Just Like June Wins First AQHA World Championship, While in Foal!
Jerry Erickson with Judy Davis at the ARC Circle of Champions gold trophy ceremony.
By: Brittany Bevis
When Jerry Erickson and Just Like June rode up to accept the World Championship in Progressive Working Hunter this week at the 2017 AQHA World Championship Show, they made history for a very special reason. To our knowledge, June’s foal is the youngest ever to earn a World Championship title, and that’s because he (or she) hasn’t been born yet!
June is a 6-year-old mare by a son of Last Detail. She’s owned by Judy and Wayne Davis. June is currently in foal to Do You Have A Minute, a stallion that was once owned by the Davis family as well.
“She’s due to foal in April to Do You Have A Minute, a stud that Wayne and I owned several years ago. He won the Congress when he was two, was High Point when he was a three-year-old, and, during his four-year-old year, he was the AQHA Honor Roll Hunter Under Saddle horse. He did Working Hunter as well, just like June.”
“Unfortunately, he had an accident and had to be put down, and we didn’t even know if there was any semen left. Jerry found some at a stallion station in Texas and made arrangements to get control of it. He called and asked if we wanted to breed June. I said, ‘Absolutely!'”
June is already a mother. She has two foals on the ground by The Krumsun Kruzer that were embryos. This year, Judy decided to let June carry the foal, herself. “She’s been working since she was two years old, so it didn’t make much sense to turn her out in a pasture, because that’s not something she’s used to. She’s just now starting to look like a broodmare, but I’m really the only one who can tell, because I only see her every few weeks. It’s just a good thing the AQHA World Show wasn’t a couple of weeks from now!”
June’s partner for the Progressive Working Hunter class was Jerry Erickson, a longtime friend and colleague of Judy’s. June holds a special place in his heart as well. “Jerry has had her for the last couple of years, once we started showing her in Over Fence classes. I’m always nervous as to whether he’s going to let me have her back!”
“Jerry and I used to show horses together, back in Wisconsin. We’ve known each other for over 40 years. There is no one else I would trust June with. I know he treats her like she’s his own, and I don’t have to worry about her when she’s there.”
Like the stallion she’s in foal to, June has a host of Hunter Under Saddle titles and is just now making a name for herself in Over Fence classes. “She has her Superior in Hunter Under Saddle, and she’s the only horse to have won the 2-Year-Old, 3-Year-Old, and Maturity Hunter Under Saddle, back-to-back at the Tom Powers Futurity. She has a herd of NSBA trophies and over 30 points in Performance Halter.”
Following their win in Progressive Working Hunter, Jerry and June will show in the Senior Hunter Hack finals tomorrow.
“This was really exciting, because she’s the only horse Wayne has let me keep! I think, after 30 years, I can keep one. She is not for sale. She has quite a fan base among other horse trainers, so it’s very nice when your peers are happy for you.”
During his winner’s interview, Jerry showed his trademark sense of humor when he made a bid to AQHA that they perhaps should extend an invitation for June’s foal to compete at a future World Show, since it’s already a World Champion!
“Actually, the thing is that I went to Kentucky and to the Congress this year, so this foal already has between 30-40 points, so it should already have its ROM!”
“The truth is that I’ve done this with pregnant mares in the past and as long as you keep them fit and don’t work them into exhaustion, everything should be fine. This horse doesn’t need to be worked hard. There have been no problems, and we have her on a hormone supplement. Everything is good.”
Jerry explains how a fortuitous phone call, out of the blue, from the owners of the late stallion, Do You Have A Minute, has opened a new door, not only for June, but for other AQHA breeders of Hunter mares. “Everybody in the industry was fairly certain that there was no semen left. There had been a fairly large amount that was frozen at a breeding farm in Kentucky, but somehow the liquid nitrogen tank went out and it was destroyed. For the past four years or so, since he’s been gone, everybody assumed there was none left. Then, this past March, I received a call from his owners.”
“I’ve ridden a lot of Do You Have A Minute foals, and I get along with them very well. I’d spoken to the owners in the past, but it had been a few years. They called me, quite out of the blue, and she explained that there was some frozen semen at Select Breeders Southwest in Texas. They had been paying the storage on the balance for the past four years and had never used any of it. So, she offered it to me, and I have all the semen that is available.”
Because several foals by this bloodline have done so well in recent years, Jerry believes we may see a resurgence. “We did breed three mares this year and, now that the word has gone out a little bit, some of the best mares in the Jumping part of our industry have already committed to breed to him next year. I’m not going to sell a lot of it, but I will sell some.”
The Reserve Champion in the Progressive Working Hunter was Hannah Bedwell with Desert Party. Third was Chuck Briggs with Up Up And A Bay. Fourth was Paula Pray with Inescapably Mine. Fifth was Lee Paul Shinn with Metallic Iron. Sixth was Taylor Douglas with Hail Yes Im Hot. Seventh was Chuck Briggs with Blameitonthe Alcohol. Eighth was Jenny Welhouse with Naturally Immortal. Ninth was David Miller with Al Be Your Sweet Art. Tenth was Tayler Adams with Little Mr Bigshot.
