Horse Defies Odds To Compete At Reining Horse Futurity

His official name is Gunnamakeacomeback, but they call him Hotshot, and at this year’s Reining Horse Futurity Competition at the OKC fairgrounds, he really is a hotshot.

“Yeah, he’s a little spoiled,” admits Chad Hartmann, Hotshot’s owner)

Hotshot loves attention and is a bit of a ham, but that’s not the way his story started. “I said he looks like he’s lame, but he looked like he was lame on every leg,” said Hartmann.

His parents were both top-reining horses and at just ten days old that is not something you want to see. “The vet said, I don’t know how much this colt means to you, but we have to get him up to a vet hospital because he’s got issues,” said Hartmann.

Hotshot was septic, and the surgery was done immediately to remove the infection, however, upon returning home. “She was like, he’s still not right. And so, we took him back up there and the infection had come back, so we had to have surgery done all over again,” said Hartmann.

The Hartmanns once again returned home to problems. “Again, we were like he’s still not right. Found out that the infection had actually gone into his bone,” said Hartmann.

In one last effort to save Hotshot’s life, doctors recommend an oral antibiotic medication to be given every eight hours for thirty days. “I think that was the first time that we were like this colt is special because I never had to halter him to give him his medication,” said Hartmann.

With the infection now gone, the Hartmanns noticed a new problem. “We had the vet out again and the vet said that the septic infection had caused him to get cataracts,” said Hartmann.

One vet said he would never be ridden and even suggested putting him down. But that’s not what the Hartmanns saw. “We were watching him out in the pasture, and he would run around, and he would play, and you could not tell that he had vision problems,” said Hartmann.

Today Hotshot is seventy percent blind in his right eye and fifty percent blind in his left eye. “Here we are at the Superbowl of a reining show, which is the biggest show in the world,” said Hartmann.

On the big stage Hotshot performs. “He’s got the talent but even more importantly he’s got the mind,” said Hartmann.

Unfortunately, Hotshot missed the finals by half a point but without question, the Hartmanns believe he’ll be back next year. The competition ends this Saturday evening here at the fairgrounds. For times and ticket information visit www.okcfairgrounds.com/events/1082/details