Caption: Kathy Tobin, Shorty Koger, Jim Searles, Bobbie Dyer Gough, and Deanna Searles
Last night at the 2011 AQHA World Championship Show, Jim and Deanna Searles, along with Kathy Tobin, presented a $2,500 check on behalf of Allocate Your Assets to Shorty Koger of Rein In Cancer. This generous donation will go towards the Rein In Cancer charity, which will use the funds to help run the Shirley Bowman Nutritional Clinic at the OU Cancer Institute in Oklahoma City.
Koger, along with good friends, Cheryl Magoteaux and Tracie Anderson, created the Rein In Cancer charity in 2007, in memory of family members and close friends who have been affected by the disease.
The Searles and Tobin families first came up with the idea that they wanted to donate a portion of Allocate Your Assets breeding fees to Rein In Cancer and the Shirley Bowman Nutritional Clinic last year.
“When we started this deal, we wanted to try to give back, and we were looking for the right charity to give it to,” Jim Searles says. “Then, we met Shorty and Bobby, and this is such a great foundation. We have seen pictures of the work that is done, and it’s just great.”
Beginning last year, Allocate Your Assets now donates $50 of each breeding fee to the Rein In Cancer charity. Following the conclusion of this 2011 breeding season, the total amount for their donation this year was $2,500.
“We have had some friends who had been affected by the same disease,” Searles says. “We have been really blessed not to have been affected by it personally, but we have some good friends who have been diagnosed. One that stuck out to us the most was when Kelley Roberts was diagnosed. Also, when our good friend, Jill Newcomb, was diagnosed, that was a shock because she is close to our own age.”
Because the Searles and Tobins wanted to keep the donation within the “horse family,” the choice of Rein In Cancer as the recipient charity fit in perfectly with their vision.
“Shorty and Bobby are such great people anyways that this was perfect,” he says. “Kathy does the breeding mostly for her own personal interest. It’s not all just about the money. She loves seeing the babies grow up and raising them herself. Everything else is just a bonus.”
“The look on Shorty’s face when we presented the check said it all. That’s what this is all supposed to be about.”
The promising young sire, Allocate Your Assets, will continue to donate $50 from each breeding to the Rein In Cancer charity for the upcoming 2012 breeding season. Coming off an amazing 2011 Quarter Horse Congress with five Congress Champions, 4 Reserve Congress Champions, 18 Top Ten finishes, and the winner of the Equine Chronicle 2-Year-Old Hunter Under Saddle Masters class, “Al” is sure to be one busy boy in 2012.
