AFIRE BEY V
July 26, 1985 – November 25, 2015
Huckleberry Bey++ out of Autumn Fire by *Bask++
Afire Bey V was the son of the U.S. Reserve National Champion English Pleasure Open and Futurity Halter Stallions, Huckleberry Bey++ out of Autumn Fire, the top producing daughter of the legendary sire and National Champion show horse, *Bask++. Among her 16 offspring Autumn Fire produced 9 National winners, 4 of them National Champions or Reserves. Afire Bey V was her ninth foal. Currently Afire Bey V is the Leading All-Time Sire of Champions and National Winners. Annually, Afire Bey V is still a leading sire at the U.S. National Championships and has been for over 20 consecutive years, even 8 years after his passing. His sons dominate leading sire listings in National competition.
Bred by Sheila Varian of Varian Arabians and owned by Maroon Fire Arabians for 26 of his 30 years, Afire Bey V appeared at the U.S. Arabian and Half-Arabian National Championships in 1992 where he was named U.S. National Top Ten Park Horse. At the 1995 National shows, two Afire Bey V daughters won first-time National Championship roses for their sire. Afires Lullaby was both Canadian and U.S. National Champion Pleasure Driving and Can Can Dancer was U.S. National Champion English Pleasure Junior Horse. Both were just 4-year-olds. Over the following 28 years Afire Bey get and grand get proceeded to win, and then to dominate the English divisions at North American national shows.
At the close of 2023, Afire Bey V is the sire of over 480 National winners. He is the sire of 259 individual horses that have won either a National Championship or a Reserve National Championship (or both). To date his national winners have won 994 National Championship or Reserve National Championship titles and 3,434 National awards. For over a hundred years, no Arabian stallion standing at public stud to mares numbering more than 500 has a better percentage of champions to number of get. Afire Bey V’s is 56%. This is an amazing number when you consider that he is the sire of 1,385 registered Arabians and Half-Arabians. His percentage of offspring that have won their awards in English competition is a remarkable 85% with the balance of winning percentages split almost evenly between Halter (7%) and all other performance classes (8%).
Afire Bey V was the 2008 WAHO Horse of the Year and was 2016 APAHA Overall Sire of the Year. Dave and Gail Liniger of Maroon Fire Arabians and Tim and Marty Shea of Shea Stables were USEF Breeders of the Year in 2012 and APAHA Breeders of the Year in 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2013.