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Published in the Paint Horse Journal (Jan 1997)

On their ranch in north-central Oregon, Chuck and Kay Simmelink have developed a potent line of Paints known as the "Barlinks"

by Frank Holmes

Barlink JK Suecash, a 1989 chestnut overo mare by Barlink Macho Man and out of Pesky Patti AQHA, is characteristic of the outstanding family of Paint show and breeding horses developed by Chuck and Kay Simmelink.

Chuck and Kay Simmelink of Madras, Oregon, have been in the Paint Horse business for more than 30 years. Horses bred by them and bearing the "Barlink" prefix before their names have appeared in show ring winner's circles since the mid-1970s.

They've appeared often enough to place the Oregon couple on 10 of the 16 APHA All-Time Leading Breeders Lists.

Despite their longevity in the business and an impressive string of show and breeding accomplishments, the Simmelinks have made few attempts to secure a spot for themselves in the limelight. Far from being a high-octane, headline-grabbing success story, theirs is instead one of a quiet, "back-page" journey to the top.

As is the case with a number of pioneer Paint breeders, the Simmelinks' entrance into the business came about quite by accident.

"Both Chuck and I come from 'horsey' backgrounds," Kay Simmelink said during a recent interview. "He grew up around horses on a farm in north-central Kansas, and I grew up around them here in north-central Oregon.

"Chuck moved here with his family when he was 18. His father had always wanted to own and run a sale barn, and when the opportunity to do that in Madras presented itself, he sold the farm in Kansas and moved his family out here-lock, stock and barrel.

"Due to our common interests, Chuck and I started attending local horse functions such as rodeos and saddle club events together shortly after he moved here. Then we began dating a little more seriously and wound up getting married in 1963.

One of the best of the Simmelink's early performance horses was a mare named My Tontime.

"We bought 'Tina,' as a 2-year-old in 1965," Kay said. "She was sired by Tonto's Time by Tonto Bars Gill and out of My Leo Nita by My Leo.

"Tina was a big, fancy mare who we sure had a lot of fun with. I ran barrels on her and Chuck cut cattle with her. She was good enough to win consistently in both events."

In time, the Simmelinks decided they wanted to get into the breeding end of the horse business. For a stallion, they returned to Chuck's home state and purchased a Quarter Horse named Limestone Louie.

"'Louie' was sired by Ace Of Limestone and was out of Wimpy's Eagle by Wimpy II," Chuck Simmelink said. "He came from a family of horses that I had grown up in close proximity to, and I knew them to be the kind of horses that could do a lot of things well.

"Louie's sire traced close to Leo, Question Mark and Oklahoma Star. His dam was a granddaughter of both Wimpy P-1 and Star Duster. These were good foundation horses who had proven their ability to sire good-looking horses that could perform.

"From the very beginning, this is what Kay and I set out to breed."

Ace Of Limestone was a full brother to Rondo Leo. Rondo Leo, in turn, was the sire of Mr. Gunsmoke. As the Simmelinks soon found out, this was a family of Quarter Horses that was pre-disposed to produce excessive white.

"Louie was a chestnut with four stockings and a strip on his face," Kay said. "My Tontime had three stockings and a bald face. When we bred the two in 1975, we got the nicest Paint filly you could ever hope for.

"We named her Mistake Bar Link. The 'Mistake' part of her name came because that was what we considered her to be. The 'Bar' came from the Three Bars (TB) breeding that we were trying to feature at the time, and the 'Link' came from the last part of our last name."

Mistake Bar Link became the first of what would be a long line of Paints that the Simmelinks would breed and register. Although they were pleased with their cropout filly in every respect, they wound up selling her at an early age.

"Because of Chuck's background in the sale barn business, we bought and sold a lot of horses during the 1960s and 1970s," Kay said. "In the spring of 1976 we consigned a nice roan filly by Louie to the Hermiston, Oregon, horse sale.

