TS Black Tie Affair

Legendary Trick Horse

Great style never goes out of fashion – nor do great horses. From the moment the 7/8 Arabian pinto colt, by Tardar out of EVG Lady Di, was born in 1990, it was clear he would be something special. Jan Sharp thought so too when she saw a picture of three-year-old TS Black Tie Affair in an Arabian horse magazine, while looking for a stallion to breed to her mares. Instead, she brought home a lifelong friend.

At first, the fiery Tie charged his stall door each time Jan approached but, relying on her skills as a trick horse trainer, she redirected his high energy into performing tricks, beginning with laying down on command. Tie’s intelligence became obvious as he stopped his bad behavior and became a willing pupil, learning to rumba, Spanish walk, salute, sit, skip, play keyboards, and strum a guitar while in-hand, under saddle, or at liberty.

© Maria DiBello

Tie’s talents also extended to the show ring where his phenomenal career included winning 22 Pinto World and Reserve World Championships, two Pinto All-Around Pleasure High Point titles, multiple halter, dressage, English and Western pleasure titles, competitive trail championships including 2000 Pinto Trail Horse of the Year, the Pinto Horse Association’s Open Supreme Championship and, in 2010, the Arabian Horse Association Ambassador Award.

Tie also became a fan-favorite performer at BreyerFest - he attended for multiple years, and even held his official retirement ceremony in the Kentucky Horse Park Covered Arena at BreyerFest 2016.

Jan and TS Black Tie Affair with a fan at BreyerFest

The gentle stallion’s public role as an equine ambassador introduced young and old alike to the magic of horses. Jan has said that it won’t be the awards they won together that she will remember best about Tie, but the moments when he took a cookie from an elderly fan, or lowered his head for a pet by the countless children touching a horse for the first time. A beautiful horse, with a beautiful heart, TS Black Tie Affair embodied everything that makes Arabians - and all horses - truly special.

TS Black Tie Affair was honored with his own Breyer portrait model in 2011.