Legacy. Simply defined as something handed down from an ancestor. Destiny. A predetermined, irresistible course of events.
Vital Signs Are Good and Kristen (Glover) Galyean. Their names will forever be intertwined by the history they made in the amateur western pleasure and western riding show arenas. They made Congress their home and World Champions their title. For seven years, the pretty pair graced the stage in AQHA and NSBA competition with fans around the world.
“Simply put, Vital Signs Are Good was a fairytale.”
Her legacy has become the foals she produced. And now, with the second generation in the arena, they have truly secured her place in history. Her impact on the industry, and the American Quarter Horse breed, is apparent. Vital Signs Are Good took her rightful place in the American Quarter Horse Association Hall of Fame just two years after her death.
“I think Lucy was so versatile, and excelled in multiple events, because her mind allowed her to do that,” Kristen Galyean looked back.
“She had a need to please and whatever you asked she would try 110% to give it to you. And she would do it happily if she knew it would please you.”
Kristen Galyean recalled Vital Signs Are Good
“She had a natural God-given talent to be a great pleasure horse. I believe that’s why it came so easy to her and was so enjoyable to her. That easy talent is also why she transitioned into being the greatest western riding mare of all time. It was so effortless for her. You can’t train that. They are either born with the talent to be great or not. That’s what separates the great horses from average ones,” Galyean explained. “She loved showing.”
“It was so effortless for her. You can’t train that.”
“VS Code Red and VS Flatline both have her same demeanor,” Galyean described the two stallions known as her boys. “Like her, they were born with the talent to be great show horses themselves. Both are very gentle and kind and they love people. I think their talent and, more importantly, their minds have been a big part in their success as show horses and now as sires, because they are passing that to their offspring. We hear it time after time – they love their minds.”
It would eventually be a filly by VS Code Red that would fill a special place in Kristen’s heart.
“I saw Lady for the first time in a picture that Susan Knapp posted on her Facebook,” recalled Galyean. “I called her immediately to try to buy her.”
The filly was out of Knapp’s great show mare, Cool Krymsun Lady and by VS Code Red.
“What a perfect cross! She was made perfectly from the moment she hit the ground. And she was roan, which is always a bonus. I got a trailer to Iowa to pick her up before Susan could change her mind. When she arrived at my place I knew she was special. I’m thankful to have her.”
The red roan filly, aptly named VS Lady In Red, gave Kristen a flashback to her first red roan mare.
“She reminds me of Lucy because she is so very kind. She loves her people, probably my daughters the most,” Galyean explained. “When they are around she seems to light up. Of course, she knows they always have treats. But she is very talented and fun to show.”
“I think God sent her to me, not to replace Lucy, but to give me a giant piece of her. I’ve missed her from the moment I sold her. Lady has filled that void for me.”
Ten years after her final appearance in amateur western pleasure at the AQHA World Show with Vital Signs Are Good, Galyean returned with VS Lady In Red, a granddaughter of the great VSAG.
