Looking back to March 2010
A LIFETIME WITH HORSES, by Sheila Varian
A Lifetime W ith Ar Ronteza, Part IV
abians
by Sh eil a Va ria n For the past three months, we have rec alle d the life of Ronteza, the first rei ned horse to put me on cow horse people the map in the and the genera l pub horse industry, bot lic. At the time, the Arabian h in the open reinin horse world didn’t g wo rld and Arabian horse bre rea lly rea lize what the had happened, not ed. This month, we bei ng pic aw k up with her are of the Ca liforni after her landmark a reined cow horse tradition win at the Cow Pa in the western sta lace. She was the first Arabian and tes of Ca lifornia, Ar izo na, I was the first woma Nevada, Idaho and n to win the Oregon. Reined Cow Horse Championship the re, which at that time (1961) was the That was late Octob highest honor a rei er. I turned Ronte ned cow horse could achieve. Th za out in the hil ls for a while to let her at Sunday afternoon rest, and didn’t thi , television and print reporters we nk of competing for severa l months. re all over the story, After a while, tho and we were congratulated by cro ugh , I finally beg an to consider tak wds of people, but ing her back into I have to admit to being so the arena. With the Cow Pa lace on our record, it was exhausted and nat ura l to set our shell-shocked that sights in 1963 I was hardly able on the Salinas to comprehend Rodeo, the other it. Ronteza and I great reining had been working championship toward that troph of the era. y for five years, Salinas is located and when it was in historica l finally ours, all I reined cow could do was load horse countr y, her up in our little its competition Miley two-horse tak ing place in trailer and head July at the Salinas for the ranch. Rodeo. For many, many years, it We arrived was the other home in Arroyo highlight for Grande late that reined cow horses, evening, and the and a win there Winning the Ladies class at the Salinas next morning I meant a great dea Rodeo, 1963, in fron l t of a capacity crow d. went back to teachi in the reined cow ng high school. In the com ing what we had accom days, horse world. plished finally beg an to sink in. We received a wir I decided to compet e from Western Ho e in the Ladies’ cla rseman that said, “Congratulations ss, which I hadn’t done before, becaus STOP Extraordina e Salinas’ open com ry win STOP ” and so on. Other good petition required cutting. Ronteza and wishes poured in I learned to work too, including a lar bottle of Korbel cha cattle on ranches; ge she wasn’t a traine mpagne, which I d cutting horse. I have kept unopened to this day, a ver y recall tak ing her to one or two small sho tangible reminder ws of that time so to give her cutting long ago. Most of experience, but I honestly can’t rem the recognition cam ember much about e from the open them, although we won one in Colorado .
256 | AR AB IAN HO RSE TIM ES
CLICK TO VIEW
A Lifetime With Arabians Ronteza, Part IV by Sheila Varian For the past three months, we have recalled the life of Ronteza, the first horse to put me on the map in the horse industry, both in the open reining world and the Arabian horse breed. This month, we pick up with her after her landmark win at the Cow Palace. She was the first Arabian and I was the first woman to win the Reined Cow Horse Championship there, which at that time (1961) was the highest honor a reined cow horse could achieve. That Sunday afternoon, television and print reporters were all over the story, and we were congratulated by crowds of people, but I have to admit to being so exhausted and shell-shocked that I was hardly able to comprehend it. Ronteza and I had been working toward that trophy for five years, and when it was finally ours, all I could do was load her up in our little Miley two-horse trailer and head for the ranch.
reined cow horse people and the general public. At the time, the Arabian horse world didn’t really realize what had happened, not being aware of the California reined cow horse tradition in the western states of California, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho and Oregon.
