Looking back to July 2009
A LIFETIME WITH HORSES, by Sheila Varian
A Lifetime W ith Ar
Desperado V
abians
by Sh eil a Va ria n I started riding at 8 and rode western a lot until I was in my 20s, showin In looks, wit h his g Farlotta, Ronteza stout con for matio and Bay-Event in the stock horse and n, Desperado was un like his sire, Hu reined cow horse sho ckleberry Bey, jus ws. By the time Desperado V was t as Huck, wit h his cur ves and ref ine foa led in 1986, I wa me nt, had been un lik s stil l showing western, but the em e his sire, Bay El Bey. W hen Despe phasis was on Engli rado was an early sh, since it was the div ision impor tan yea rling, a lady fro Te xas who was int t in the Arabian per m ere sted in pu rchasing formance industry at the time. Don Sev a colt arr ived at the ranch, and era was on the sce we bro ugh ne the t him n, and he and two or three was ver y much a lov other yea rlings to er of the western inf the bar n for her to luence and all things western, wh see. Don had not seen Desperado sin ich was perfect for ce he was weaned, me, tak ing me rig back to my roots. and remembered ht him We are par tners in as a scr uff y colt wit Desperado, who h a winter coat, out when he was foa led playing wit h his pals. It wa fel l nat ura lly into s spr ing, and Despe the western mode, to our delight. rado had filled out and shed out. We clipped and bat hed him, and out from under the lon g and shagg y coat stepped a rea lly 250 | AR AB IAN HO RSE TIM ES
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A Lifetime With Arabians
Desperado V by Sheila Varian I started riding at 8 and rode western a lot until I was in my 20s, showing Farlotta, Ronteza and Bay-Event in the stock horse and reined cow horse shows. By the time Desperado V was foaled in 1986, I was still showing western, but the emphasis was on English, since it was the division important in the Arabian performance industry at the time. Don Severa was on the scene then, and he was very much a lover of the western influence and all things western, which was perfect for me, taking me right back to my roots. We are partners in Desperado, who when he was foaled fell naturally into the western mode, to our delight.
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In looks, with his stout conformation, Desperado was unlike his sire, Huckleberry Bey, just as Huck, with his curves and refinement, had been unlike his sire, Bay El Bey. When Desperado was an early yearling, a lady from Texas who was interested in purchasing a colt arrived at the ranch, and we brought him and two or three other yearlings to the barn for her to see. Don had not seen Desperado since he was weaned, and remembered him as a scruffy colt with a winter coat, out playing with his pals. It was spring, and Desperado had filled out and shed out. We clipped and bathed him, and out from under the long and shaggy coat stepped a really
A Lifetime With Arabians beautiful youngster. The lady loved him, but didn’t make a decision. As she drove out the driveway, I remember Don saying, “If she doesn’t buy him before she gets out the gate, let’s not sell him.” She got through the gate without turning around, and Desperado V was off the market as of that day. Desperado was and is such a charismatic horse that when we took him to Scottsdale in 1988 and showed him in the 2-year-old colt class, throngs of people gathered and followed us back to his stall. He had the black bay color, four low white socks, and he thought (still does) that he was the handsomest, sexiest stallion in town. His face was extremely pretty, much prettier than any of the other horses that were really substantially western at that time. Although stout,
Desperado’s face is very defined, with each bone chiseled as if by an artist. When he nickers or snorts, his nostrils f lutter like butterf ly wings, and his ears are tiny; when he tosses his head, they peek out from under a tumble of forelock and mane—irresistible, to say the least! Don was very proud of Desperado, and his biggest supporter. He loved showing him off, and didn’t want to put him back out on Colt Hill with the other young stallions as I’d always done. At that time, Steve Heathcott was training for us, and he was enthralled with the fact that Desperado as a 2-year-old would get so snorty and be so stallion-like. Between Don and Steve, Desperado was shown to everyone that came to visit Varian Arabians, whether they asked to see him or not. Desperado was growing up prettier by the day, and since every day he was told by two men he was the sexiest horse
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A Lifetime With Arabians in the world, he of course believed it. Consequently, he was getting so thrilled with himself that at 2, he thought he was the head breeding stallion of Varian Arabians. Being in the barn was not helping calm his youthful energy, so one fall day I said, “Okay, this is it. Desperado is going to Colt Hill.”
holes without possibly hurting him. With Desperado, no problem. In fact, it was a fun challenge. Squirrel holes, badger holes—it wasn’t going to matter. Since I had ridden out on a ranch a lot, I recognized a horse that was “trip-able” and one that was not, and you simply could not knock Desperado off his feet.
