Page 77 - March 2016

Hired on as a
farm hand, Marty eventually became farm manager of the Shebester Stallion Station where he worked with 2-Time Champion Bugs Alive In 75.
Finally, Roger suggested that Marty go out on his own. “I found this ranch in the Wynnewood area, bought it in 1994 and developed it, and that’s where we’re at now,” Marty says.
Blending Families
Shalia was raised in the panhandle on the Sutherland Ranch, which has been in her family since 1893. “I attended my first rodeo with my daddy when I was 11 days old,” she says, also recalling her youth when she yearned to accompany him on their horse-drawn wagon. “I’d beg to go with him every morning, and he’d stick me down between the hay to keep me warm,” she adds fondly.
When she was 9, they started showing horses. Her dad showed reining and cutting horses for the public, and at age 10, Shalia won her first saddle. “When I got to be about 14, I told my dad I wanted to go faster,” she says. So they bought her a gray Thoroughbred, whom she called Chief, for $250, and Shalia paid her way through college by rodeoing on him.
It was the girl on the gray horse that first caught Marty’s attention, even before college. But although they were both students at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, just over 40 miles northwest of Marty’s childhood home in Helena, they officially met while participating in rodeo and other school events. “She played basketball and I ran track and we had a lot of classes together,” Marty says.
Marty and Shalia went their separate ways after college, both marrying others, but later blended their families — four boys and a
girl. A teacher and coach, Shalia remained
in Kingfisher for their first married year — a two-hour drive. “I’d had a group of girls since seventh grade who were seniors then, so I stayed in Kingfisher and came down here on the weekends,” she says. “We did win the state tournament that year in basketball, and then I resigned. I taught here for five years and since I had a minor in banking and accounting, I got a part-time job at the bank and kept the books for MP Horses and Sutherland Ranch. It’s a full-time job now, keeping it all straight!”
A Good Overseer
Although the duties shift from season to season and among Marty and Shalia’s various areas of operation, a “typical” day may see them tending to exercise and feed schedules when the yearlings start arriving in May — while still
After Shebester
Stallion Station closed, Marty moved to Lazy E Ranch where he worked with World Champion,/ World Champion sire Special Effort, World Champion,/World Champion sire Easy Jet, and World Champion sire Strawfly Special, which was his first horse to bring $100,000.
SPEEDHORSE, March 2016 75
Easy Jet
Bugs Alive in 75
Special Effort
Strawfly Special