Steven Hart is well reknowned in Australia as a horseman and for the horsemanship clinics he conducts throughout the country. He has a huge following within the industry for the advice given and the dedication he exhibits to his many students.
Steven also travels to the US each year to conduct horsemanship clinics in various locations in Texas. Every visit he goes out of his way to visit Beechfork Ranch in Weatherford to catch up with renowned trainer Geoffrey “Spud” Sheehan and check out their outstanding Quarter Horse broodmares and stallions. These horses are bred from some of the finest performance stallions in the industry. This is a great way for Steven to stay totally up to date with what is happening in the US and gives him the first hand advantage through seeing the new young stock in the flesh and how they are working before they reach the competition pen.
Geoffrey Sheehan is originally from Tumut in NSW and is always interested in what is happening back home. He also always has a string of beautiful horses ready for competition.
In 2018, Steven got to view The Metallist working as a young two year old colt, and decided immediately to take him home. Geoffrey agreed he would be an incredible addition to the Australian genetic pool. He had broken him in and started preparing him for the NCHA cutting futurity. The young colt was showing all the attributes Steven had been looking for and more. Great length of rein, length of back, hocks set well underneath himself, short pasterns, and the ability to travel in the ground.
In addition to his physical attributes his absolute blue ribbon pedigree chart demands attention from the most astute geneticists. The Metallist, born on 28 February, 2016 at Beechfork Ranch, is by Metallic Cat out of Moms Stylish Pepto.
His sire, Metallic Cat is the beautiful red roan stallion by High Brow Cat out of Chers Shadow who continues to set new records as a sire of champions. He recently acquired the Equi-Stat $30 million Leading Sire status and is the youngest stallion in the history of the industry to pass the milestone in offspring earnings.
The Metallist’s dam, Moms Stylish Pepto, is a blue roan mare by Peptoboonsmal. She was the top producing dam for 2019, placing first on the Equi-Stat all industry cutting, reining and reined cow horse dam chart. This statistic alone speaks volumes for her contribution to the performance horse competition ranks.
The Metallist arrived in Sydney on the 5th July 2018 looking as good as the day he left Texas and once home at Googong Steven began preparing him for the Campdraft season. Spud, (The Metallist’s stable name) took to the new sport like he was born for it. He was soft and calm from the beginning and loves to chase the bison. Unfortunately Covid has prevented any further career developments but he continues to develop and impress Steven in his everyday work.
His first crop of foals started hitting the ground just before Christmas 2019 into one of the worst bushfire seasons ever experienced in Australia, with the Canberra region being right in the thick of it. Certainly a baptism by fire for these beautiful youngsters. All are displaying the great confirmation traits of their father and have inherited his length of rein and length of back.
The Metallist is standing in at Googong NSW, 10kms outside of Canberra, the Nations Capital.
