WELCOME TO SILVERADO'S COLT COMPANY
Some might say, in that great year of 1958 (Conway Twitty's "It's Only Make Believe") I was born on the back of a horse. Memories as far back as four-years-old, has me waving at my parents from the back of the neighbor's horse as they drove off in the rain, leaving me to my glory of circling the corrals until their return. As a youth, I couldn't wait to get off the school bus, from what I thought at the time was was a huge waste of my time...(school). My main concern was grounded more closely to the idea of getting out to the barn, bridling up my horse and best friend, "Scotty." & riding bareback across the prairies for hours and hours together. My days at school were filled with day dreams of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. Then came adulthood and the dreams stopped or did they? An injury to my back had and has made it impossible to ride anymore but my love for horses never diminished and as the song say's ....

"The Dream Never Dies, Just The Dreamer"
Becoming A Breeder!
The dream of owning horses started again around 1995, when me and my family lived in Urban Saskatchewan (City of Saskatoon), there was a rural acreage development created, called Casa Rio. At the time we had no economic means of buying into this project but on a weekly basis my wife, Cindy and I would throw the family into our SUV and tour the project, all the while, stopping along the side of the road and getting out with the family and petting horses across the fence. We watched as the development grew into beautiful homes, stables and white rail fences, then stocked with horses (mainly APHA horses) so for sure our initial interest was in paints.

While still living in the city, I joined the APHA, reading and researching my way to the basic principles and understandings of the horse biz, sometimes being the brunt of friendly ridicule and jokes from friends and family since we didn't even own a horse yet, but mostly it was all in fun. However in 2000, we purchased 17 acres in the project known as Casa Rio, all the while still knowing though, that financially, building a home & barn on this land was a stretch for us, let alone fencing, building shelters, etc.

Still determined to own horses we pursued another piece of land (100 acres) about 12 minutes from Saskatoon and set out to sell the land at Casa Rio. We sold the first piece, bought the second and created our own development, called Silverado Estates. Bound and determined to own horses, I soon found out that starting our own subdivision had its problems. So many start up costs once again put owning horses on the back burner. 

In 2003 however, we finally purchased our first AQHA filly, sired by "Chex That Out" & out of a "Solanos Peppy San" NRHA money earning mare. An agreement was made to purchase this filly for 50% down and the remaining balance in the spring of 2004. Purchasing that first filly was the best thing we ever did even though we had no where to house this filly yet, it gave us the opportunity to quite simply, start a program.By spring of 2004 we purchased a 60' round pen, erected it beside our house, which would then become home for our new "Chex That Out" filly. As we didn't even a horse trailer yet, we walked the filly home to Silverado Estates, all the while thinking that we were finally in the horse business.
Although we no longer own that little AQHA filly, she was a definite positive start for our program which is currently home in Carberry MB Canada. We purchased this gorgeous 54 acre parcel in the heart of Manitoba in 2007 and proceeded to erect a home, shelters, fencing etc. We have future plans to build a foaling stable and stallion Barn to house our broodmare band which consists of own daughters of Wimpys Little Step, Nu Chex To Cash, Shining Spark, Genuine Doc, Westcoast Whiz & two full sisters of Topsail Whiz. One could say that we put the horses in front of the cart, as we believed in the power of the mares for our future & not buildings.

Silverado Colt Company mares are carefully selected with the main criteria being that they are of sound minds and disposition. Being that we are city folk gone country, we want mares that we can handle without any worry of injury and we have them! Along with disposition, other criteria is dependent on the eye. We want horses that are sound conformation wise, which we accomplished 10 fold with each and every one. As well as disposition and conformation, their lineage and papers need to read like a who's who of the Reining and Performance Horse industry which again we firmly believe we have accomplished.

Finally the biggest decision of all, whether or not all our mares had to be performers and producers. On this subject, a very well know stallion owner/lady from Texas, took some of her valuable time one afternoon and gave us some very sound advice, noting that, "It is equally or more important, that a mare is a producer of performers as apposed having a great show record herself".  Meaning .... that not all mares purchased would have to have big-time show records, but a belief that they could produce performers would be a must.

On that advice we set out to purchase our broodmare band with some of them being great NRHA earners and producers and some of which we will have to prove their offspring in the future. We then carefully selected to breed these mares to proven stallions who were or are incredible athletes themselves. This past year of 2010, seen more incredible growth here @ Silverado with the purchase of an All-Time Leading NRHA Sire "Jac Daniels Neat" ("Hollywood Jac 86" x "Lady Bee Great" by Great Pine") Please refer to the Stallion Page.

I write the above with these thoughts in mind .... As with any new business venture, there have been ups & downs with both good times & bad, friends made & friends lost, money made & money lost, shows won & shows lost, deals made & deals lost, which has made it very difficult @ times to stay focused on exactly what drew you to the biz in the first place & then .... that first foal of the year hits the ground & all is put back in perspective. We do it first & foremost because we LOVE horses and if for no other reason, that is enough!! Along with, comes the satisfaction of raising fine reining horses that in the future, through our loyal clients, will go on to fill arenas throughout Canada & right on into the Oklahoma City's NRHA Futurity for championship runs, all the while representing Silverado bred & raised horses.

I wish to dedicate this site to my wife and partner of 30 years, Cindy and to our wonderful children, Presley and Aimee Smith, Priscilla and Jordan Dunlop, Crystal Smith and the loves of our life, our grandchildren Kendrah, Cole & Dylan all without whom this dream would cease to exist.
 
We invite all who are shopping for their next performance horse prospect to search our site or stop by anytime to see what's available!


Thank You,
Kevin & Cindy Smith @ SCC