"Sonny Thomison of Wichita, Kansas, bought the filly, and asked if we had any more like her at home. I told him that we had one, but that he probably wouldn't be interested in her because she was a Paint.

"To make a long story short, he was interested anyway, and bought 'Mistake,' sight unseen. I never did want to sell the filly, but she went on to become a National Champion halter and performance horse, and one of the breed's top producers.

"More importantly, she made Paint breeders out of us."

Encouraged by the quality of their first Paint, and the ready market that seemed to exist for horses of her type and color, the Simmelinks decided to actually try to breed a Paint.

"We didn't know very much about Paints back then," Kay said. "We asked around about what Paint stallions might exist in our area that we could breed to.

"Someone told us about Al Hooper of Fallon, Nevada, and his stallion, Our Sir Prize. We called him up and booked Tina over the phone. She foaled a sorrel overo filly the following spring. "

Registered as Prize's Bar Link, the filly became the Simmelink's first Paint show horse, and like her older half-sister, one of the breed's premier producers.

Prize's Bar Link, a 1977 sorrel overo mare, was sired by APHA Supreme Champion Our Sir Prize and is out of My Tontime. She was the Simmelinks' first attempt at actually breeding for a Paint. She was also their first Grand Champion Paint show horse, and the dam of Barlink Macho Man.

"We showed 'Prize' lightly as a 2-year-old and she earned 21 halter points," Kay noted. "Her biggest contribution to our program, though, was not in the show ring but as a producer."

By the time Prize's Bar Link was relegated to the broodmare band, Limestone Louie had been replaced by Tuffys Two Spades AQHA, a young stallion who the Simmelinks felt had what it would take to get their Paint program off on the right foot.

"We bought 'Tuffy' as a yearling in 1978 from Sonny Tomison," Chuck said. "We scoured the country for just the right stallion to cross on Tina, Prize, and the other mares that we had put together by this time.

"We finally settled on Tuffy due to the fact that, in addition to his good conformation, disposition and breeding, he had one of the greatest mares that I've ever seen for a mama.

"Mares have always been important to us."

Tuffys Two Spades, by Tardy's Tuffy I and out of Jay Kay Sue Cash by Silver Cash, did indeed cross well with the Simmelink's mares.

Bred to Prize's Bar Link seven times, he sired four overos and three Breeding Stock foals. Three of the colored foals were shown, and two of those went on to earn National Championships. At the 1984 National Show in Oklahoma City, Prize became a National Champion herself when she won the Produce of Dam class.

Tuffys Two Spades also proved to be a top sire when bred to Prize's Breeding Stock full sister, Miss Sizzle Chick. Bred to her six times, he sired four overos and two solids. Three of the four colored foals were shown, and one went on to become a World Champion.

Although he was never bred heavily, "Tuffy" has had a consistently positive impact on the Simmelink breeding program, and continues to stand at the ranch to this day. APHA records reveal that, with 15 foal crops on the ground, he has sired 79 registered horses. Twenty-one of those are performers who have earned 1,663 halter and 2,171 performance points in Open, Youth and Amateur competition.

They have also earned five APHA Championships, 20 Superiors and 63 Registers of Merit.

The greatest contribution that Tuffy made to the Simmelink breeding program came in 1982, when he sired Barlink Macho Man.

"'Macho' was Prize's second foal," Kay said. "He was our first 'big league' show horse and sire. Time has proven that breeding him was the most defining moment in our Paint breeding history."

Shown at halter as a weanling, yearling and 2-year-old, Macho amassed 52 Grands, 30 Reserves, 266 Open points, and two National Championships. In 1984 he was the APHA Year-End Open Honor Roll Halter Stallion.

Barlink Macho Man is credited by his breeders as being the hallmark sire of the "Barlink" family of Paints. The 1995 APHA Annual Performance Review showed him to be third on the list of Lifetime Leading Halter Sires. He also appears on five additional Lifetime Leading Sires lists.

