Time, and the burning desire to ride nice horses, has allowed us to develop our own start to finish program here at the farm. We have evolved to a point where we love to show what we have raised as products of our stallion Three Dimension Zip.

The horse that initially got the program started was a stallion called Frosty Zipper. "Doug" as we called him, was a 16 HH sorrel who, as a three-year-old, earned his Superior in Western Pleasure and placed 7th in the Millers Ltd 3-year-old Hunter Under Saddle Futurity at the American Quarter Horse Congress. It was quite an accomplishment for a superior Western Pleasure horse! Frosty Zipper went on to breed mares here at the farm and sired a Reserve World Champion, multiple Superior offspring and numerous Futurity champions.

After his untimely death we were forced to make a decision as to whether we wanted to shut down our breeding operation or continue with it in a new direction, with a renewed committment. We decided to continue and thus began the arduous search for a new replacement stallion.

Over the next 45 days we had received many videos of young stallions and several of these caught our attention. Within no time, a trip was planned to the United Sates and we left the kids to plan a hurried road trip across the Northern States. We had seen most of the stallions within the first 4 or 5 days and by that time we were tired and wanted to go home. We missed the kids and they missed us and so we phoned to let them know we were coming back. When we talked to Lindsay she wanted to know if we had found anything and when we disappointedly said "no" her reply was "Did you see the blue horse?" We said that because he was in Texas we didn't have enough time to go down there and back during this short trip and that we would probably go in November during the World Championship Show. We had really liked the video on "the blue horse" but Lindsay was so taken by him that she insisted that we not come home until we had seen him!

"The blue horse" was Three Dimension Zip. On the video that Tommy and Dale Parker had sent us he was so black he looked blue and since we couldn't always remember his name we simply referred to him as "the blue horse". He caught our attention immediately but little did we know that Lindsay was awed by him! Well, we turned the truck around and headed for Texas. The minute Tommy pulled him out of the stall we knew this "blue horse" was the horse for us.

In the showring "Buddy" was the kind of horse that portrayed the demeanor one would associate with a gelding who had campaigned for years! Since he had been bought as a replacement stallion he was hauled to the shows and came home to breed in between. Most horses would have had a problem with this change in scenario but many times, he would go from the breeding barn to the show pen all in the same afternoon, rarely with a warm up and always with the same, quiet manner.

Due to the constraints of the breeding season, Buddy was campaigned lightly for the next couple of seasons and yet still managed to complete his Open Superior in Western Pleasure and Trail. In 1998 he was retired from the show pen. He surprised us by becoming the AQHA Open Hi-Point Trail Stallion as well as securing a 10th place in the AQHA Open Hi-Point Junior Trail. It seemed this was a fitting end to his career as a show horse and a great beginning to his next role as head stallion of the entire operation.

Buddy has somehow managed to exceed our greatest expectations and has proven himself time and again, not only as an individual but, more importantly, as a sire. From our years of experience we have found that many stallions are great individuals, however few are able to pass on those qualities that they, themselves, possess. In this respect we found Three Dimension Zip to be exceptional in his ability to repeatedly pass on his own likeness. At this time, amoung his many accomplishments as a sire he is a Congress Champion and World Champion producer.

We would request that anyone interested in breeding to Three Dimension Zip please phone the farm at 403-347-6052 or email us at info@soderbergquarterhorses.com