Page 34 - LQHBA 2018 Membership Directory

index who earned $200,387, with a stakes record of five wins, five seconds and five thirds. Candy Man Hemp earned $189,180 with a record that included two stakes wins. Hog Heaven and Plunder Bayou were also stakes winners whose earnings exceeded the $100,000 mark.
Louisiana horseman Glenn Fontenot had a steadfast friendship with W. A. Darling which grew deeper when they agreed to a partnership on the breeding of Hemp Meyers.
“I saw W.A. at the races at Delta; he told me he had heard that I had lost my stallion,” recalled Fontenot. “He offered me a share of a horse he was considering sending to stud, but I told him that the stallion I wanted was Hemp Meyers.”
Fontenot cited Hempen as a stallion and Miss Fancy Meyers as a good mare. But he also saw talent in Hemp Meyers as a runner.
“He broke his maiden in trials for the All American Futurity,” said Fontenot. “I liked that about him!”
The two men embarked upon a 50-50 partnership and Hemp Meyers stood stud on Fontenot’s farm in Ville Platte. In his first year, 128 mares were bred to Hemp Meyers with an impressive 118 in foal.
“He was a natural and the easiest stallion I ever collected,” said Fontenot.
In 1982, Fontenot bred his mare Johnnie’s Flash to Hemp Meyers. A strapping filly was born at around 2:00 am on February 27, 1983. He remembers that W. A. stopped by the next morning, took one look at the filly and thought she was two weeks old. That filly was Flashy Hemp, who went on to win 12 of her 20 starts, earning $283,632. The Flashy Hemp Stakes at Delta Downs is run in April, named in honor of the champion mare.
Fontenot told Darling that Hemp Meyers was no longer producing semen when he turned 30. Darling simply responded by asking that the prolific stallion did not suffer. He died at 31, but Fontenot had a difficult time telling W.A. that Hemp Meyers had passed.
“W. A. and I were very close,” stated Fontenot. “I waited about a month before I broke the news.”
W.A. Darling died at the age of 90 in 2011. He was inducted into the LQHBA Hall of Fame last year. His daughter Karen carries on the racing and breeding business as manager of Darling Farms, LLC, the family’s 5.26-acre property in Opelousas.
“Hemp Meyers was almost like the first grandchild for my dad,” added Falgoust. “He was crazy about that horse!”
LQHBA HALL oF FAMe
On April 9, 2016, Leverne perry and Claude and Bessie Lea Jeane, oh Black Magic, rocket’s Magic and royal Bushwhacker were inducted into the Louisiana Quarter
Horse Breeders Association (LQHBA) inaugural Hall of Fame. The ceremony was held in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the association.
Prominent Louisiana Quarter Horse breeders and owners, Lee Berwick and W.A. Darling were feted in 2017 along with equine champions Vicki Meyers, Streakin La Jolla and Heisajoy.
“Our board of directors spend considerable time in selecting individuals and racing champions for the LQHBA Hall of Fame,” stated Tony Patterson, LQHBA executive director. “We are looking forward to saluting John Soileau and Hemp Meyers in this year’s class. Our goal is to ensure that each inductee is celebrated for the significant role they have played in Louisiana breeding and racing.”
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