LOOKING FOR SOMETHING SPECIFIC?

Belly Up to the Bar with JXL Major DC aka “SETH”

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“SETH” aka JXL Major CD, is the kind of horse everyone wants to “belly up to the bar” with – and if given the chance he is game to just that!

Thanks to Brittney Chomistek, Canadian fashion and western lifestyle influencer at Canadian Cowgirl Closet and former Miss Rodeo Canada 2018, for introducing the CQHA community to this great horse through her awesome “Bar Room” photo shoot with Kaylee Mohl Photography early this year!

Read SETH’s story of community service, teaching young riders, barrel racing , and “modeling” below.

The 2005 Canadian Bred palomino gelding is owned Linda Kraft of Irvine, Alberta.

Copyright © 2021 Kaylee Mohl Photography

SETH’s Story
(Yes he likes to have his name spelt in all capital letters).

SETH was born April 30, 2005 at JXL Ranch in Lampman Saskatchewan. He was then sold as a weanling to Faron and Leana Forsyth in October the same year. Faron then sold JXL MAJOR CD to Don Kraft who ran the local community pasture just outside of Medicine Hat in early 2009. A few months later Don traded his son Dalton a saddle for the yellow horse he had bought just a few months earlier. Dalton then surprised his wife Linda (who had fallen in love with the little yellow horse at her father in laws) that he was now hers.

It was the first horse Linda had since her beloved horse passed away when she was 16 years old. Linda loved (and spoiled) her new horse that she named SETH. He was the perfect confidence builder for Linda after not being in the saddle for 15+ years in addition to becoming a mother.

Despite SETH’s lack of athletic ability, he tried his heart out in barrel racing and within a couple years was winning in the 2D.

SETH has taught and raised both Addison who is now 12 and competitively barrel races and Tytan who is 8 and aspires to be a roper like his dad, uncles Justin and Tyler and Grandpa Don.

SETH has always been special and unique, but after Don passed away from cancer in 2015, the story about how ‘your dad traded your Grandpa Don a saddle for SETH’ always makes us giggle and gives him extra sentimental value.

The funny stories- oh gosh, the best one would have to have been January 2013 when the Kraft family was getting ready to embark on a trip down south to Arizona. The vet came out to Justin’s (Don’s oldest son / Dalton’s brother) to get blood work done so the horses could go across the border. Justin caught the horses one by one but when it came to SETH, he was not having it. Justin finally got on the phone and called his brother Dalton and told him ‘I can’t catch your wife’s horse here and if he doesn’t smarten up he won’t be going to Arizona’.

In the meantime while the vet was in the barn, SETH took it upon himself to walk in through a small side door to the barn and get his blood work done on his own. Needless to say, Justin was less than impressed but Dalton was glad that he didn’t have to tell his wife that her horse wasn’t going to be going to Arizona with them (or that he would have had to have gone out and helped catch him).
 
SETH has been ridden by countless kids and is always a favourite at the kids’ rodeos as many ask to use him for goat untying because of his laid back and safe nature. They could ride up to the goats as close as they wanted to then hang off the side of him while they jumped off and he just patiently waited for them. He is also popular at a local retirement home where he’s visited with the senior residences who fondly reminisced about their days of growing up with their own horses.
 
SETH is also a favourite at Avalon Equine’s interaction program where participants use horse interactions to help facilitate team building and girls self esteem groups for a couple of examples.

SETH, doesn’t have many boundaries and even likes to come in the house. One day a gate was left open and all the horses were out in the main yard. In an attempt to catch them, Linda went out with some grain. After the horses got back in, she came inside the house and left the grain in the front entrance which got spilled and the kids were told to clean it up. Instead of getting a broom and a dust pan or vacuuming it up, Addison and Tytan went out to the horse pen to get SETH to help them out. When Linda seen she asked what the heck were they doing and why was SETH in the house? The kids said they were just getting him to help them clean up and ‘vacuum’ the grain.

SETH truly is such a unique and once in a lifetime kind of horse. He will always be a special part of the Kraft family in addition to the many lives of others that he’s touched.

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