That was late October. I turned Ronteza out in the hills for a while to let her rest, and didn’t think of competing for several months. After a while, though, I finally began to consider taking her back into the arena. With the Cow Palace on our record, it was natural to set our sights in 1963 on the Salinas Rodeo, the other great reining championship of the era. Salinas is located in historical reined cow horse country, its competition taking place in July at the Salinas Rodeo. For many, many years, it was the other highlight for reined cow horses, We arrived and a win there home in Arroyo meant a great deal Grande late that Winning the Ladies class at the Salinas Rodeo, 1963, in front of a capacity crowd. in the reined cow evening, and the horse world. next morning I went back to teaching high school. In the coming days, I decided to compete in the Ladies’ class, which I hadn’t what we had accomplished finally began to sink in. done before, because Salinas’ open competition required We received a wire from Western Horseman that said, cutting. Ronteza and I learned to work cattle on ranches; “Congratulations STOP Extraordinary win STOP” and she wasn’t a trained cutting horse. I recall taking her to so on. Other good wishes poured in too, including a large one or two small shows to give her cutting experience, but bottle of Korbel champagne, which I have kept unopened I honestly can’t remember much about them, although we to this day, a very tangible reminder of that time so won one in Colorado. long ago. Most of the recognition came from the open
256 | AR ABIAN HORSE TIMES
A Lifetime With Arabians We hauled the 150 miles to Salinas, where the reined cow horse classes were held on the race track in between the rodeo events, and where we found the competition just as tough as we’d expected it to be. Carol Rose, who is now in the National Reined Cow Horse Hall of Fame, was showing there, and she had won the Ladies’ Stock Horse Championship at the same Grand National Rodeo where Ronteza and I had won the championship in the open Reined Cow Horse Stake. Today, Carol and I are friends and fellow Winning a cutting event in Estes Park, Colo. members of the Cowgirl about a foal. So I bred her to Bay Abi, and when Bay Hall of Fame in Fort Event was foaled, we gave him his name because to us he Worth, and she has one of the great breeding programs was, as Ronteza’s first foal, a very big event. She was 10 at of the reined cow horse world with the million-dollar the time she was first bred, and she conceived on the first Quarter Horse stallion Shining Spark. But back then, cover, which she continued to do for many years. because I was busy with teaching school (not to mention, I was shy), I didn’t get to know the people I showed In 1966, the Monterey Arabian Horse Association against very well. Carol and I were just competitors—and called and asked if I would like to retire Ronteza from she was always very competitive. competition in a formal ceremony at the Monterey Horse Show. She had been informally retired for a couple of Ronteza and I won that championship. A photograph years by then, but I had not given thought to anything from the class (one of my favorites) shows Ronteza’s more elaborate. In the interim, because there had been so control of her cow as she does her final circle in front much press in the open horse world about what Ronteza of the tens of thousands of spectators that attended the had accomplished, the Arabian horse people had begun to Salinas Rodeo. pick up on her. I was touched that other Arabian owners had become proud of her, and was happy to haul her to Another lasting benefit of Ronteza’s performance at Salinas the fairgrounds for the celebration. By the time we left for is that it led to my friendship with Tom Dorrance, who Monterey, Ronteza’s second foal, a colt named Atmandu, is often called the father of the natural horsemanship was at her side. movement (he hated the term ‘horse whisperer’). He had a ranch in the Salinas area, and saw Ronteza win her title Amazingly, my most cherished memory from Ronteza’s there. Later, he drove up our driveway in Arroyo Grande, retirement was not the ceremony—although it was introduced himself, and said he would enjoy seeing my very special (more on that in a minute)—but the night horses. He spent an hour showing me methods I had before, when the show held its exhibitors dinner. Just never imagined, which I still use daily in working with my about everyone went to the party, and I thought it horses. Tom continued to come, always unexpectedly, every would be a good time to take Ronteza to the arena and year, and we stayed good friends until his death in 2003. let Atmandu play. After Salinas, it was time to let Ronteza down and think
M ARCH 2010 | 257
A Lifetime With Arabians The Monterey Fairgrounds is small, intimate and very pretty—the air off the ocean is crisp and clean, and the area is dotted with dark green cypress trees. I had shown in Monterey several times in the big open show. In fact, after winning the Light Weight class there the same year I won the Cow Palace, I had gone off pattern in the stake, consequently losing the $1,000 prize.
she always did, she lowered her head and stepped over in a perfect half-turn. She was so easy and natural and confident, and I found myself thinking, I’d forgotten how riding a really broke horse feels. I’d been riding colts, helping and guiding them, and here I was, sitting bareback on Ronteza, who at 12 knew all there was to know about life and competition.
