When George Pardi and Jack Benson named an eight-month-old sorrel colt "The Invester" back in 1969, could they have realized the magnitude their investment would have on the western pleasure industry? Today, The Invester is a leading sire of pleasure horses and is this year's inductee into the NSBA Hall of Fame.

The Invester is sired by Zippo Pat Bars and out of Hank's Peppy Lou, a foundation bred mare of Peter McCue heritage. He is owned by The Invester Syndicate, with Dan McWhirter and Wayne Atchley as the major shareholders, and stands at the McWhirter Farm in Doniphan, Nebraska.

The Invester is the second highest all-time sire of pleasure futurity money earners behind only his half-brother, Zippo Pine Bar, who has sired 454 more lifetime offspring than The Invester. He has sired just under 1,000 foals. According to statistics from The Quarter Horse Journal and Journal and Quarter Horse News, The Invester's offspring have won more than $973,922.

Some of his notable offspring include Double Vested, Fully Vested, Impulsions, Invest In Ears, Investapine, Investers Choice, Shes Slippin Around, Sure Investment, The Collateral, The Promoter and Vested Pine.

It is also noteworthy that The Invester's initial impact on the Quarter Horse industry was not as a sire of pleasure horses but rather as a sire of halter futurity horses. El Cicatriz, 1974 AJQHA World Champion Yearling Gelding, is a good example.

In 1980, the top four placing two-year-olds in the All American Quarter Horse Congress Snaffle Bit Futurity were all sired by The Invester. From that one class, his offspring won $55,390.00. At the 1990 Congress Three-Year-Old Pleasure Derby, six of the top ten placings were either Invester sons or grandsons. The 1993 Quarter Horse News Pleasure Statistics also list his sons and grandsons as major contenders on the Leading Sires List, cumulatively earning $160,005.

In his article in the February 1992 edition of Southern Horseman, Larry Thornton said, "The Invester was destined to be more than just a good sire. He became a great sire of pleasure horses, a stallion that may have done more for the modern pleasure horse than any other horse in the country."

In that same article, trainer Jerry Stanford said, "A low hock is the key to The Invester's success. You want those hocks to come straight down that imaginary line behind the horse and that's what you get with The Invester."

The Invester is an AQHA Champion, a Superior Halter Horse who has stood grand or reserve 45 times with 53 halter points, and earned 21 working points in Cutting, Western Pleasure, Reining and Hunter Under Saddle.

"In addition to being such a striking and pretty horse, The Invester is an incredible mover," said McWhirter in a February 1991 article in Southern Horseman. "If you rode him in a pleasure class today, I honestly believe you'd win. And, he stamps his offspring with these abilities."

The NSBA is proud to induct The Invester into the Hall of Fame.