Loping Toward Legacy – Masterson Farms
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34 – May/June, 2025
By Elizabeth Arnold
Building a Legacy
The results of that commitment speak for themselves. In 2022, RL Best of Sudden topped AQHA’s and NSBA’s All Time Leading Sires list, a phenomenal accomplishment that placed him in the company of AQHA royalty. The Lopin Machine was named AQHA’s number two leading western pleasure sire for 2023. He was also the Super Sires Stallion of the Year for three consecutive years from 2021-2023.
Ken and Marilyn’s stories began as so many stories in the horse industry do—with fathers who loved horses. “We both grew up with horses,” says Ken. “Marilyn’s father was a Saddlebred breeder and trainer, and my father owned Saddlebreds as well.” When Ken’s father passed away, he committed to caring for his horses. “I thought that if I was caring for my dad’s retired Saddlebreds, I might as well have a horse I could ride. I knew there had to be a market for nice riding horses,” Ken shares.
Their search led them to AQHA’s western pleasure arena. “The pleasure was a very popular class at the time. We decided early on that breeding for that discipline would be the best way to get into the industry,” Ken says. Not long after, Zippos Sheik was purchased. “He won every 2-year-old futurity he entered,” says Ken. The stunning sorrel stallion by Zippo Pine Bar and out of Sheik’s Cover earned multiple Congress Top Ten placings. His foals earned more than 6,700 AQHA points and accumulated close to $400,000 in lifetime earnings.
In 2006, the Masterson’s purchased RL Best of Sudden. The 2002 bay stallion is by A Sudden Impulse and out of Zip N Therapy. The young, up-and-coming stallion wowed audiences early in his career when he won the 2004 Reichert Celebration Two-Year-Old Western Pleasure $100,000 Open Challenge. Ken describes him as having a star quality from the very beginning. His accomplishments as a show horse and breeding sire are the stuff of legend. RL has solidified his place in AQHA history with his offspring earning more than $6,000,000 and earning over 180,000 AQHA points.
2012 stallion The Lopin Machine also found success early in his show career, winning the Congress 2-Year-Old Masters Western Pleasure in 2014. The Mastersons purchased the talented young stallion–who is by A Good Machine and out of the great mare Hot Lopin Louise–in 2018. Since then, his offspring have routinely topped the judge’s cards in multiple disciplines placing The Lopin Machine atop the Leading Sires lists year after year.
The Times They Are a Changin’