D-Day arrived. As I put it, “Back to real life for you, Desperado.” We lunged him hard to take the edge off. Then off we went to Colt Hill, which is very steep, covered with brush and rocks, and 15 acres in size, split long ways into three pastures—a perfect area for colts to grow up and make them strong and sure-footed. Two or three of us were stationed at the bottom of the hill, holding the other 2-year-old colts who already lived there and who were bursting with curiosity at what was going on. Steve led Desperado through the brush all the way to the top of the hill, a long way, and turned him loose. Desperado roared down the mountainside a thousand miles an hour, jumping brush and scattering rocks as he galloped to the other colts. We had taken the halters off the others, and as Desperado arrived, we turned them all around and chased them right back up to the top of the mountain. When they got there, Steve chased them all back down again. They came right back up, leaping through the brush, bouncing off one another, galloping hard. By the time they got to the bottom of the hill after the third run up and down, they were all tired, gentle little guys, standing there with their tongues hanging out, as calm as could be. Desperado lived outside for quite a number of months very happily and was a good citizen. In fact, we led him to the barn and bred him and took him right back out again to Colt Hill all spring, as he bred some 28 or 29 mares as a 2-year-old. Being free with their peers is healthier for a horse’s mind (especially young stallions), and being active all day and night is mandatory for good, strong bone growth.
The first time I rode Desperado in the arena, I trotted him into a lope and “serpentined” him down the middle of the arena, and every time I changed directions, he changed leads fore and aft. That’s how solid he was on his feet. You couldn’t make him miss a hind lead. He was so strong; he was very, very, very strong, a truly capable horse. He has been a huge influence on bringing me back into the western world where I began. An important principle of Varian Arabians has always been to breed horses who are truly sturdy, with good, clean, strong, flat bone, not coarse. And Desperado is such a beautiful horse to top it off.
When I started Desperado under saddle as a 3-yearold, I finally had a bull pen, so he knew the basics of how to walk, trot and canter in an enclosure. Because he was more substantial than Huckleberry Bey, one thing that never concerned me with Desperado was that he might fall, step in a hole, or trip. Desperado was so powerful, with a leg on each corner, that going off his feet was never a worry. I knew I wasn’t going to gallop Huckleberry Bey through a pasture of gopher
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One of my favorite Desperado stories occurred one afternoon when I walked down to the show barn after lunch. I have a big, oval arena, with a fence that is about three-and-a-half feet high. A 25-acre mare pasture runs out from the arena, and at particular times of the day, coming in to feed or go to water, the mares gallop all the way from the back of the pasture around the arena to the front. Sometimes that’s quite a group, 10 or 15 head. That afternoon, when I went out to the arena, to my surprise, I saw Jaime Hernandez standing up on Desperado, spinning his rope and doing rope tricks. I said to myself, “Oh, my—I love this!” I had told Jaime I wanted him to be able to rope off Desperado, so to get him used to a rope. Jaime, who is a good roper and pretty good trick roper, had been playing with Desperado, roping bushes, fence posts, whatever. Just about anything that walked by got roped. So there Jaime was at the end of the arena, standing up on the saddle, doing rope tricks over Desperado’s head. The bridle reins were lying around the saddle horn, and Desperado was standing there very patiently, looking around, quite unconcerned. Desperado was/is a really macho stallion, always sure he is king of the wind and king over all other horses, so I was watching and thinking, “H’m, this could be good.” Then I saw the mares at the far end of the field start to head in our direction. They picked up a trot, and then a canter, and then they were galloping,
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A Lifetime With Arabians as they do every day when they come up for water. Knowing Desperado, I sidled over to the arena gate and closed it before he could see all the mares galloping up to the arena—and was thinking, “This is going to be exciting.” Desperado lifted his head as the mares approached. I stood at the gate, since that’s where Desperado was going to come when he headed for the mares and Jaime fell off—except Desperado continued to stand there, and Jaime continued to spin the rope. Desperado’s ears perked up, he got a very interested look on his face, and he slowly turned his head to follow the mares as they came by the end of the arena. He didn’t snort or whistle or move. He stood very still and watched them go by. My mind immediately said, “This is great.” And with that, I put it into our Summer Jubilee, and for several years Jaime dressed up in a charro outfit we borrowed from Katy Comacho and rode Desperado, doing lead changes and spins to Mexican music, and as a finale standing up on the saddle, doing his rope tricks, spinning the rope over his head and Desperado’s head. The crowd went wild, Desperado stood, Jaime grinned and I cheered. The moral of my story is, if I see a horse or a person doing something unusual, it’s apt to become a Summer Jubilee feature. (Join us for our 25th Summer Jubilee celebration August 7, 8 and 9. There will always be something new.) All of my stallions have had distinctly different personalities. Bay-Abi had such a sense of humor and was a clown; Bay El Bey was regal, and we called him ‘the kingmaker;’ Huck was impossibly cute and clever. And
