Zips Chocolate Chip "The Toy"Click here to order your own toy or shop for more fun and unique Zips Chocolate Chip items |
 From a little city girl with a stuffed horse on her bed
to the owner of a famous stallion and a highly successful horse farm, Ann Myers
says, "If you have the passion to follow your dreams there's no such word as
can't!"...When I was a little girl, I was given a stuffed horse named Cuddles. I hugged him and loved him so much that his eyes fell off! My grandmother sewed buttons on him for new eyes to enable him to "see" again. I cherished the companionship of that little horse before I was old enough to ride my first horse. And that was the beginning…………… I grew up in the city of Dallas, Texas. Cuddles lived on my bed where together we dreamed of owning a real horse.  We discovered authentic looking model horses. We began collecting these horses until we had a ranch with barns and fences that took over most of my room. Our ranch was full of horses! Cuddles oversaw the operation from his higher position on the bed. We raised horses of many different breeds and colors. Our horses took turns going on trail rides. They rode for miles around the house and in the backyard. There were some rigorous trails taking them through the desert in the sand pile, crossing a huge lake in the rain on the shower floor that was plugged by  a washrag, and forging through
forests of bushes and flowers in the flowerbeds. Some rode so hard that they
would break a leg. Cuddles and I treated them by wrapping their injuries with
adhesive tape. Our broken horses looked like they had casts on and would walk
with a limp. But, we continued to take them on rides!Then, one day, it happened……….the most exciting Christmas of my life!! (I was seven.) A saddle and bridle with a Paint model horse in front sat beneath the Christmas tree. The model wore a note around his neck introducing a real horse named Paint that was waiting for me in a pasture two miles away. (Much to the model horses' relief, they were turned out to pasture. Cuddles and I would round them up on rainy days and evenings, but overall; they happily retired to an easier life.)  Paint looked a lot like an Oreo cookie. His
color was bay (dark brown) with a wide white stripe wrapped around his belly.
My parents rented him for $20.00 a month. The rental fee included his bridle,
saddle and board at a place named Excellent Pasture. This "fine" pasture had a
lake in the middle of it, a few trees and a huge runoff ditch that turned into
a stream when it rained. It had no barns, only fences. I spent as much time as
I possibly could riding Paint. We loved to jump the ditch and Paint delighted
in rolling in the water when we crossed the lake's spillway. I always had to
jump off. When I went to bed, I would tell Cuddles about all my daily adventures. Sometimes I had to avoid tarantulas while walking across the pasture to catch Paint. And some days Paint would run away with me.  A friend of my father's gave me the first horse of my own when I was ten. She was a bay, registered American Quarter Horse. Her name was Rita Wonder. We spent many wonderful years riding and playing games on horseback with the kids at the stable. We played tag, hide n seek, capture the flag, fruit basket turn over and games that we made up. Swimming our horses in the creek was one of our favorite activities on those hot Texas, summer days. We always rode bareback because we thought it took too much time to saddle our horses. Cuddles would be patiently waiting on my bed anxious to hear my stories. He was still in charge of our ranch. We would always round up our model horses on the rainy days that kept me from riding. I went away to college when I was nineteen. Cuddles stayed behind to watch over our ranch. Neither of us realized that I would never return to live in my room.  I moved from Dallas when I married Phil Myers in 1974. It was then that I gave my room to my sister. Sadly, Cuddles and our ranch horses were boxed and put into storage. Despite my leaving, Cuddles and I never stopped dreaming. In 1982, our dreams came true again! Phil and I bought a farm in Ashland, Ohio. It was my first time ever to live in the country. I was thrilled! We called for Cuddles and all his ranch horses. They were sent to Ashland to live with us. Cuddles and I immediately began planning to raise real horses on our new farm. We wanted to raise American Quarter Horses. In 1985, a beautiful, bay colt was born on our farm. We named him Zips Chocolate Chip. He far exceeded our wildest dreams. Cuddles and I couldn't believe how close to perfect he was! When he was two, we sent Zips Chocolate Chip to Cleve Wells in Burleson, Texas, for training. Cleve guided "Chip" through the show arenas with ease. Together they won most of the competitions they entered many times being the unanimous choice. When they won the crowds would cheer. It was so exciting!  In 1989, "Chip" and Cleve won the AQHA World Championship in Junior Western Pleasure placing first under all five of the judges! We didn't think it could get any better than this, but it did. Zips Chocolate Chip is still winning awards as a sire. We retired "Chip" from the show world to a breeding ranch in Valley View, Texas after he won the AQHA World Champion title. Through the careful management of Joe and Suzy Jeane, he has produced more than 1000 foals. His foals have won many World and National Champion titles encompassing five different breeds of horses. They have consistently kept Zips Chocolate Chip at the top of AQHA's list of Leading Performance Horse Sires. His offspring are scattered across the US, Canada and overseas, some as far away as Australia!  His records have been so impressive that Zips Chocolate Chip was inducted into NSBA's Hall of Fame in two divisions - as a show horse and as a sire - the first horse to receive such an honor! Promoting Zips Chocolate Chip has been the fun job. We have followed "Chip" giving away thousands of dozens of chocolate chip cookies. We always have cookies! Zips Chocolate Chip has his own special recipe. We installed a double oven in our kitchen to bake our cookies. Cuddles helps to oversee the cookie baking and our farm where our foals, "the chocolate chips", decorate our pastures.  I'm sharing my story with you hoping our Zips Chocolate Chip stuffed toy will make your dreams come true the same way Cuddles did mine! Ann Myers Myers Horse Farms,Inc. |