"As a show horse, Macho won virtually every top show in the nation," Chuck said. "As a sire, he has been equally successful.

"Having grown up around horses," he continued, "and having been involved in the breeding, raising, training and showing of them for the past three decades, I am of the firm opinion that it is still possible to breed good-looking animals that can perform.

"In other words, I don't think that a horse has to be ugly to ride well. Macho has backed me up on this over the years."

APHA records show that Barlink Macho Man has sired 281 registered foals, of which 103 are performers. They have accumulated 7,812 halter and 3,776 performance points in Open, Youth and Amateur competition.

In World Show competition the Machos have earned 13 Championships and 10 Reserves. In addition, they have earned 14 APHA Championships, 70 Superiors and 157 ROMs.

According to Kay Simmelink, they have also picked up a very loyal regional-based following over the years.

"Chuck, our son Kelly, and our daughter Michele do all of the training and showing of the Bar Links," she said. "That leaves me to handle the everyday operation of the ranch while they're away, and that includes the breeding.

"Both Tuffy and Macho have quiet, kind personalities. They have never, in all of the years that I've handled them, ever given me any serious problems.

"Their dispositions," she added, "are directly responsible for the success that their offspring have had as family show horses.

"The majority of the show horses that we sell go into the hands of people here in the Northwest who train, fit and condition their own show horses. The personalities of the Tuffys and the Machos make them ideal candidates for this type of environment."

Chuck agreed.

"In many ways, our family and our Paint program are representative of the state of the industry in the Northwest," he said.

"I will be the first to admit that we have been involved with Paints for a considerable length of time, and have enjoyed our share of success over the years. But we are still in it on a family level.

"We run this operation totally by ourselves. We do our own breeding, training, showing and promoting. And we do it all on a 'working man's' budget.

"A lot of the people who we sell our horses to are in the same boat as we are. And, at the risk of being redundant, I feel that this is the main reason that our horses have attained the level of popularity that they have in this part of the country.

"We try to breed them to be pretty, and we try to breed them to be functional. But we absolutely have to breed them to be compatible with the type of people who want to take them home and show them basically by themselves.

"I sure feel that Tuffy and Macho have done their share in consistently providing us with this type of horse."

As great an impact as the Tuffys Two Spades/Barlink Macho Man line has had on the Simmelink Farm breeding program, it is by no means all there is to it.

Always on the lookout for stallions that they felt had things to offer their program, the Simmelinks first added Sonnys Impress and then Barlnk Moneybroker to their stud roster.

"Sonnys Impress was a 1980 sorrel Breeding Stock horse sired by Sonny Dee Bar AQHA and out of Impressive Sweet AQHA by Impressive," Chuck said. "We bought him in 1982 and used him for four years or so. He didn't cross as well with our mares as we had hoped he might, but he did sire some top show horses for us and we have a number of his daughters in our broodmare band.

" 'Moneybroker' is a 1991 sorrel cropout stallion sired by The Money Broker and out of Impress The Boys, a blue-eyed daughter of Impressive. He came to us inside his dam, and we've bred some of our mares to him during the past few years. Again, he hasn't sired exactly what we're looking for, so we sold him this year."

As alluded to earlier, much thought has been put into assembling the farm's broodmare band. Far from being what might be termed "fad-breeders," the Simmelinks have studied their lessons over the years and arrived at a general consensus of the mare lines and types that cross best with their stallions.

"Our take on mares is probably a little different than most Paint breeders," Kay said. "When we first began assembling our broodmare band, Three Bars (TB) was the number one sire and Leo AQHA was the number one broodmare sire.

"There were a lot of good mares in this country of this breeding, and they were what we anchored our breeding program on. My Tontime was bred this way, as was my other all-time favorite mare, Nicolette Bar.

"'Nicky,' who was sired by Buddy Leo and was out of Tonto's Time Bar by Tonto's Time, produced seven foals for us," Kay continued. "Five of them were shown, and they earned close to 5,700 halter and performance points.

