Page 27 - December 2017

I married Jim and the horses. We’ve been married almost 40 years.”
Life for Hotwiredotcom began much
like it does for other foals, but the Wheelers noticed something different about him. “When Hotwiredotcom was a baby, he ran all the time,” Shirley said. “Every time you would look out in the pasture with the other colts, he would be the one running. We both commented on how he ran all the time. He acted like he really liked it.
“He wasn’t a very pretty baby when he was born,” she added. “Kind’ve an ugly duckling. As a matter of fact, Jim tried to sell him for $3,500, and everybody looked at the other horses because they were prettier and better looking. They liked the other ones and so, we kept taking him to the trainer. The more the trainer worked with him, the better he started looking and doing. I guess you could say he ended up being the goose that laid a golden egg for us.”
The pedigree of Hotwiredotcom has its beginning with Jim Wheeler and his lifelong love of horse racing. “I started my life out in western Oklahoma right on the Texas line,” Jim said. “I was riding horses when I was in the fifth grade at the bush tracks like Stroud, Blackwell and Newkirk. Me and the saddle weighed something like 56 pounds. I’ve been around it all my life and I will be in it till I can’t get up and get out of the house.
“My dad had always had horses and when he died, I went to the estate sale and bought an old mare that had produced two or three pretty nice short runnin’ Thoroughbred colts,” he continued. “I brought her home and bred her to Kitaman. I started with her. That mare was Emma W.
“I have had this same bunch since then and Emma W is buried out here. Her daughter is buried out here and her granddaughter is buried out here.”
Emma W is the foundation mare of the Wheeler breeding program, and her family
has had their own success in the Speedhorse Triple Crown Series. The mare, who was foaled in 1959, is by Lillolkid and out of Emma Sue by Breathing Time. The AQHA credits her with two official starts with one second and earnings of $311.
The AQHA produce record for Emma W shows that she has four foals, three of them Thoroughbred and one Quarter Horse. Her Quarter Horse foal, Kita Wheeler, had one win in six starts and is the dam of 14 foals, including two stakes winners. Kita Wheeler’s leading money earner is Flying Arky, winner of the 1984 Kansas Futurity.
Kita Wheeler was also the dam of one Paint filly, Kickin Chicken. This filly had one win in six starts and $4,415 in earnings. Kickin Chicken has produced seven foals/ starters, including APHA Champions Eye Opening Chick and Kickin Texas.
Game Chicken, a daughter of Kickin Chicken, with two wins and earnings of $19,005, is the dam of six starters and three Champions, including 2-time APHA World Champion/6-time APHA Champion/2-time APHA Honor Roll Gelding Flashthechicks ($315,010), winner of the 2011 Speedhorse Graham Paint & Appaloosa Futurity-G1 at Remington Park; APHA World Champion/2- time APHA Champion and Solid Paint Honor Roll Gelding Imflashinthechicks ($176,707), winner of the 2013 Speedhorse Paint & Appaloosa Futurity-G1 at Tulsa Fair Meadows; and 4-time APHA Champion Imachickenkicker ($144,334), winner of the 2012 Speedhorse Lone Star Paint & Appaloosa Futurity-G1. Imflashinthechicks was named the 2013 Speedhorse Paint & Appaloosa Triple Crown High-Point Champion.
Emma W may have been the foundation of the Wheeler breeding program, but another mare is also making her presence felt in this breeding program. Her name is Mini Rumors. “Mini Rumors is a Thoroughbred
Game Chicken, a daughter of Kickin Chicken, has produced . . .
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Champion and 2-time APHA Honor Roll Gelding Flashthechicks, winner of the 2011 Speedhorse Graham Paint & Appaloosa Futurity-G1.
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Emma W, the foundation mare of the Wheeler breeding program, is the dam of Kita Wheeler, the dam of Kicken Chicken, who has produced the likes of . . .
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SPEEDLINES
Kellie Johnston: Coady Photography
Dustin Orona Photography Sandra Beck: Coady Photography Dustin Orona Photography