Looking back to September 2009
A LIFETIME WITH HORSES, by Sheila Varian
A Lifetime W ith Ar Bay-Event And R onteza
abians
by Sh eil a Va ria n Fa rlotta was my fir st Arabian horse; she came into my life when I was 15 the competition wa yea rs old. She wa s much stiffer in the s the first Arabian horse I tra ined, fin open shows and they had cattle, so ished and showed we showed more in in a spade bit, a method of tra ining the open shows (open being for all I was interested in breeds, although ou lea rning from Syd Ma ry Spencer, wh r competition was mostly Quart o ow ned a cat tle ran er Horses). Bay-E ch about 10 mi les from Ha lcyon, wh vent showed in the hackamore throug ere I grew up. Be h his fifth year; in ing from Ca liforni and appreciat ing his sixth year, I rod a him in the two-rein its histor y wit h ho e , and at the age of rses, I was intereste in the Vaquero sty 7, he went straight d up in the bridle. I le of tra ining, wh took him slowly and ich sta rts a horse hackamore, and the showed him in a carefully, and he wo n evolves to the tw n consistently in the o-rein and finally to the spade bit. I open shows. was just in my tee ns, but Syd educat me as Fa rlotta and ed Bay-Event was gam I rode out wit h her e, game, game. I wo on the ranch. That was the tra ini n two or three saddles on him. On ng I used on Ronte e of my favorite sho za, my second Arabian horse. ws was the Santa Maria Fair, which had a number of sto ck horse classes and was a big draw for all the Ca liforni Ronteza rea lly ma a horse trainers. Arizona and Nevad de my name in the a horsemen came Arabian horse world, as well as out as well. It became a kin d of joke, I’ve been side of it. People stil told, that when I pu l talk about Ronteza winning lled in with my trailer, the guys wo the Reined Cow Ho uld laugh, “Well, rse Championship at the Cow Pa lace, fel lows, you’d better load up and go ho open to all breeds me —Varian has arr and the finest of the stock horse traine ived!” (My farrier was the one who pas rs. Participants cal sed along that bit led it “Winning the World.” Ronteza wa of information, and I must admit that s the first Arabian it has been especially to win and I was the first girl. satisfy ing.) In 1971, I took Ba y-Event to the Ar I purchased Ronte abian U.S. National and he was unanimo za at the age of 2 s usly awarded the U.S from Donald Jones Porterville, Ca lif. . National in Championship for I was stil l a teenag Sto ck er, Ho and rse she s (it was cal led the was the first horse I ever sig horse class at that stock ned the check for. time, rather than She was by *Witez II, the Polish sta llio reining). n rescued by Gener al George Patton during World Wa In the winter, I usu r II and impor ted ally turned Bay-E to Ca lifornia, where he became a remoun vent out in the hil so he could let dow ls t sire. *Witez II has n. He was well tra gotten a lot of credit for Ronteza, ined by that time, so he didn’t need to but act ual ly, it wa sta y s in her the barn being wo dam, Ronna, that interested me rked. He was out on what we , because she had called “the back 30 been a hackamore horse. However, tha ” of the ranch. In those days, utility t is another story. companies were mo This is about Ronteza’s first foa re careless about informing owners l, Bay-Event. when they were goi ng to be on their property making cha nges, and one win Because I showed ter a couple of yea after our national in the reined cow rs championship, Pac horse events throughout the yea ific Gas & Electric came through the r, Ronteza didn’t hav cou ntr y, e che her cki firs ng on their high wir t foa l until she was 11. It lines. One of their e was a colt by U.S. lines ran along a pat National Champio Sta llion Bay-Abi, h that the horses n used to come dow and his bir th was n to suc wa ter h a . Tra big gic eve I named him Bay-E ally, the PG&E cre nt that changed a fence so w vent (that was bef that instead of par ore we started using the ‘V’ and the firs alleling the trail, it cut across it. One t letter of the mare’s rainy night, Bay-E name). W hen Bay-Event was 3, vent came down the path, which was slic I saddled him and k and muddy, and started him in the hackamore. We sho by the time he saw the new fence, he wed a little bit in was apparently un Arabian shows, but able to stop. He slid hard into it, gettin g his hind leg tangle d up and doing
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A Lifetime With Arabians Bay-Event And Ronteza by Sheila Varian Farlotta was my first Arabian horse; she came into my life when I was 15 years old. She was the first Arabian horse I trained, finished and showed in a spade bit, a method of training I was interested in learning from Syd Mary Spencer, who owned a cattle ranch about 10 miles from Halcyon, where I grew up. Being from California and appreciating its history with horses, I was interested in the Vaquero style of training, which starts a horse in a hackamore, and then evolves to the two-rein and finally to the spade bit. I was just in my teens, but Syd educated me as Farlotta and I rode out with her on the ranch. That was the training I used on Ronteza, my second Arabian horse. Ronteza really made my name in the Arabian horse world, as well as outside of it. People still talk about Ronteza winning the Reined Cow Horse Championship at the Cow Palace, open to all breeds and the