Gainesville —

The story behind the rise of world champion cutting and reining horse
Smart Chic Olena is as good as anything dreamed up by a Hollywood
screen writer.
Smart Chic Olena — whose life ended quietly in Cooke County last
weekend  — was both a world reining and cutting horse champion, a rare
pairing of athletic ability and intuition his longtime owner Jim
Babcock likens to the prowess of former NBA star Michael Jordan.
The horse wasn’t just well known, he was, to many in quarter horse
circles, peerless.
“He was truly one of those great individuals,” Babcock said. “The
opportunity to own or be near a horse of that caliber comes along once
in your lifetime.”
Throughout the week, condolences and tributes poured in via Facebook.
Old friends called Babcock’s cell phone to share memories of Chic and
to reaffirm their respect for the stallion and his accomplishments.
Babcock said at first he didn’t want to talk about his loss. When he
got the call about Smart Chic Olena’s death he delayed passing along
the news to his father with whom he lives.
It was too painful to think about.
“I owned and managed him for 22 years,” Babcock said. “ It’s missing
an old friend because for 22 years, he was the first thing I saw in
the morning and he was the last thing I checked on at the ranch at
night.”
Babcock, a native of southwestern Ontario, Canada who moved to north
Texas with his family in the early 1980s, discovered Chic when the
stallion was three years old.
He’d already seen Chic’s three-quarter sister Miss Elan and was struck
by her near-flawless breeding.
Babcock told a “Horse and Rider” writer he’d been on the verge of
offering Miss Elan’s owner $30,000 for the horse until he learned she
had won more than $100,000 in National Cutting Horse Association
events and the owner had already turned down a $125,000 offer for the
young sorrel.
Undaunted, Babcock tucked away the memory of Miss Elan believing he’d
eventually find her equal.
His first glimpse of Smart Chic Olena was during the NCHA Futurity in
Fort Worth. He thought the stallion was nearly perfect.
“I felt he was everything I was looking for,” Babcock said in the
February 2004 “Horse and Rider” cover story. “The only thing wrong
with him was he wasn’t for sale.”
A year later, Babcock got the chance to purchase Chic but by then the
promising young stallion’s heath had taken a sinister turn.
The horse stuck his hock through a stall grid.
Babcock looked Chic over. The hock was hugely swollen. The horse was in pain.
Babcock said it’s rare for a horse to recover from such a severe
setback but he believed the qualities that had made Smart Chic Olena a
champion were intact — intelligence, desire to please, innate talent.
Babcock paid $40,000 and took his battered prize home.
He assembled a partnership of five individuals and put Chic into a
training program at his Cooke County ranch.
Chic beat the odds and completely rehabilitated. He returned to the
cutting pen in fine form.
His accomplishments include 1990 American Quarter Horse Association
(AQHA) World Champion Senior Cutting Horse, 1990 AQHA High-Point
Senior Cutting Horse and 1990 American Cutting Horse Association
(ACHA) Reserve World Champion Open Cutting Horse.
Babcock and his partners could have retired the horse, but knew Chic
wasn’t ready.
They felt Chic could be retrained and could compete as a reining horse.
Their hunch was correct.
Ridden and trained by Craig Johnson, Smart Chic Olena placed first
nine times and was 1993 National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) Open
Reserve Champion.
In November of 1993, he won the senior reining event at the AQHA Show.
Johnson said Smart Chic Olena was nearly eight years old when he began
working with the stallion.
“Smart Chic Olena came along at a perfect time in my career when we
were looking for something that could take us to the next level,”
Johnson said. “He was the horse to make it happen. He allowed me to
try to create something new and something different than they had seen
in reining before.”
Johnson said making the switch from cutting to reining isn’t easy for a horse.
“He came from cutting to reining — that’s not tried very often,” he
said. “It took someone with a lot of foresight and nerve to go ahead
and try it, and I sure appreciate the owners who did that.”
Johnson said the qualities that made Smart Chic Olena special included
his ability to handle pressure.
“He learned everything, really took things in stride and was great at
resting between maneuvers and resting in his stall,” Johnson said,
adding Smart Chic Olena’s strength lie in his intuition.
“I wanted to get a horse to a level where they could think what I was
thinking,” Johnson said. “Smart Chic Olena was able to do that. We
could read each other’s minds.”
Babcock points out Chic was also the only horse in history to earn
AQHA championships in both cutting and reining.
Chic was retired to stud and five NRHA futurity winners arose from his
first crop of foals.
“I have files and files of people who told me how great his offspring
were,” Babcock said. “In his history, a lot of people have really
benefited from this horse in so many ways...So many trainers were able
to get their first win off Chic Olena and produce their best babies
from him. He created a user friendly horse.”
In 2004, Smart Chic Olena was inducted into the NRHA Hall of Fame.
Sitting quietly in his office one morning last week, Babcock said he’d
had a few days to think about what Chic meant to him.
“I don’t want this to be a sad story,” he said. “I want it to be a
celebration of his life. He had a good, full life.”
He has no doubt Smart Chic Olena was a once-in-a-lifetime horse.
Trophies and championship belt buckles aside, Babcock said Chic’s
story reaffirms the emotional connections between humans and animals.
“He was amazing to me,” Babcock said. “The boost that he gave me with
my life, the doors he opened, the friendships he created. This horse
took me to the top of the industry. Many (horse industry
professionals) told me Chic was the most intelligent animal they had
ever been around. To make a horse of his caliber is the ultimate in
breeding. He had the confirmation and attitude and the willingness to
please everyone.”
Babcock said his beloved horse left him a final gift—Chic’s son, a
now-four-year-old stallion Babcock named Heaven Sent Chic.
“Heaven Sent Chic was born the year Chic went sterile,” Babcock said.
“Fortunately where I’m at now, the lord has blessed me with him. He’s
a kind of replacement. Twenty-one colt crops and this is the horse he
left me with.”
Babcock said at the end of Chic’s life, he has chosen joy over grief.
“It’s hard to keep saying enough good words about him,” he said. “This
horse was such a great friend and he did so much for me. It’s hard to
find the right words for it. All I can do is thank the Lord that he
gave him to me.”