I was so aware of the softness of her mouth—that old, immediate response I knew so well. In the mist, we were by ourselves; it was a little like being in a cocoon, just the two of us, she with her spade bit on, me on her bareback. It seemed like the most natural thing to do, as Atmandu played: I leaned forward slightly and asked her to pick up a canter, and as she always had, she picked up a rhythmic, smooth canter. In our own quiet Monterey, typical of all the west coast towns, can become world, we made a circle. We came through the center, foggy and damp in the summer months, and it was that and as I had so many times before, I started to hum, and night. I didn’t saddle her; I put her bridle on, slid on thought about bareback, and making a change. thought I’d As always, she just walk out followed my to the arena thought and and sit on her flowed through while Atmandu a perfect change. played. It was Slowly, with shadowy and no hurry, we silent when I cantered on rode into the around, coming ring. I thought back through the we were alone, figure eight, and but I was told again, I thought later by a few about making people who a change. Once had stayed at more, as always, the grounds she followed my that they thoughts. Neither were sitting of us paid any in the stands, Ronteza’s formal retirement in Monterey, Calif., with her second foal, Atmandu, at side. attention to watching as all Atmandu, who this unfolded. was entertaining himself at the other end of the arena. She cantered to the center, I picked up a rein and asked Ronteza stood quietly, letting Atmandu play, which her, and she slid to a gentle stop. In the stillness of that he did, not paying much attention to his mother. As I atmospheric evening, there might have been no one else in waited for him to finish playing, my mind was going over the world but Ronteza and me, reliving those seven years the times I had shown in that misty Monterey arena, of training and showing we had accomplished together. watching the great open trainers of the day—Jimmy Williams, Clyde Kennedy, Barbara Worth, Don Dodge, I walked her down to the end of the arena, her back Ray Hackworth—showing hunters, jumpers and bridle feeling warm and secure, and asked her to pick up a horses. I dropped a rein against Ronteza’s neck, and like Since I had stopped showing Ronteza, I had not ridden her. I felt then and still do that horses who have achieved exceptional performance wins should not be asked to perform when they are not in the condition they were when showing, and I was never going to put Ronteza in the position of being less than her athletic best.
258 | AR ABIAN HORSE TIMES
A Lifetime With Arabians canter for our first run. We didn’t run like you would in a class; we just loped down tranquilly, quietly. As I picked up my rein, her mouth felt so soft and seasoned and educated—that wonderful togetherness that a great horse gives you when you and your horse become one. I asked her for that effortless slide of hers, dropped my rein against her neck, and she slowly but perfectly made her spin and cantered back down the arena for the second slide. In her Formal retirement in Monterey, Calif., 1966. mind, I think, she was in a competition of some Ronteza’s retirement was a beautiful ceremony. The years ago, but it was all like this wonderful, serene slow Monterey Fairgrounds was a particularly appropriate motion. We loped down the arena to make our last stop, place to retire her, because it is in legendary reined cow and she slid with her inherent grace, and then with a soft horse country; Salinas and Monterey are right next to little half-turn, cantered back to the center. each other. Many great reined cow horse competitions had taken place at that little fairground, and the people The reined cow horse class is made up of the dry work that lived in and around that area understood and (pattern), followed by the cow work. That starless appreciated good reined cow horse work. Somebody had evening, in our slow motion recreation of all of our past written a song for Ronteza, which he sang, making it a competitions, I started to ride toward the chute where she very special evening. normally would receive her cow. Little Ronteza, who was seven months pregnant, who was not paying any attention News of the retirement had been in the Salinas papers, to her colt, dropped her head one more time, and with ears trained on the gate, her body tight and tense, began and word had gotten out among many of the trainers in the open reining world (all of whom rode Quarter to creep toward where she expected an Angus or a Black Horses), and although this was an Arabian horse show Baldy or a Mexican steer to come dashing out. As always, in Monterey, many of our former open competitors came she waited to fly down a fence and head her cow and for Ronteza’s retirement. It was their tribute to a great then circle one more time. Sweet, shy, and in many ways horse, and breed didn’t matter. One by one, they came timid—except when competing—my little bay mare was into the arena to stand quietly behind Ronteza as the ready with heart and soul to do what she did so well. announcer told the crowd why she was unique, what she had accomplished and why she was being honored. I stopped and for a moment relished her honest readiness, I didn’t know it was traditional in the reined cow horse slid off that warm brown back, and gave her a tearful hug. world for other competitors to attend a retirement as In appreciation of just who she was, I pulled her bridle a mark of respect to a horse they consider great. I was off and knew I would never ride her again. And other stunned, as I had no idea that trainers and riders I than the next night’s ceremony, when I led her to the admired would be there, standing with Ronteza and me retirement, she never again felt a rein against her neck or in her farewell. a bit in her mouth. M ARCH 2010 | 259
