Mares with More| H arlans Bobbie Joe
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By Larry Thornton ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ y dictionary defines the word “fate” as the development of events outside a person’s control, regarded as predetermined by a supernatural power. This definition of fate fits the life of a mare named Harlans Bobbi Jo, a 1998 buckskin mare owned and bred by Benny and Susan Scarberry of Clinton, Arkansas. This mare earned 344 AQHA roping points earning superiors in heading, heeling, and tie-down roping to become an AQHA Performance Champion. She will be our Mares With More topic for this issue. Benny and Susan recently told me the story of how their life with Harlan horses and Harlans Bobbi Jo unfolded, and as they describe it, the role fate played in their life. Susan started the story this way, “I was raised in a family that really wasn’t into horses, but apparently, I was born loving horses. Other little girls wanted dolls, and I had little plastic horses that I played with. Now Benny’s folks, they all had horses, and he rode when he was growing up. But I didn’t till I was in the third or fourth grade, and I wanted one so much that dad went to the cattle sale and bought one for me. So they did try to help me have horses.” She continued about how Harlan came into their life, “When Benny and I got together and really how we got into the Harlan business started with I wanted broodmares, and he wasn’t as interested in that. He was still training horses. He would go buy prospects, and he would make roping horses out of them: calf horses, that kind of thing. We had lucked into a couple of geldings that had Harlan in their pedigree. They were big stopping horses making great calf horses. Benny recalled one of those Harlan bred geldings this way, “The first Harlan bred horse we had was a Zan Parr Bar/Harlan cross. We used to go to Shawnee to buy horses. Bring them home and try to make a rope horse out of them. If they didn’t, I would sell them or trade them. One time when we went to Shawnee, there was a palomino three-year-old. He was a nice horse. And Sue said, ‘I think I will go bid on him, and I told her to not bid over so much for him. I was in the back watching the bids, and when he got past the spot that I told her, I guessed we didn’t get him.’ So I go back in there, and here she comes with the horse. She said, ‘I got him.’ I said, ‘My gosh, you must have given quite a bit more for him than I thought we were going to give for him.’ She said, ‘Yes!” Benny continued, “To make the long story short. When we brought him home, he made the best calf horse to ever be on this place. He was amazing. I sold him to a PRCA guy in Utah.” Benny recalled their conversation about Harlan bred horses, “We had never heard of Harlan. I said, ‘What is this horse?’ She said, - Well, he’s a Harlan. I said, ‘What is that?’ She said, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ I said, ‘This is the stoppinest colt we have ever had around here. Why don’t you find out about them?” Susan continued, “So I started to look, and the first ones I found had been crossed on the halter horse bloodlines, and that wasn’t what he wanted. So I kept looking and got in touch with the AQHA, and they put me in touch with Bob Robey. (He was the owner of the dam of the Harlan bred gelding they bought at the Shawnee Sale.) Mr. Robey was living out at Perkins, and I called him told him who
52 Working Horse Magazine Winter 2021
I was and what we were looking for, and why we were looking for it. He said, ‘You know Harlan is buried here in my backyard.’ We had no idea at that time that he had owned Harlan most of his life.” She interjected about what transpired next, “We struck up a great friendship with the Bob and Joan Robey. I got to go with them more than Benny did, but we went all over looking at horses and had the best time. He knew where some of the good old mares were, and he helped us track them down so we could lease some of the mares or buy some of the mares and raise babies. They were great friends, and enjoyed visiting with them so much. My mother and father are great parents, and I love them, but Bob and Joan very became special like my horse parents.” Susan went on to describe how the trips were so much fun because they knew the history behind so many horses and the people associated with them. “It was like every town we went in they had a racetrack, and he knew the stories about the horses and men that ran them.” So the Scarberry’s were in the Harlan business when they found a Harlan mare that would change their life. Susan then told us about that mare, “Mr. Robey had helped us find several of the good mares. But he was not involved with finding Shesa Texas Risk, which was Bobbi Jo’s dam. But when he saw her pedigree, he got so excited not so much about the Harlan, but she had some horses that I had never heard of, Possum and Tony. I had never heard about those horses, and he got so excited because he knew about those horses. And when we bred her to Jodie Bob Harlan, he was excited about her as anything we had owned. He was right; it was a magic cross; first, we got Bobby Jo, right after that, we got her full brother Harlan Tony, and then JB (Jodie Bob Harlan) died. We tried to breed her to some other Harlan stallions, and it was not the same; they were not as special as that JB cross was. It was absolutely amazing.” Benny will fill us in on how they got Shesa Texas Risk, “I went to Fort Worth to sell a head horse, and then I bought a drop-dead gorgeous mare. They were roping on her, and I think I gave like $3500 for her. Well, I started home, and I dropped her off at Jess Elrod’s and told him to get a ROM on her, and then we would bring her home and breed her.” He continued, “Well, about two days later, he called me and told me to come and get the mare. She was dangerous and crazy. Well, I tried to rope on her, and she was dangerous. We had a friend that lived near Kansas City named Jan Switzer. She knew a horse trader that had just traded for a Harlan bred mare that she thought we might be interested in and that we might be able to buy her. So I called him and visited with him, and I told him about this mare. He said to bring her. So I cleaned her up real good and put a blanket on her, and went up to Kansas City. When I got there, he brought out this ole mare, and she was starved to death. The little bitty long-haired mare looked awful. He said, What do you think? I said, ‘Well, I will tell you what I am going to do. I am going to trade you even, and I am going to give you a chance to back out. Boy, he jumped all over that, and we swapped, and I brought the mare home. She ended up being the mommy of Bobby Jo and Tony.” He then added, “I heard through the grapevine that he gave up on the mare too and got rid of her.” Bobbi Jo Harlan was born in 1998. When she hit the ground, she
