Lifelong horseman Marty Mueller of French Lick, IN, died Friday morning, November 14, 2008, at age 96. During his life, he built a reputation as one of the top trainers of American Saddlebreds. Mueller was raised in the famous resort area of Indiana known as ”The Valley,” where his father was the head gardener at the fabled West Baden Springs Hotel. Marty grew up watching the horses at L. S. Dickey’s French Lick Springs Resort Stables, and he began working at Dickey’s as a stable boy, eventually taking the hotel guests on trail rides.
In 1950, he took a job at Floyd Shofner’s Farm in California, and began working a difficult and temperamental two-year-old colt. Mueller, known throughout the industry as a patient, knowledgeable, and exceptional trainer, persevered. That colt was the famous CH The Lemon Drop Kid.
Mueller moved to Missouri, where he had one of his most famous horses CH Red Cedar before going to J. L. Younghusband’s Valley View Farm in Barrington, IL. In addition, Mueller trained such horses as Mr. Lightfoot, and CH James L. CH Roses Are Red, owned by Jean McLean Davis, was also with him at Valley View Farm. Mueller traveled to Canada, Georgia, and Oregon as a Saddlebred trainer, but always returned to his beloved “Valley” in Indiana.
Other horses Mueller is known for are CH Stone’s King Lee, My Mercedes, CH Top Hat Mac, Lovely Sensation, Limelight, CH So Wonderful, Ricochet, Society Rhythm, CH Spanish Command, CH Magic Supreme, and CH Ensign’s Sashay.
He personally purchased CH Rambling Stonewall on August 10, 1965. After a few days’ lessons, showing him as Look-A-Here, he won the Three-Year-Old Three-Gaited World’s Championship.
Mueller is also known for the young horsemen who once worked with him, such as Jim and Mike McIntosh, Merrill Murray, Bob Ruxer, Jack Baker, and many, many more.
Mueller’s lifetime achievements did not go unnoticed; he was inducted into both the United Professional Horsemen's Association Tom Moore Hall of Fame, the Kentucky State Fair World’s Championship Horse Show Hall of Fame, and was the 2004 recipient of the American Saddlebred Horse Association’s (ASHA) Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor that ASHA can bestow upon an individual.
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