We would like to extend our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of well-known horse trainer and clinician, Tom Chown. Several members of his family have indicated that he passed away yesterday on January 20th, 2020.

A lifetime APHA member, Fred was a national director for 49 years and served on every APHA advisory committee as either a member or EC liaison during his tenure. An APHA judge since 1977, Fred retired from judging in 2010 and was honored in 2017 with APHA’s Judge Emeritus award.

In January of 1995, I contacted Dee about breeding a mare to Temon. I hadn’t ever met her, but she instantly took me under her wing finding me a Futurity breeding and telling me about a good mare that she thought  would be a good cross on her stud. We bought Brilliant Conclusion. She was in foal, but we chose to buy only the mare and not the foal she was carrying. Unfortunately, the mare foaled unexpectedly and a large colt tore through her rectum and died. We were in the processing of moving from Missouri back to Texas, so Dee kept the mare, keeping her clean, giving her antibiotics, and keeping up with her reconstructive surgery. It was late in the year and Dr. Donnell bred her one time carefully inseminating her with a straw. Miraculously, she was in foal. 

While Norris was at Guffey, commercial photographers visited the ranch to shoot some cowboy photos for a Marlboro cigarette ad campaign. They took about 2,000 pictures that day, and a few months later, Norris found himself on the back cover of Life magazine.