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Desperado? Sexy is the word that fits him to a T. He is so macho, so king of the mountain, so sure of himself. He is a strong, masculine horse that I knew I could ride anywhere. I remember one photo shoot which resulted in a picture of me running through a field with a riata held above my head, and the caption was “We never look back, they could be gaining on us.” (It now opens the Varian Arabians website.) At the time we didn’t own the field we used for the shoot, and it was filled with gopher and squirrel holes. Don had the picture and caption all in mind, and Scott Trees was the photographer. My job was to run Desperado across the field wide open, with a lot of motion and activity, and then they were going to blur the picture. I galloped him across the field as fast as he could run 10 or 12 times, even though it was full of gopher holes, and it never made me nervous. I knew for sure no hole was big enough or deep enough to knock Desperado off his feet. One thing I’ve learned over the years—mostly through working with Desperado V youngsters—is that while Desperado is so big and bold and powerful, those thin, thin fluttery nostrils are a clue to the truth. He is a sensitive horse. The machismo of his youth was true, but so is his sensitivity. I believe we didn’t always understand the two went together. If correction is too harsh, a horse hardens to it. The lesson learned is ‘less is better than too much.’ It becomes the handler’s job to understand just how much of anything is the right amount; that would be the difference between a horseman and a horse handler, I believe. For instance, although Desperado has had many winners in western pleasure classes, for him personally, western pleasure is very static—only the horses’ legs are moving to any degree, and nothing else. Let him lengthen, slide, spin, do the
A Lifetime With Arabians long trot of a hunter, go a hundred miles in endurance, be a reiner—now you’re talking Desperado’s language. Although Desperado as a stallion did not spend time on ranches gathering cattle, the two ranch horses that I ride are Murietta V (a Desperado son) and Jubilation (by the Desperado son Maclintock V). These two horses are each beautiful to look at and carry the substance that makes them appeal to the ranchers I ride for. As of this writing in early June, ranches in California are just finishing gathering and/or shipping cattle. I am gathering on several different ranches over country that my horses don’t know. I unload and tie to the trailers or load into anyone else’s stock trailer, with either one of them tied in with horses they don’t know, and they will be quiet and sensible. Our country can be rugged, and if you are on top of a mountain, with cattle running all directions, you definitely want a horse that will stand quietly until you see which way the cattle are going to flow. Crossing rocky creeks, climbing up and down narrow trails, sometimes leaving my horse tied to a branch on a very narrow trail while I crawl through brush to flush the cattle out— either of these two horses can do anything necessary to get the job done so you’re asked to come back and ride again. My ranch horses head cattle, slide off rugged country, stay on their feet along a mountainside with no trails, and are ready to go the next day—all the while being beautiful Arabians that always attract positive comments from the ranchers I ride with. These days, Desperado is the grand old man of Varian Arabians. He comes out at our Spring Fling and Summer Jubilee and plays to his Linda Ronstadt “Desperado” music, but otherwise, he lives 24 hours a day in the grass field up by the breeding barn. It’s the same one enjoyed by Bay El Bey and Huckleberry Bey during the closing years of their lives.
I find it interesting to watch older stallions at the end of their breeding careers. All, at that time of life, accept that other stallions are going up to the lab to breed and they are not (or they are going much less often). It’s not that they aren’t still stallions; they just get it—they understand life. They’ll tease the mares a bit, because it’s only about 10 feet from their field to the paddocks and pens. They’ll watch the other stallions walk up to the lab, hear the breeding noises, and pay no attention. So here I am, nearly a lifetime later. I started with and loved Bay Abi, then Bay El Bey, followed by Huckleberry Bey, and now Desperado V. All stallions, one generation after another, that built our barns, bought our hay, paid the salaries, bred the mares, won the championships and brought immense pleasure to scores of people all over the world. Now the Desperado son Maclintock V takes over for Desperado V … and Bravado Bey V for his sire, Huckleberry Bey … and Jullyen El Jamaal brings the outcross needed to continue the heritage of the wonderful horses that have made Varian Arabians. ■ Sheila Varian, of Arroyo Grande, Calif., has bred, trained and shown Arabians for more than half a century. Now in its ninth generation, the Varian Arabians program is a dynasty of her bloodlines, with national champions in nearly every division. She has been a leading breeder at Scottsdale and the U.S. Nationals many times, and in 2008 received the USEF/Performance Horse Registry Leading Breeder Award, a selection made over all breeds. Sheila’s own record includes U.S. and Canadian National Championships in halter, English, park, stock horse, and western. She is a recognized authority in the equine industry as a whole, and was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2003. Her techniques for socializing and training horses are based on the “soft approach” of the legendary Tom Dorrance, with whom she was close friends from their introduction in the 1960s until his death in 2003. For more information on Varian Arabians, and the August Summer Jubilee, please go to www.varianarabians.com.
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