"Rustler" Skip Domino

Registered Appaloosa Gelding born April 28, 1973.

Everyone knows Horsemanship By Respect, Inc. by our logo picture of an "Appy in Buckets". I'm asked about that silly photo all the time. Since this was an outstanding horse it is only right to have a page in his honor.

ApPALoosa = pal in every horse!!!
Sire: Arnold's Skipper's Domino goes back to Double Six Domino {Top Appaloosa Sire}
Dam: Rustler Rita out of Rustler Bill {Top Appaloosa Sire}
Bought April 24, 1979 from Cletus Hulling, Inc. in Smithton, Illinois for $1,050.00 for my mother to show in Pleasure. With will a year or two of pleasure Rustler hate any clapping and was getting hotter in pleasure. Mom talked of selling him and had someone look at him for roping off of. Lucky for me mom didn't want to sell him to this person and we remembered that he had been shown in barrels as a 4-h horse.
I got to ride him to see if we could make a barrel horse out of him...well he made a barrel rider out of me since he new his stuff and LOVED it. I started showing him in Jr. Barrels in 1982 and was able to win 25+ High Point awards in Jr, Open, Ladies, & Senior Barrel Racing Classes up until 1989. {My office displays most of our trophies.} Including winning Ladies Barrels for W.H.S.C. {Walnut Hill Saddle Club} & M.C.S.C. {Marion County Saddle Club} for six straight years 1984-1989. In 1997 the I.W.H.S. & R.A {Illinois Western Horse Show & Racing Association} awarded a Certificate Of Achievement as Rustler was entered into the Speed Horse Hall of Fame for 1997&1998. As well as awards in Halter, English & Western Pleasure, Lead Line... Rustler was my best friend that I rode in parades, costume class, trail rode...

Since Rustler was an Appaloosa and I showed against men on Quarter Horses I was always getting harassed riding an appaloosa. But I'd get the last laugh when we'd bet their butts. LOL Anyone of them would have loved to have him, but would have had to colored him solid not to be seen on an appaloosa...
As you can see from the photos below we were a showing family with our SIX HORSE trailer. Yes when we pulled in people knew we had arrived. LOL
Plus had the honor of riding him at the Illinois State Registered Appaloosa Show in 1987. With just getting over an injured hind leg we took sixth out of over a dozen horses. If you've never seen the Appaloosa's barrel race we have not seen a real barrel race then. They run two horses at the same time!!! Poor Rustler was beside himself with all the barrels in the arena. You have two patterns and start in the middle of the arena...Horse against Horse...No timer...
With all the outstanding racing he did and he loved his job everyday his back legs would swell after a long weekend. I spook with a vet that said "if he'd stand in buckets for warm water with DMSO this would help". Will one day I had a crazy attack and was playing around and put all four into bucket. With camera in hand got the most priceless picture of him I could have ever took. Plus this was his true natural and respect to put up with anything crazy I got us into.

I was able to show Rustler twice in 1990 with winning a second & fifth place, before mom called me at work on June 6, 1990, and said Rustler down and you need to get home now. Rustler never was able to get to his feet and we had to use a neighbors stock trailer to haul him to the U of I laying down in the trailer. After many test and hanging in straps to help him stand, we got the news he would never be able to stand on his own again. The nervous system has exploded. Since than I have read articles on nervous system disease that sounds like what took him way to soon in a hateful way. So on June 7, 1990 I had to make the decide that no horse owner ever wants to be faced with is ending your best friends life.
For those of you that know Garth Brooks music the song "The Dance" say it all that helps we deal with this great loss. "I could have missed the pain, but I'd had to miss the dance" I would not have traded that dance for anything in the world!
So it is my pleasure with all the joy he brought to my life to be able to keep him alive with this silly picture I use as my logo for "Horsemanship by Respect".

"In Loving Memory to a friend who will never be forgotten"

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