Stallion Showcase 2023: Krogman Quarter Horses is a one-stop shop
If you’re into cutting, reining, reined cow horses or barrel horses, Krogman Quarter Horse is your one-stop shop.
For the past 70 years, they have been raising Quarter Horses near White River, S.D.
Siblings Steve Krogman, Lorena Hight, and Neil Krogman have partnered with the horses since their dad, Louie Krogman, passed away in 1991.
Louie was the start of the horse business.
Born in 1902, he grew up around ranch and draft horses, but wanted Quarter Horses. With a mental picture of the perfect horse in his head, he went to the 1950 National Western Stock Show in Denver and saw what he considered the perfect horse: an AQHA yearling stallion named Tom B Glover, the Grand Champion at halter. Louie bought him for $1,000 (about $12,000 today).
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His older sister told him he was crazy, son Steve recounted. “She said he’s the craziest person in the world to buy that horse. He’d never make it in this world if he spent money on crazy things like that.”
But he wasn’t crazy; he knew what he wanted.
For a time, he wanted race horses. He bred Tom B Glover to mares he owned, then bought an own son of Three Bars and crossed the Glover mares with Three Bars’ son.
Louie was in the race horse business from 1955 to the early 1970s, and during that tenure, he set a Kansas state record at the 400-yard distance for Quarter Horse racing, which held for many years.
Another racing stallion contributed to the Krogman bloodlines.
While at a race track in Colorado, Louie saw Leo 3, who had, unbeknownst to his owner, been entered into a claim race by his trainer. Leo 3 hadn’t won much, so the trainer thought he’d put him in a cheap claim race, and the horse might win it.
After a phone call from Louie’s trainer, telling him about the horse, Louie borrowed the cash from neighbors to buy the horse, flew to Colorado, and claimed him.
“The owner was terribly, terribly mad,” Steve said. He sued Louie, but Louie won. Leo 3 “did a lot of good for us,” Steve said. “He had super, super colts that were good looking and could really cow. Ranchers liked them.”
By the late 1970s, Louie quit the race bloodlines and raised ranch horses with foundation bloodlines: Leo, Three Bars, and King.
Then he bought Paprika Pine from a good friend, Sonny Thomason. A grandson of Poco Pine, Paprika Pine crossed well on the Leo 3 bloodlines.
For a while, Louie was known for his roans. He had a lot of red roans, selling them at the annual sale. When several people asked for blue roans, Louie bought a blue roan stud.
Krogmans “were pretty much known for raising roan-colored horses that would really watch a cow and work good in the rodeo arena, the cow pen, and for ranchers,” Steve said.
The three siblings work together, but each handles a different discipline: Steve oversees cutting horses, Lorena’s interest is the reining, and Neil and his daughters handle the barrel horses.
For the cutting and reined cow horse, Cant Kick This Cat is their senior stallion. The 14-year-old sorrel’s sire is High Brow Cat, the number one producing cutting sire ever. High Brow Cat has another son, Metallic Cat, who will probably surpass his sire in cutting earnings; the Krogmans own Metallic Avator, a son of Metallic Cat.
Cant Kick This Cat not only threw good cutting babies, he changed how the Krogmans bred their horses. When they purchased him, they didn’t realize he had an injured stifle; they just knew he couldn’t cut. Because of the injured stifle, he isn’t able to cover live mares. The Krogmans switched from pasture breeding to AI.
“It turned out that it was lucky that he was hurt,” Steve said. Because of AI, they are able to breed 60 or more mares a year to him, instead of the 20 or 30 they’d have done through pasture breeding.
The stallion Smart Little Romeo was an influential part of their cutting bloodlines. He died at four years of age, but they kept a lot of broodmares out of him that worked very well on Cant Kick This Cat.
Lorena Hight’s part of the program is the reining and reined cow horses.
A horse lover since she was a little girl, she rodeoed through high school, training her own horses for Little Britches, 4-H, high school and SDRA competition.
The first influential reining horse stud she had was Heza Valintine Pine, a palomino, “I fell in love with and had to buy,” she laughed.
She followed him up with Whiz My Nu Chex, whose sire is Topsail Whiz, the NRHA’s only ten-million-dollar winning sire, another palomino. Her sons use him around the ranch. “They have ridden him, dragged calves on him, rounded up cattle on him, and used him in some pretty rough areas,” Lorena said. “They said they’ve never rode anything so sure-footed who can go out and get a cow.”
Whiz My Nu Chex’s oldest offspring are 5-year-olds. “People are really liking them,” Lorena said.
In her reining horses, Lorena likes an athletic horse with cow sense and “horses that are pretty to look at and fun to watch move. They travel out classy and will watch a cow. They’re not just reining but the rope horse type, too.”
Neil and his daughters, Alyssa Hicks, Mariah Hossle and Savannah Krogman, who all competed in Little Britches, junior high and high school rodeo, focus on the barrel racing part of Krogman Quarter Horses.
Two stallions are their primary horses right now. VF Chase This, a grandson of Frenchmans Guy, is 8 years old and “has been doing well for us,” Alyssa said. “His offspring are of riding age and are intelligent. We’re excited to see what they have to offer under saddle.”
The second stallion is Fame And Champagne, a 2016 sorrel grandson of Dash Ta Fame and an own son of Woodbridge.
Fame And Champagne “is just what we’re looking for,” she said. “Sensible and willing, and he throws those traits to his colts.” Alyssa and her husband Josh have used him for ranch work and he’s had training for the barrels and roping.
Alyssa looks for foals that are “easy to get along with, trainable, and I like them to have a little bit of personality. I like them to be pretty movers, nice and smooth, but have that quickness to them as well, with good feet.”
Fame And Champagne is giving his offspring a “nice pretty head and nice hip,” she said. “They have a little size to them. He throws a nice heavy bone on them.”
Steve said Krogman Quarter Horse clientele is ranch people looking for horses to ranch on, horses for youth equine activities, and the weekend hobbyists who might compete in team pennings or other horse events.
But no matter the discipline, the Krogmans have a horse for it. With the three branches of the family each doing its own event, “we stay up to date in the industry,” Alyssa said.
“Whether you’re looking for cutters, reiners or barrel racing horses,” Steve said, “or a cross of those three, we have a lot of mares that are cow bred mares, crossing them on our running studs so you have that cow-run cross that people are looking for.”
Louie might be surprised at how the horse world has changed, but he would be pleased the business is still going strong and the love for horses continues in the next generation of Krogmans.
The 2023 Krogman Quarter Horse sale will be held Sunday, September 3, 2023. For more information, visit the website at KQuarterHorse.com.