finest of the stock horse trainers. Participants called it “Winning the World.” Ronteza was the first Arabian to win and I was the first girl. I purchased Ronteza at the age of 2 from Donald Jones in Porterville, Calif. I was still a teenager, and she was the first horse I ever signed the check for. She was by *Witez II, the Polish stallion rescued by General George Patton during World War II and imported to California, where he became a remount sire. *Witez II has gotten a lot of credit for Ronteza, but actually, it was her dam, Ronna, that interested me, because she had been a hackamore horse. However, that is another story. This is about Ronteza’s first foal, Bay-Event. Because I showed in the reined cow horse events throughout the year, Ronteza didn’t have her first foal until she was 11. It was a colt by U.S. National Champion Stallion Bay-Abi, and his birth was such a big event that I named him Bay-Event (that was before we started using the ‘V’ and the first letter of the mare’s name). When Bay-Event was 3, I saddled him and started him in the hackamore. We showed a little bit in Arabian shows, but
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the competition was much stiffer in the open shows and they had cattle, so we showed more in the open shows (open being for all breeds, although our competition was mostly Quarter Horses). Bay-Event showed in the hackamore through his fifth year; in his sixth year, I rode him in the two-rein, and at the age of 7, he went straight up in the bridle. I took him slowly and showed him carefully, and he won consistently in the open shows. Bay-Event was game, game, game. I won two or three saddles on him. One of my favorite shows was the Santa Maria Fair, which had a number of stock horse classes and was a big draw for all the California horse trainers. Arizona and Nevada horsemen came as well. It became a kind of joke, I’ve been told, that when I pulled in with my trailer, the guys would laugh, “Well, fellows, you’d better load up and go home—Varian has arrived!” (My farrier was the one who passed along that bit of information, and I must admit that it has been especially satisfying.) In 1971, I took Bay-Event to the Arabian U.S. Nationals and he was unanimously awarded the U.S. National Championship for Stock Horses (it was called the stock horse class at that time, rather than reining). In the winter, I usually turned Bay-Event out in the hills so he could let down. He was well trained by that time, so he didn’t need to stay in the barn being worked. He was out on what we called “the back 30” of the ranch. In those days, utility companies were more careless about informing owners when they were going to be on their property making changes, and one winter a couple of years after our national championship, Pacific Gas & Electric came through the country, checking on their high wire lines. One of their lines ran along a path that the horses used to come down to water. Tragically, the PG&E crew changed a fence so that instead of paralleling the trail, it cut across it. One rainy night, Bay-Event came down the path, which was slick and muddy, and by the time he saw the new fence, he was apparently unable to stop. He slid hard into it, getting his hind leg tangled up and doing
A Lifetime With Arabians
Sheila Varian and Bay-Event, who was so named because his birth was such a big event!
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A Lifetime With Arabians immeasurable damage to himself. We didn’t find him until the next morning, and by then, he had nearly bled to death and was in a state of severe shock.
couple of years, Bay-Event was rehabilitated. He was not perfect, however; although he was not lame, he did have an odd gait at the trot.
I immediately called Dr. Doug Herthel, who had founded Alamo Pintado Clinic in Santa Ynez, Calif., only a couple of years before. Dr. Herthel gave Bay-Event a blood transfusion and wrapped his leg. We didn’t have time even to match blood types. It was another day or two before we were able to get a match with another horse, and Dr. Herthel gave Bay-Event a second transfusion. By that time, Bay-Event had stabilized a little, and Dr. Herthel repaired the wound as best he could and put him in a cast from just below his stifle to his toe. One question was whether or not he would accept the cast, and of course we worried whether there had been so much damage and loss of blood to the leg that Bay-Event would not have blood flow to the foot. The outlook was not very bright. I stayed with Bay-Event day and night, and he stood there, in his cast, for three days—until finally, on the third day, he had thought about it carefully and figured out how to lie down and get up without breaking the cast. He turned around and lay down very quietly and cautiously, so that he didn’t damage the cast.
If the story ended there, it would be what most people call heartwarming. But for Bay-Event, there were further chapters in life. He had regained so much strength and mobility that in the summer of 1976, three days before entries closed for the U.S. Nationals, Dr. Herthel surprised me by inquiring, “Why don’t you take him to Nationals?” I hadn’t been on Bay-Event, let alone worked him, since his accident. As a U.S. National Champion though, he was qualified for life. Well, why not? I mailed in the entry form and started riding Bay-Event.
