On February 4, 2018, the Colorado Reined Cowhorse Association (CRCA) inducted both Jerry Peters and his former mare Hailn Magic Diamonds into the Hall of Fame at the Year End Banquet.
Peters and his wife, who moved to Colorado in 1999, were introduced to reined cowhorse by the late Kathy Coleman, who asked if she could bring her horses over to ride with him.
“The next thing I know, we have four horses in our stalls, and Kathy was hanging out there,” said Peters. “She got me interested in coming to a CRCA meeting just to see what was going on. I ended up buying one of the horses that she was riding and then got involved with the CRCA as treasurer back in 2002.”
In addition to treasurer, Peters also ran horse shows as the show secretary for 10 years and was executive director of the CRCA for the past three years.
“Jerry has been so instrumental in the success of the CRCA,” said Jim Cook, who was part of the committee that nominated both Peters and Hailn Magic Diamonds. “I don’t think people realize the amount of work that Jerry did in making our shows a success and the innovations that he brought out like the paybacks on the same day. We’re going to miss him because there’s really nobody that can take Jerry’s spot.”
Along the way to his own success, Peters became the owner of a great horse.
“At one time, I owned 10 Quarter Horses, and one of those horses, Hailn Magic Diamonds, was a horse I bred,” said Peters. “When I decided to get out of horse ownership, I tried to sell ‘Hailee.’ I couldn’t sell her, so I had her started as a 2-year-old, and she was great right from the get go. Her total earnings – including non-NRCHA [National Reined Cow Horse Association] earnings – by the time she retired was $72,000. At that time, she was inside the top 100 all time reined cow horses in terms of earnings. Tim Unzicker rode Hailee for her entire career, and as an owner, it was great because 80 percent of the time, she went into the pen, placed and made money.”
Peters no longer owns Hailee, who is now 14 years old and in foal.
“Each one of her foals of performance age has won money,” Peters said. “When we had our CRCA awards banquet, I thought that maybe somewhere down the road I might be inducted, but I didn’t really think it would be this year.
“When they announced that Hailee was making the Hall of Fame, too, that got me emotionally,” said Peters. “She was such a great horse right from the start, and I’ve always said that I was lucky to have one really great horse as an owner, and she was it. I was surprised. I thought that might come a few years down the road as her babies started showing more and earning more money, but I was flabbergasted and thrilled when it was announced.”
