Zips Chocolate Chip led a charmed life, says owner and breeder Ann Myers of Ohio, and it all began on his Cinco de Mayo foaling date.
Before Chip, Ann spent hours at horse shows, evaluating stallions’ offspring and movement.
“I noticed several of Zippo Pine Bar’s foals that I liked, placing and winning toward the top of the great big futurities,” she says. “I set my sights on breeding to him.”
She did, sending her Custus Jaguar mare Fancy Blue Chip to create Zips Chocolate Chip. For the first two years of his life, Chip lived at Ann’s farm in Ashland, Ohio, but when it came time to start him, she sent him to Texas for training.
By the time the World Champion retired from his show career, he began his third breeding season in Texas, where Bob and Ann Perry, who owned Chip’s sire, had graciously agreed to stand Chip as well.
“He was doing well in the show ring and people liked him. He took off like gangbusters. We got to the point along the way that we had to close his book, as he was breeding well over 100 mares a year. And this was before shipped semen and frozen semen were allowed.”
Zips Chocolate Chip sired horses that have earned 20 AQHA world championships and 12 reserve world championships in all divisions. His progeny have earned more than 44,600 points in all AQHA divisions and $1.07 million in World Show and AQHA Incentive Fund earnings.
Chip even became a model for a Breyer horse, serving as an ambassador for the American Quarter Horse.
“The thing about Chip is that everything went right for him his whole entire career,” Ann says. “I've never had another horse like that. I don't think too many people have. You have your ups and downs, the thrill of victory and agony of defeat, but he never had the agony of defeat, really. I always called him my magical horse because he routinely made good things happen.”
“He was here two years in the beginning and then two years in the end,” Ann says. “We did have multiple offers to sell him. Because of Chip, I’ve met so many wonderful people and have had so much fun. He was priceless.”
He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2017.
Biography updated as of March 2017.