Bay-Event’s recovery was a long process. It was six weeks before Dr. Herthel cut off the cast. Bay-Event stood calmly for this procedure, and when the cast was off, we found to our relief that he had a good supply of blood in his foot and he was going to survive. However, he was disfigured and not capable of carrying a rider. Dr. Herthel decided that he would remove the lateral digital extensor tendon, a nonessential tendon, from the front leg and transplant it into the severed deep-flexor tendon in the hind leg. The procedure was effective, and over the next 392AA | AR ABIAN HORSE TIMES
In the three months or so between that day and the Nationals, I galloped Bay-Event—or loped or did whatever he wanted to do—in the arena. We didn’t practice spins, slides, turns, or figure eights; we just galloped, and as the days went by, he gained more and more condition. When it came time to leave for Louisville, I loaded him on the van with the other eight horses in the show string. We stopped in Salt Lake City for a warm-up show, where I had entered some of the other horses but not BayEvent. There was a track at Sheila Varian and Bay-Event competing at an open show. the fairgrounds, and every day I would gallop BayEvent on it, just logging the miles. I never did a change of lead, never did a sliding stop, never tried a spin. I could tell he was getting stronger and feeling good, and he was naturally a very comfortable, pleasant horse. Then that show ended, and we were off on our eastbound trip.
Sheila Varian and Bay-Event, as a 5-year-old, circling up in the Hackamore.
We pulled into the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in mid-October and settled
A Lifetime With Arabians
Sheila Varian and Bay-Event after winning their first of two unanimous U.S. National Championships (1971 and 1976).
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A Lifetime With Arabians
Sheila Varian and Bay-Event doing a spin—straight up in the spade bit.
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A Lifetime With Arabians eight, a change of lead, a spin, a sliding stop, or a back-up in three years. In a 20-horse class, he was flawless, as if he had been training every day. Three years after his injury, I rode Bay-Event into Freedom Hall to receive his second unanimous U.S. National Stock Horse Championship.
Sheila Varian and Bay-Event, as a 7-year-old circling his cow in the bridle.
in. At that time, you were allowed to gallop your horses on the grass at the show grounds, so every morning, I would gallop Bay-Event in the cool morning air before the show started. He was doing well. During the national championship cutting horse class, I rode Bay-Event over to the arena and sat on him, letting him watch the competition. He had worked a lot of cattle, so he stood and quietly watched, and I could feel his interest becoming more intense. The day of the Stock Horse U.S. National Championship, I had yet to do anything but gallop him. Maybe I was afraid he wouldn’t be able to do much more, but also I always think a horse has only so many stops and so many spins in him, and I didn’t want to waste any of Bay-Event’s. That morning, I slowly saddled, nervous as I always am before a big class. I got on him in the groom room, sat quietly for a few moments to relax—and the minute I walked him out into the barn aisle, I knew he was ready. I could feel it in his attitude and sensitivity. He was quiet as could be, not making a sound, not a jig or a quick step, but very, very ready. I walked him out to the arena and stood at the back of the big warm-up ring that is connected by a ramp to Freedom Hall, not talking to anyone, letting the moment take me over. All the other horses were warming up, spinning, backing, getting ready; we stood in the back and I let Bay-Event watch. Like his dam, Ronteza, I could feel through the fenders of my saddle that he knew what was coming—the quickened heartbeat, the quiet tension. His heart was pounding and my heart was pounding. I knew we were as ready as we could be. When they called Bay-Event’s number, I trotted him into the ring. It was the first time he’d done so much as a figure
When the show ended, I took Bay-Event home knowing I would never show him again. I didn’t think he was really strong enough for a show career, and certainly not to work cattle. He had won consistently since he was 4 years old against the best Quarter Horses and finished with two U.S. National Championships. I turned him out in the pasture, but he wasn’t all that happy with his life of ease. In his estimation, it didn’t have enough personal contact with humans. So my dear friend Gracie Quartermaine, who had always loved him, took him to her backyard, where she could give him all the attention he wanted. She pleasure rode him for the rest of his life. And what a long, full life it was! BayEvent died in his late 20s. Perhaps the longevity came from his dam, because Ronteza was with me until 1986, when I lost her at the age of 28. Ronteza and her son Bay-Event played a great role in my life. They were not only very successful show horses, they were horses you could have faith in. They were very, very sensitive; they always listened, and they never took advantage. When they went to the show ring, they would stand motionless … watching … ears up … still—watching. I knew then that they were really ready. When I asked, I knew both would give me their souls. Two great horses, and because I believed in them, they believed in me. ■ 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 a close friend from their introduction in the 1960s until his death in 2003. For more information on Varian Arabians, and its April Spring Fling and August Summer Jubilee weekends, please go to www.varianarabians.com. SEP TEMBER 20 09 | 395AA