Whitesboro family, Voge Quarter Horses owners reflect on life in the breeding industry

The footpath of someone finding their dream horse—the one that carries them to their largest achievements won in the arena or the one that sparks the lifelong passion for the horse itself—is a journey that weaves through the lives of many. Fostering a successful horse-and-rider duo is rarely a solitary act. It takes many hands to not only build that connection but to make it a winning one – marked by checks, buckles, trophies and titles.

For the rider, the most memorable moment may come in the winner’s circle, but long before that, much has gone into simply getting that horse on the ground. At one point, that particular dream horse was nothing more than a combination of hopes and ideas. 

While the early training stage of a horse is crucial, the reason that horse has achieved the status it has traces back even further to the very beginning. It starts with knowledgeable minds that meticulously studied and picked what stallion to breed a mare to, watchful eyes that were glued to that carrying mare and steady hands that helped stabilize a foal’s first steps nine months later. 

For Julie Voge, that beginning process is one she doesn’t do for just one person’s dream horse, but rather hundreds. 
Julie and her husband, Justin, are founders of the Whitesboro-based breeding operation known as Voge Quarter Horses, and their individual history with the industry stretches back far. 

“It was our passion from the start,” Julie said. “It’s what we both grew up doing and have been involved with for so long. The Western pleasure route is our bread and butter and where our passion lives.”

Julie and Justin were both raised showing Western pleasure and all-around events (rail classes where a horse’s movement and versatility is judged), and while their home states certainly had a niche market for that exact community, it pales in comparison to that of North Texas. 

“I grew up in Illinois, and Justin grew up in Minnesota,” Julie said. “We say we got here as fast as we could. We love the Whitesboro area and are trying to stay here forever. A lot of people that do our same events are within 20 miles of us here, and so it’s a pretty big population for the Western pleasure along with every other discipline.”

Beyond just showing Western pleasure horses, the Voges both grew up raising them as well. 

“When I was younger, my family had a couple of mares and babies throughout those youth years of mine,” Julie said. “When Justin and I got married, they had been doing it as well as a family. We got married and kind of merged our forces together, and we formed an LLC with Justin’s parents.” 

Julie and Justin met at Kansas State University when Julie was in college and Justin was attending veterinary school. While the couple moved around Texas following graduation as Justin completed his residency, it was always his dream to do reproductive work primarily in Whitesboro. 

In 2011, the couple made the move, and Voge Quarter Horses officially took shape. Alongside their private breeding operation, Justin has served as a veterinarian at Foals R Us—an equine reproductive facility—since settling in Whitesboro. 

“Everyone thinks that we’re a really big operation with our breeding program, but really we’re not,” Julie said. “And because of what Justin does, we are able to utilize all the new technology in terms of doing embryo transfers and the ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) process, so we are able to have several foals with just a few mares. We don’t have a ton of acreage here in Whitesboro. We have 11 acres, and then Justin’s parents have 20, and we’re able to do everything that we do.” 

With Justin’s parents right around the corner, Voge Quarter Horses is able to expand across two locations. Between recipient mares (which are used to carry foals via embryo transfers), newborn foals hitting the ground, yearlings being prepped to sell and several personal show horses, the family has quite a herd. The Voges also own a personal stallion. 
“One of our foals that we raised is a 2016 stallion named Heart Stoppin. He had a very successful show career in the Western pleasure, and then we kept him back and now stand him as a stallion,” Julie said. “He stands at Foals R Us, where Justin works out of, and we started breeding him in 2019. He was very successful early on in his breeding career, and so he’s been really popular with our clientele group of people that breed for Western pleasure and Western all-around horses.”

Amidst all of these innerworkings, being adaptable is crucial to operating a breeding program.

“With this line of work, every day is different,” Julie said. “It’s not cookie cutter by any means. And I think that’s probably one of the most important aspects of this type of work is that you have to be quite a bit flexible. It’s really 27 different jobs rolled into one. You have to be able to just take on a lot of different hats throughout the day.”

With Justin oftentimes in the clinic, Julie and Justin’s parents are the constant boots on the ground of the operation. 

“It’s a lot of juggling communication with mare owners or people that are shopping for yearlings – it’s something that you have to be super flexible on,” Julie said. “You might get done with everything you need to do that day at 4 o’clock or it might be 10 o’clock at night, and you’re still working on things. You just have to take it in stride.”

Being involved in the breeding industry is not a particularly easy feat. Along with its triumphs, it also comes with heartbreak. Learning to take things in stride—especially things that are out of human control—is a lesson that comes quickly in this line of work. 

“Breeding is really for the thick skin because it sometimes doesn’t always go right,” Julie said. “Mother Nature involves herself and sometimes things are out of your control. It’s trial and tribulations.”

That constant pressure and the possibility of things going South weighs heavily on not just the owner of the mare, but is also one prevalent on the minds of the mare’s breeder and reproductive vet. Everyone is working toward the same goal, but in the thick of a tough breeding season, it’s easy to lose sight of that shared perspective. 

“Vets want to succeed,” Julie said. “Everybody wants your mare to get in foal or have a positive flush for an embryo transfer and so forth. Everybody wants positive results, but sometimes it can be so frustrating that people can get down on things, and you just have to remember that everybody’s human… You can’t just make everything work perfect every time you go in. Sometimes that gets lost in the shuffle a little bit.”

Although the industry is stressful at times, it’s integral to not just the horse community as a whole, but specifically the equine space in Whitesboro. 

“There are several very well-known, established reproduction vets and facilities here in Whitesboro that all they do is the reproduction part,” Julie said. “It definitely adds a huge impact to the economy. There is way more population in the rural parts of Whitesboro than there is actually in town, and so much of it ties back to the horse industry. You’re just surrounded by such a strong agricultural community here, and so many people understand the value of what your business is helping to bring to the town.”

While the clients within Whitesboro and outside of it are vital to the particular success of Voge Quarter Horses, Julie believes the root of their success also directly reflects back on the devotion of her family, day-in and day-out. 

“I don’t have yearlings to fit if Justin doesn’t make them, and Justin can’t make them if we don’t have good record keeping and our finances are in order,” Julie said. “Our group, our LLC, we all have a very vital role in making the wheel go around. If you pick out any one piece, then we can’t do what we do. They make the wheel go around. But if you take out one piece of the wheel, the wheel is flat and it won’t work.”

The wheel of Voge Quarter Horses is well-oiled, relying on the hard work of those who keep it turning. While the team may be small, their devotion is unwavering.

“We do a lot of it ourselves, and so we try not to overextend and try to stay within our means and just do the best we can within that,” Julie said. “It takes a lot of hands, a lot of talent, to get you where you want to be.” 

However difficult and fragile their livelihood may be sometimes, the breeding industry is the Voges’ utmost passion. 

The gift of seeing a mare deliver a healthy and long-legged colt or filly they’ve essentially crafted is invaluable. And later, getting to see a picture of that colt or filly in a professional awards photo—smiles lighting up the faces of the owner, rider and trainer alongside it—is a moment that makes it unquestionably worth it. And that moment begins years earlier, in a tight-knit breeding operation, with the knowledgeable minds, watchful eyes and steady hands of the Voges.