WADE BURNS , Lucky Four Farms
member Profile
4 Things You Don ’ t Know About …
WADE BURNS , Lucky Four Farms
As told to Lynne Francis
In this first of a series , one of the pillars of our industry , Wade Burns of Lucky Four Farms , gives insight into those early years when our breed was just evolving into what the American Miniature horse is today . Many of today ’ s top Miniature horse pedigrees include horses bearing the prefix Lucky Four Farms owned by Wade Burns and Jon Woodring .
What was your career before you began to
1 . raise and show Miniature horses ?
I was an Administrator of Radiology at a large hospital . John and I also raised dogs , and were professional dog handlers . By 1986 our dog business was so successful that Jon convinced me to resign and just handle dogs . I never worked another day in radiology .
Little Kings Black Velvet was one of Lucky Four Farm ’ s most successful herd sires , producing multiple World Champions and World Grand Champions , born 1991 .
Wade drove ponies as a youngster with much success .
In 2007 , Jon partnered on a Beagle dog named as K-Run ’ s Park Me in First , aka . Uno . In a huge upset , Uno bested 169 dog breeds and 2627 other contenders to be named the first Beagle to ever win Best In Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show .
How did you become involved in
2 . raising / showing Miniatures ? My first love was always horses . My grandfather was a horse trader , who would leave home with 10 horses and come home a month later with 20 horses tied behind the wagon and a pocket full of money . So horses were in my blood . I got my first pony at 9 years old , and in my teens a wonderful wealthy family ( who cared for me as if I was their own ) helped me get started buying , training and showing big horses ( Saddle horses , driving ponies mostly Hackney , hunters and jumpers ). Years later , Jon kept trying to interest me in Miniature horses but I didn ’ t like what I saw . One day he finally showed me a photo of Shadow Oaks Paul Bunyan and I said if they looked like that , then maybe I could get interested ! In 1984 while on the road showing dogs , we visited Dixie Blasingame at Hidden Meadows in Arkansas and Shadow Oaks in California , the home of Paul Bunyan , and I was finally convinced . We bought five Miniatures that day , and when Dixie passed away several years later we bought the majority of her horses .
Which horses do you feel were
3 . the best you ever raised and showed ? Probably our greatest producer was Sids Rebel who was linebred Gold Melody Boy . I was looking for a horse with those bloodlines and we luckily found Rebel in Florida thru the efforts of an AMHA employee who , ( before the existence of the AMHA Studbook ) sent us a list of GMB based stallions . We had earlier acquired Richters Apache , who was a top producer and his daughters bred to Rebel was a combination that put us on the map . We were later approached to manage the dispersal of Bond horses and that was the most profitable
22 Miniature Horse World SUMMER 2018