good sire to produce using horses for the ranch and was intrigued by Zippo Pine Bar’s pedigree.
Shown for four years, Zippo Pine Bar earned 112 performance points, 33 halter points, seven grand champions titles and 19 reserve champion titles. As a 3-year-old in 1972, Zippo Pine Bar earned his AQHA Champion title and was the high-point junior western riding horse and high-point western riding stallion.
But Zippo Pine Bar’s true worth came as a sire. His initial breeding fee was $150, but increased with the fame of his offspring. After Melody Zipper, a 1980 gelded son of Zippo Pine Bar, won the all-around amateur title at the 1983 AQHA World Championship Show, the breeding fee jumped to $750.
Zippo Pine Bar was sold to Bob and Ann Perry of California and continued to be a prolific sire for 12 more years, breeding his last two mares in 1997 at the age of 28. He sired 1,651 registered offspring. His progeny included 10 AQHA Champions, 15 world champions, 27 reserve world champions and 727 point earners, earning a total of 50,639.5 points. Some of his more notable get are Zipabull, 1990 Superhorse; Zips Chocolate Chip, 2005 all-time leading sire of pleasure point earners – total points; Zippo Ltd, all-time high-point leader in western-riding; and Zippos Dew Claw, who earned more than $50,000 in pleasure futurities.
After suffering a stroke in January 1998, Zippo Pine Bar was euthanized at age 29. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2000.
Biography updated as of March 2000.