"Barlink Minx, her 1986 foal sired by Sonnys Impress, was one of our all-time great show mares. She's now a member of our broodmare band, and if her first foals are any indication, she's going to be every bit as good a producer as she was a show horse.

"We just recently lost both Tina and Nicky, and it was almost as if we'd lost two members of our immediate family."

Other mare lines that the Simmelinks have found to be especially productive when crossed on their stallions include those tracing close to Silver Cash, a Hank Wiescamp-bred horse, and Showdown, a King Ranch product.

"Tuffy is out of a mare of Silver Cash and Showdown breeding, and we have found that Macho works especially well with mares that are bred this same way," Kay said. "Consequently, we've scoured the country looking for Silver Cash and Showdown-bred broodmares. Unfortunately, they are getting tougher to find."

Luckily for the Simmelinks, they were able to locate and purchase Pesky Patti, a 1982 sorrel Quarter Horse mare of Silver Cash, Showdown and Aledo Bar bloodlines to add to their mare band.

She produced but one foal for the Oregon couple, but that foal, a 1989 chestnut overo filly sired by Macho and registered as Bar Link JK Suecash, is the epitome of what the Simmelink breeding program stands for.

"We knew we had a winner with 'Suzie' from the first minute that we laid eyes on her," said Kay. "She reminded us of Macho when he was born, only she was better.

"During the course of her seven-year show career, every member of our family has shown her.

"Chuck showed her in the Open division to 113 Grands and 66 Reserves at halter. She has a total of 835 Open halter and 77 Open performance points. She also qualified for her Open APHA Championship and Superiors in Halter and Western Pleasure.

"Michele has shown Suzie in Youth competition and won the World with her in 1992. They also earned 340 halter points, 123 performance points, and Superiors in Youth Mares, Youth Showmanship and Youth Western Pleasure.

"As Michele's Amateur horse, Suzie has earned her APHA Amateur Championship and Superiors in Halter, Showmanship and Western Pleasure.

"Even Kelly and I got into the act with Suzie," Kay continued. "We both showed her in Amateur halter competition and we both earned Superiors with her.

"All told, Suzie has amassed 909 halter and performance points in Amateur competition.

"We retired her in 1995 and bred her to Moneybroker in 1996. If she lives up to her family's reputation, we ought to be in store for a real barnburner come next spring."

As much success as the Simmelinks have had over the years with their home-bred family of horses, they are not content to rest on their laurels.

"We run around 30 mares in our broodmare band," Chuck said, "and we are constantly evaluating it and doing whatever we can to make it better.

"Along with our mares of Tonto Bars Gill, Silver Cash and Showdown breeding, and our young daughters of Tuffy and Macho, we have acquired daughters of Impressive, Mr. Impressit, Obvious Conclusion, Skip Light Lee, and other top halter and performance sires.

"We have recently added GBF Pretty Coosa AQHA, a 1991 sorrel stallion by Coosa and out of Skips Lil Brick by Skip's Brick, to our stallion roster. We picked him specifically to cross on our Macho daughters, and we have high hopes for what he'll add to our program."

Other than constantly trying to improve the quality of their breeding herd, the Simmelink plan for the future of the Barlink Paints calls for basically more of what has worked for them in the past.

"We subscribe to the old adage that says 'if it's not broke, don't fix it,' " Chuck said. "We are basically breeding the type of horse that we and our customers prefer.

"And, unless we win the lottery, we'll go about training, showing and promoting them in the same manner as we have in the past.

"Not that we're not looking to improve on what were doing," he added. "As fast as the Paint industry is growing, if you stand still for too long you're going to get run over.

"But, looking back, we're pleased with what we've accomplished. We've bred a few good horses and met a lot of good people.

"We don't claim to have a very fancy formula for what we do, but it's one that works, so we'll just keep using it."

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