Full Circle: Legendary, late halter sire Obvious Conclusion is home to stay.
Legendary, late halter sire Obvious Conclusion, 1981-2005, is home to stay.
By Delores Kuhlwein
“Pull a thread here and you’ll find it’s attached to the rest of the world.”— Nadeem Aslam.
It’s a small world indeed, especially for horsemen, so when social media –with all its minuses — magically and quite beautifully reminds us of our connection to each other, all seems right with the world.
Take the full circle experience of Oklahoma resident Cindy Buchanan and the late, legendary stallion Obvious Conclusion, who is in the pedigrees of most modern halter horses today.
Weanling photo of Clue
The celebrated AQHA stallion by Conclusive and out of Buzs Baccarat was purchased as a weanling still on his mom by Cindy from Edgewood (owned by Joe Edge) in 1981.
Grand at the 1983 Congress – pictured Harold and Gail Taylor, Jerry Wells, Patty Woods and Cindy Buchanan.
Though she’d lost track of “Clue” during his 24 years on earth, Cindy never forgot him, and this past fall, she’d been posting photos of Obvious Conclusion as a two-year-old, and as one might imagine, the photos made their way into several Facebook groups.
All the way on the East Coast, New Jersey resident Chelsey Marlin had been searching for contact information for past owners of Clue for months. Cindy explains, “Being more into Haflinger horses, she had no knowledge of who Clue was or who his owners may have been. She could see from a quick internet search he had quite a record.”
It seems Chelsey’s friend, who maintains a state park in New Jersey, had found a heavy, wooden box with cremated remains with a plaque dedicated to Obvious Conclusion, 1981-2005. “He brought the memorial box to Chelsey as he knew she was into horses. Jessie Cleary, a friend of Chelsey’s, saw my post and forwarded it on to Chelsey. Chelsey had lovingly kept Clue on a shelf in her barn until she found his family,” says Cindy.
When Cindy received the heavy, wooden box from Chelsey, she posted the box was “pristine and the written words are touching. It’s definitely him. How, why, who remains a mystery .. but I am so touched that long story short, Chelsey just wanted Clue to be returned home to someone that loved him…. and that has happened.”
Making Halter History
When Cindy bought Clue on that significant day in 1981, in partnership with Harold and Gail Taylor, she explains he was the prettiest profiling colt she ever laid eyes on. “There was a modern look to him that was unlike anything I had ever seen,” explains Cindy. The colt also had severe epiphysitis from rapid growth and a lot of the big name halter guys had passed on him because of that, she says.
First time shown as yearling winning Texas State Fair at Dallas.
“It took all of Clue’s weanling year into his yearling year to slow down his growth,” she explains, and they wrapped his back ankles, and hand walked him to keep him sound to fit him and get him ready to show. “His first show was in the fall of his yearling year. He won the QH Congress Yearling Futurity, the Congress yearling class, and the World Show that fall! As a two year old we showed him just enough to qualify for the World Show, and he then was Grand at the Congress and World Champion 2 yr old stallion. He was led to every win by Jerry Wells.”
His two-year-old year, Clue was on Stallion Alley at Congress, and Cindy says when they would take him out in the aisle and stand him up, he drew such large crowds, it caused a fire hazard warning. “That prompted the Congress officials to rope off a section down on one end of the hall to allow for safe viewing.
Cindy had just unloaded Clue at the World Show his two yr old year and Leon Freeze and his daughter Claire stopped to look at him.
In between shows, they kept Clue at home at Cindy’s small facility, and together, she and her helper, Stacey Sample, fit him, which was a testament to his great mind. “He was retired from showing after his two-year-old year. We had sold an interest in Clue as a two-year-old to Des and Patty Woods, who later built a breeding facility in Katy, TX, where we stood Clue. I sold my interest at the end of Clue’s three-year-old breeding season to the Woods.”
Throughout his career as a breeding stallion, Obvious Conclusion sired 1,446 foals who earned 18,935 AQHA points, as well as 339 Halter ROMs, 30 Performance ROMs, 103 Superior Halter awards and three Performance Superiors, two Open AQHA Champion honors, and one Youth AQHA Champion honors.
Clue’s offspring also followed in his World Show footsteps by earning 28 World Championships, 34 Reserve World Championships.
At the end of his life, Cindy says he’d been mostly sterile, and a group of people from the East Coast had bought him and sent him to Colorado State University) with the hopes they could get him collected a few more times and freeze some semen. “Clue was put down at CSU in 2005, and it was a man named Will Callani that was a partner and ended up with Clue’s ashes,” Cindy explains. “How the memorial box with his ashes ended up in a trash pile in a state park is still a mystery.”
In His Rightful Place
As for Cindy, she has set Clue’s ashes in their rightful place among his Congress and World Show trophies, and among those of his two sons, An Obvious Cowboy and Beyond Measure “for the remainder of my time here on earth.”
She concludes, “The meaning to my heart for Clue to be returned to me to reside alongside his trophies and wonderful memories can’t be put into words. It was unexpected and truly heartwarming. I loved this horse so much, and he started my success in the halter horse industry, followed by five of his sons that I had major success with along with many daughters and grand get. Clue’s success as a sire was incredible and long reaching and I feel honored to have been a part of it from the beginning.”
