Colonels Shining Gun Reaches NRHA Million Dollar Sire Milestone

By Jessica Hein, APHA News, PHJ News 

Edited press release from NRHA

 

Congratulations to the flashy Paint stallion Colonels Shining Gun, who surpassed the National Reining Horse Association’s Million Dollar Sire milestone in November 2022. Colonels Shining Gun is a 2007 sorrel overo stallion by Colonels Smokingun and out of Shining Little Peach (QH). He is owned by Katarzyna Roleska of Poland, and was bred by KC Performance Horses LLC of Bayfield, Colorado.

Colonels Shining Gun was poised to do great things when he burst onto the reining scene in 2010. In early November 2022, “Jojo” added another line to his resume when he became a Million Dollar Sire.

The stallion was shown to a third-place finish at the 2010 Scottsdale Classic Futurity and later  finished in the Top 10 of the NRHA Futurity Finals that year.

As fate would have it, reining enthusiast Katarzyna Roleska was in the stands during the first round of the Futurity, and Colonels Shining Gun immediately caught her eye.

“I saw him show in the first go of the Futurity with Andrea [Fappani] in the saddle, and I couldn’t stop thinking about him. He stole my heart,” she recalled.

The very next year, Jojo was in his new home, Roleska Ranch, located less than an hour’s drive from Krakow, a southern Poland city. Jojo found success in Europe with a multitude of trainers, including Clint Ramsey, Million Dollar Rider Gennaro Lendi, Alessandro Frassa, and Million Dollar Rider Cira Baeck.

With Baeck at the reins, Jojo won the NRHA European Open Derby Championship and were part of the Silver-medal winning team for Belgium at the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy.

Eventually, Jojo returned to the United States.

“In the United States, he has the opportunity to breed more mares. What makes me proud is that his offspring in Europe contributed incredibly to him reaching the million-dollar mark,” Katarzyna said. “My goal is for him to be a healthy and happy horse. His foals will do the rest.”

Jojo’s first foals arrived in 2013. Among his top money-earners are:

NF Shining Whiz (Whowhizthispeppychic) $97,937
Snips Shining Gun (Snip O Gun) $75,511
CSG Copshot (Finest Copyshot) $56,798
CSG Kenzo (Shiner Brimolena) $54,749
Copyride (Finest Copyshot) $51,225
CSG Wisemanfear (Tejana Chic) $49,940
Showgirl Shining Gun (Shes A Lil Showgirl) $46,262
One Mr JJ (QHR Jamaica Express ) $37,379
KL Less Is More (Payin On Time) $37,128
CSG Shinethingun (ARC Think Chic) $37,052