Tommy Manion cuts a wide swath across the Quarter Horse industry. Twenty years ago, the late B.F. Phillips Jr., a giant among Quarter Horse breeders, visited Tommy Manion Ranch in Aubrey, Texas. At the time, Dash For Cash and Doc O’Lena ranked at the top of Phillips Ranch’s roster of stallions, and Smart Little Lena had just retired to stand at Manion Ranch. As Phillips looked over the paddocks filled with celebrated performers and broodmares, he speculated. “If a tornado hit this place, it would set the cutting industry back twenty years.”

Manion began his career in Springfield, Illinois, showing halter and performance horses, and conducting horsemanship clinics. When he retired as a professional trainer in the mid-eighties, he had won a record 39 AQHA World Championships, including halter, western riding, trail, reining and western pleasure. In addition, he ranked as a leading breeder of pleasure horses.

“We tried to cover all the bases back then,” Manion noted. “My wife, Chris, and I both showed halter, western pleasure and western riding. I also showed reining horses, while Chris, showed the English horses and helped me with our schools. We had a halter division, a performance horse division, and a youth division. The business was good to us, but when our son Kyle came along, we changed our focus from training to breeding, and cut way back on showing.”

In 1987, Manion turned to cutting competition as a non-professional and soon made his presence felt in NCHA limited age events. He won the coveted NCHA Futurity Non-Pro championship in 1994, on Shes Pretty Smooth, and claimed the 1995 Augusta Non-Pro Futurity in an historic workoff with his son Kyle, who is also a top NCHA non-pro competitor. Between them, Tommy and Kyle Manion have earned over $2 million in NCHA events. In addition, Tommy is listed among the top ten all-time leading owners of NCHA money earners.

No wonder family owned and operated Manion Ranch is home to some of the world’s greatest cutting horses, including legendary NCHA Triple Crown champion Smart Little Lena, and High Brow Hickory, a top NCHA money earner and an all-time leading sire.
With offspring earnings of more than $36.5 million, Smart Little Lena is the all-time leading sire of cutting horses. It was Smart Little Lena, in fact, who introduced Manion to the cutting industry. Hanes Chatham, who had bred and raised the great stallion, knew Manion from the days when Chatham owned and showed reining horses. It was Manion who Chatham and his partner, Bill Freeman, most trusted with the future of Smart Little Lena. Their decision proved fortuitous for Manion, as well.



“I had always admired the cutting segment of the Quarter Horse industry, and having the opportunity to stand Smart Little Lena offered me a great entrée into the sport,” said Manion. “I meet so many cutting people and I thought, these are the kind of people that I want to be involved with. In the mid-1980s, after he had claimed the Triple Crown and won the 1984 Masters Cutting, Smart Little Lena was retired to stand at Manion Ranch. Since then, literally hundreds of the world’s greatest performance horses have been conceived at the beautiful North Texas facility. “We were so appreciative that Hanes Chatham (Syndicate co-manager) had the confidence to turn this magnificent stallion over to us,” said Manion, who admitted that Smart Little Lena is a personal favorite of his. “He has so much charisma, and yet, he’s so kind. If he were a person, you would like to have him for a friend. He’s a great little guy.”

In 1989, Manion shifted Manion Ranch’s main focus to cutting horses. Today, he is assisted by his wife, Chris, and son, Kyle, both former AQHA World Champions, as well as a year-round staff of 15 to 20. In addition, Manion Ranch is served by Dr. David Unnerstall, who cared for Doc O’Lena and Dash For Cash during the last eight years Phillips Ranch was in existence.

Manion Ranch offers a wide array of services to the horse owner, including embryo transfer for mares bred at the state-of-the-art facility; year-round board and mare care; sales conditioning; and professional consulting (as an independent agent, Manion has produced multi-million dollar horse sales and coordinated breeding programs for farms and ranches across the country). Tommy Manion, Inc. also maintains an elite broodmare band and offers foals for sale sired by the industry’s top stallions. “We have somewhat of a captive audience because the great mares come here with their babies,” Manion explained. “We have access to the mares and foals that are for sale and we can serve as agents for our clients.

Sale horses fitted at Manion Ranch bring top prices at venues such as the NCHA Futurity Sales because Manion, with his expertise as a former showman, is unsurpassed when it comes to conditioning horses. “We were fortunate to have that experience in the halter horse business,” noted Manion. “We’ve had years of experience getting horses fit, perfecting hair coats, maintaining proper weight, sweating necks, and all the things that go with proper conditioning. Today that plays a big part in the marketing process. Horses used to come to the sales with their winter coats or with their tails chewed off, but much more attention is paid to detail now.”

Sale conditioning at Manion Ranch proves to be a benefit to consigners before the horses ever enter the sale ring. “Starting a week or two before the NCHA Futurity, so many people come here to see the studs,” Manion pointed out. “It’s only natural that they get to see the horses that we’re conditioning for the sales. It gives them a kind of preview.”

While Manion Ranch remains a mainstay of the cutting horse industry, its stallion roster is open to sires from other disciplines, as well. “We will continue to serve the horse industry in the most competent and professional manner,” said Manion. “We would even consider standing a halter or pleasure stallion again – provided he is a leading sire in the industry.

“We’re very selective in the stallions that we stand,” Manion pointed out. “We want them to be well received by the public. They must have the right pedigree, the right conformation, and the proper ability. There are not a lot of horses who fall into that category. Presently we have four horses that we’re standing. But we’re always looking for that next champion sire. Smart Little Lena will not be with us forever. It seems impossible, but he is 29.

“We have an appreciation for the past, but look to the future in every endeavor,” Manion added. “There will always be a high demand for quality and excellence. It is on this principle that Manion Ranch has persevered.”