A Lifetime With Arabians Eventually, when Ronteza was in her late 20s, she developed Cushings and became diabetic, which goes along with Cushings. So we treated her medically for that, and would leave her loose on the ranch. We’d roll a wheelbarrow of hay to wherever she was so she could eat wherever and whenever she wanted. When she wanted to go somewhere else, we would take the wheelbarrow as she instructed. Ronteza, who had been so earnest all her life, began to do funny things as she got older. We didn’t have gates from the ranch to the road at that time, so one of us always had to be aware Ronteza’s first foal, named Bay-Event because his birth was such a big event. of where she was. She would He went on to be a two-time U.S. National Champion. be resting or eating by her cart, when all of a sudden she would lift her head and get this faraway look in her eye, and Monterey, as I said, was the last time I ever rode Ronteza, we’d all say, “Ronteza’s about to run away from home!” as I promised her. She went on having babies and grew Someone would dash out to the road to head her off. She old very gracefully, as you would expect of her. As she got would stop with this “What in the world are you doing?” older, Ronteza began to give instructions, as many old look on her face. We’d put a hand behind her ears, tell horses and dogs who have had very personal relationships her, “Ronteza, you just cannot run away from the home with humans do. She had never asked for anything as a whenever the mood strikes you,” and amble home with young horse, although if we were at a horse show and she her to watch for the next time other lands called her. was tied to the trailer, she would always be looking for me, even in a crowd, and when she saw me, she would call for me with one of those little, soft ho-ho-ho nickers of hers—“Here! I’m over here!” In her own way, she was very shy, so she was always glad to see me. As she got older, she began to let us know of changes she would like: “I would like to be here, please. I’d like to be over there, please.” My feeling was, whatever Ronteza wanted, Ronteza should have. After all, she was a champion. Not being the demanding kind, she would tap on the fence with her hoof—a quiet little tap-tap-tap when you went by, with a little ho-ho-ho. So I knew she wanted to go somewhere. I’d open the gate and put my hand behind her ears, since that was the way I always led her. She would drop her head and instead of going where I wanted to go, I would let her take me wherever she had in mind to go. She was never demanding or pushy, so I loved that she formed the habit of asking me to go here or there.
260 | AR ABIAN HORSE TIMES
As she got older, Ronteza gently, in her own way, requested to go more places and have more fields to go into, and she wandered around more. We just went along with it. When the time finally came for her to go to God, at the age of 27, we buried her on the hill, under the trees, in our memorial park. It was a very, very difficult time for everyone who knew her, admired her and loved her. She rests with Bay-Abi, *Bachantka, *Naganka, *Ostroga, Bay El Bey and Huckleberry Bey in the lovely area that overlooks the ranch. Visitors often go there to sit on the benches and remember how special those horses were. As a broodmare, Ronteza produced 11 foals, six colts and five fillies. I gelded all the colts that I wanted to train and show, so there were only two stallions. Bay-Sage was sold to Canada, where the Cartwrights had him as their
A Lifetime With Arabians ranch stallion for many years. Atmandu, who was so very beautiful, I sold to people in California, and in a sad story, ultimately was ruined by mishandling (I finally was able to reacquire him, and assured him of a happy final chapter in his life). The others I kept or made sure their homes would be safe. Bay Event (see Arabian Horse Times, September 2009) was twice a U.S. National Champion Stock Horse, as it was called at the time, and Bay-Shadow was a U.S. National Champion Cutting Horse; Bay-Teza was a U.S. National Top Ten Mare and U.S. National Top Ten in Western Pleasure before going on to produce successful foals of her own, including the stallion SC Buckaroo Bay, U.S. and Canadian National Champion Reining Horse, who was by Desperado V. Atmandu was a champion halter horse, but he never got a chance to be a reined cow horse, which he should have been. It is interesting to note that when Ronteza won at the Cow Palace, I was 23 years old. Obviously, a 23 year old can only know so much, especially when she’s been doing everything by herself. I’ve always said it was Ronteza who took me by the hand, because the credit has to be hers. I knew what I wanted to achieve and a little about how to do it. She was naturally gifted, both athletically and mentally; I was smart enough to point her in the direction I wanted to go, and she figured out how to accomplish the tasks.
Ronteza in her old age, taking me somewhere she wanted to go.
And that is the end of the story about Ronteza, a little bay mare who did the right things all of her life for the 25 years she was my partner. ■ 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. In 2010, she was named the APAHA and People’s Choice Arabian Breeder of the Year. 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 its April Spring Fling and August Summer Jubilee weekends, please go to www.varianarabians.com.
Ronteza and her traveling lunch wagon.
M ARCH 2010 | 261