Southern Oaks Farm, situated in North Georgia and owned by Kelli Aguirre, is home to an outstanding collection of Arabian horses that includes the celebrated VJ Royal Heir, the 2013 United States National Champion Junior English Pleasure horse and the 2014 United States National Champion Open English Pleasure with trainer Joel Kiesner.
With a pedigree as English as they come, VJ Royal Heir (Afires Heir x MA Ghazta Trot, by El Ghazi) has the line of supreme potential in the show ring. And this potential is lived up to every time the 5-year-old stallion trots into the arena. He wears his supreme line of champions and producers in every high step that he takes, in every flicker of his ears as something catches his eye, and in every championship ribbon he takes home. For proud owner Kelli Aguirre, VJ Royal Heir is a dream.
“I think he IS his pedigree. I have heard from so many people how much he resembles the horses from his lineage. If you could take all the great things from the horses in his pedigree and create your own horse, I think VJ Royal Heir would be that horse.” This amalgamation of traits is the explanation behind the ease in which he performs in the show ring. Winning the 2013 Unanimous U.S. National Champion Arabian English Pleasure Junior Horse, everyone in Ford Truck Arena was on Royal Heir’s team as he owned the show ring. Aguirre shares, “As I have said many times, he is perfectly conformed to do his job. He has a long, stretchy, upright neck that allows him to have so much softness and flexibility in the bridle. With a short back and extremely long legs, trotting around the ring looks effortless for him. Honestly, he doesn’t even look like he is working because all of the moving parts simply come together through years of careful breeding to enable him to be the best English horse ever bred.”
And in the breeding side of what VJ Royal Heir has to offer, Aguirre addresses what she has seen in his babies so far. “I see him in all of the babies that I have had the pleasure of having at my farm. I think because he wears his pedigree, we are seeing in his offspring the same. All the babies are out of dams that have no similarities in breeding whatsoever, and yet each of the babies resembles one another. They all have beautiful faces and big eyes and long, stretchy, shapely necks just like their father. They are big and long legged and look to be talented babies.” Beyond the aesthetics, Kelli shares, “They also all have wonderful dispositions and are extremely bright and trainable. They are people-loving horses just like Royal Heir.”
A stallion that is proving himself in and out of the show ring, VJ Royal Heir gives Aguirre much to be proud of and look forward to, especially in terms of the excitement he inspires. “There are so many exciting things about owning this stallion that I don’t know that I can name just one. If I had to pick something, it would be people’s response to him. It’s the passionate way that they talk about him and look at him—the same way that I felt about him when I first saw him as a 3-year-old.” Kelli builds on this, saying, “You see a horse that is the most perfect horse you’ve ever seen with the neck and the size and the short back and the beauty and charisma, and it just takes your breath away. From there, you can only hope that others will see that one day, too. Right now, sharing him with the Arabian horse world is the most exciting thing for me.” A bright stallion with a pedigree, a budding show record, and a promising breeding future, VJ Royal Heir will spend his precious time off multi-tasking in both the training and breeding realms of the Arabian industry—an industry in which he has boundless potential and, at the moment, no limits in sight.