Page 84 - June 2021

And Along Came Smokin
Breeder/owner Margo Schares enjoyed modest
success until Smokin Corona hit the ground by Diane Rice
Breeding one to three mares a year can be a satisfying endeavor, but with those small numbers and the several-years wait between
breeding and proving, progress can be hard to feel. Yet with knowhow, passion and a vision, great things can come from small numbers.
Colorado breeder and owner Margo Schares is a testament to the payoff gained from passion, persistence, dedication, knowledge, study and constant re-evaluation. Since 1998, she and her late husband, Clete, built a breeding program that in the year 2000 produced Smokin Corona, by Corona Cartel and out of the Rocket Wrangler daughter Julies Jem.
“Smokin Corona is what I’d call my foundation mare,” says Margo. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without her. She’s 21 now and she’s had 10 or 12 foals. All have run; all
of them.” Among those successful runners were her good broodmare Midori N Smoke, foaled in 2011, and Three Olives N Smoke two years later.
GROWING UP WITH HORSES
Margo, the oldest of four children born to Harold and Rosella Webster in Fort Collins, Colorado, grew up with what you might call “a rural three Rs”: ranching, rodeo, and racing.
In addition to being the second-largest
sheep feeder in the world (behind the late TV personality Art Linkletter’s Australia operation), Margo’s Grandfather Webster had trotters and pacers. “He ran them at the park after church on Sundays,” Margo says. “My grandmother had a free [unhobbled] pacer and after the war, when
I was quite young, she’d go out to the farms once a week and get her milk and her eggs and
Midori N Smoke
Margo’s foundation mare Smokin Corona (right) is the
dam of...
Three Olives N Smoke
Smokin Brown Eyes
82 SPEEDHORSE June 2021
© Coady Photography © Coady Photography
© Coady Photography