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Hope Reigns Supreme

As a two-year-old, Good Friday’s Hope earned the Tennessee
Walking Horse Grand Championship at the Oklahoma Futurity.
Ann Kuykendall was a the lead.

This is the saga of a mare who was very special to many many people who knew and loved her. Good Friday’s Hope was born at Windy Hill on June 13, 1987. Her sire was Good Friday K., the first stallion to earn a TWHBEA Adult Supreme Versatility Championship. Her dam was Maggie Midnight, a lovely sorrel roan mare with a flax mane and tail who produced several TWHBEA champions. Maggie and Friday both had superb dispositions and both were very willing and anxious to please. Hope inherited these wonderful traits, and was a joy to work with all of her life. Hope was also a “looker,” her head was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen and her body was a sight to behold. She was beautiful inside and out! She was the grand champion of the Oklahoma Futurity in the fall of her two-year-old year and that started her career in the show ring.

We sold Hope in the summer of 1990 to Mr. Arvel Knight. He came over looking for a horse to replace one he had lost out of a team. He went home with two – Good Friday’s Hope and Good Friday’s Autumn. These fillies were born the same year and were inseparable. Mr. Knight wanted them as a matched pair, and he had a lot of fun with them. He took them home and sold the other horse. I had started both mares under saddle, but they were just green broke. He trained them to pull a four-passenger surrey, and, in fact, won first prize in a parade with them in his hometown that fall. Unfortunately, Mr. Knight had a heart attack and his doctor told him he should dispose of the horses. We bought them back in July of 1991. Mr. Knight died shortly thereafter.

A very good friend of ours, Mr. Barth Bracken, was looking for an outstanding mare for his wife, Linda. To make a long story short, Miss Hope just fit the bill and in August of 1991 she began a very happy life at Brackens Neosho River Ranch. It was at the Bracken ranch that Hope resumed her show career. I helped Linda and John Tedder (ranch manager and all around horseman) to show this new walking horse, as both were unfamiliar with the breed. They learned quickly and soon were showing Hope to championships all over the region. John worked especially hard with the mare and, in time, Hope got very close to her versatility championship. Linda showed her in amateur classes and John in open classes. I must say too that Linda loved this mare, spoiled her, and enjoyed her!

Then there were the trail rides! These happened quite frequently, we rode with the Brackens all over Oklahoma. There were four couples that went to Colorado trail riding two different summers. Those were wonderful trips, we couldn’t have had any more fun. Of course, Hope really took care of Linda Bracken – those two made a real bond. The Brackens enjoyed Hope until September of 2002. Barth and Linda had some health problems and had to dispose of their horse herd. Of course, Hope came back home. We were so grateful to have her back. By this time she almost knew more than the people who rode her. She was a favorite of all our grandchildren. She would take advantage of novice riders and do as she pleased (which was to graze or stop and rest) but she NEVER did anything to hurt anyone. She was also the top horse in our herd. All she had to do was flick an ear and everyone would get out of her way! I began showing her again, she had not been shown in about ten years but she hadn’t forgot a thing. Hope did not have a huge stride, but she was so versatile that she did very well in the show ring for me.

By this time we had become good friends with Mark and Becky Wolf. They needed a well broke mare and again, Miss Hope fit the bill. However, just let it be said that we really shared her – both couples laying claim to her. She was so close to her Supreme Championship that we decided to go for it even though Hope was a “Classic” horse (“classic” defined as 15 years of age or older). Becky rode her in some of the rail classes that year and I rode the versatility classes. She lacked a few Western Pleasure points (which were pretty easy to get), and a few points in either Reining or Western Riding. The problem was that in many cases out here in the ‘hinter lands’ you just don’t get enough horses to enter the harder classes. But in the fall of 2005 at the Missouri Fox Trotters fall open show we needed only ONE western riding point. Fortunately there were five horses entered and Hope and I placed FIRST! Not bad for a “Classic” horse and a “Senior Citizen!” She was at last a Supreme Versatility Champion! I have never ridden a horse that deserved this honor as much. I feel very fortunate to own Good Friday’s Hope, horse extraordinaire, SUPREME AMBASSADOR of our breed, and friend to all who were lucky enough to know her.

–Ann Kuykendall