Treff-Haven: Champions of The Horse by Kate Rhodes
“If I knew then what I know now” ~Tina Penniman
stories about horses in the past and paints a beautiful picture in your mind. She loved and appreciated each individual for who they were and were not. She still loves a functionally conformed, well trained, thoughtfully conditioned horse in the ring to be inspected. However, “feed ‘em and lead ‘em” was not their mission and it shows in the individuals she chose to breed as well.
I did not expect to hear that accent on the other end of the phone. That northern New England sharpness and directness was not mistakable, and it felt like home as my father spoke similarly. It took me by surprise because I was a new transplant from Massachusetts to Arkansas and it was the last thing I expected. He told me he noticed I had just purchased MB Leisa (Imperial Saturn x Leilaah) and had moved her back to Arkansas. He owned her mother, Leilaah, and used her in his breeding program and he and his wife wanted to come see Leisa. Little did I know that this was one of most pivotal moments in my life as a horsewoman. I said yes and have never regretted a day…
My favorite quote ever came from Tina and it was in regard to looking at both the individual and the pedigree when assessing a horse for a particular purpose. “It’s like being able to like lemon meringue pie even though you may not like lemons”. One of my most valuable lessons regarding pie was learning about their acquisition of Nagsous (Makhsous x Nagliah). They wanted to buy Nagliah at the Gleannloch sale but that did not happen. Nagsous was at her side at the time. They were contacted shortly after to purchase Nagsous and chose to take the chance. Had they retained a narrow focus on acquiring the dam’s lines only, they would have missed owning a hugely prolific and influential stallion. To quote Ralph Suarez on his Egyptian Arabian Blogspot: “Nagsous was 10 foot tall and bulletproof.” I met him. I know many of his get. This headline is no Tina Penniman and Treff Haven Alizeer (Treff Haven exaggeration. Xplorer x Aliama)
Homer Penniman was raised in Vermont, mainly by his grandparents while his father served in the military. His grandfather was a farrier who raised horses, used drafts for farming, and even had The Justin Morgan boarded at his barn at one point. Homer unknowingly was raised relatively near W.R. Brown’s Maynesboro Stud, and told me a story about an old horseman who commented that a particular horse “always had his tail up” and didn’t like it in his face when he was hitching him to drive, but had seen that trait often in the area. Homer remarked that he didn’t understand what he was hearing at the time, but he suspected many horses like this in Vermont were bred or influenced by the early imports of W.R. Brown and wished he had known then what he knew now. Regardless, he was raised where one respected the work of the animal, took responsibility for its training and care, but did not glorify that which was not there. That came to be the quality I most admired in him as a breeder and a horseman. It shows strongly in the stock he bred.
For me, another major impact was seeing Bint Lebleba (*GAF Hosam x *Lebleba) and seeing her and her offspring changed the course of my future as a breeder both instantly and permanently. She was a big, substantial mare with a gorgeous face, awesome bone and was a freight train of a mover. I saw six of her offspring and they were all unmistakably her children. Lebby influenced me greatly, enough that I bought her son, Treff-Haven Sabeel. I remember leaving their farm the first time and my mother and I looked at each other and knew how we were going to move forward. It was going to involve using the Penniman’s stock and studying the choices they made.
Tina Penniman is a strong-willed, soft-spoken woman who thinks deeply about the horses she has seen and chosen to raise. “I love the Arabian breed!” Tina is passionate about everything Arabian, and more specifically, the Al Khamsa Egyptian Arabian, but is honestly a true champion of all good Al Khamsa lines. She tells
Many associate Treff-Haven Arabians with the Non-Nazeer, New Egyptian group. This is because both Homer and Tina 24