At the
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Scottsdale Farm Tour Arabian horse lovers from all over the world converged in Scottsdale for the 2010-2011 Scottsdale farm tours in January. Scottsdale’s most prominent Arabian horse farms opened their doors, welcoming the public to enjoy National Champion horses, meet top trainers, and learn more about this incredible breed. The farm tours, organized by Scott Bailey and David Cains, began December 29 and continued through January 2. This year, a fundraiser associated with the farm tour raised over $70,000 for Healing Hearts Animal Rescue and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital through the benefit auctions and raffle! The auction and raffle consisted of breedings to world-renowned Arabian stallions, heirloom Arabian halters, custom art, gift certificates for wine, restaurants, magazines, and more. For many, the purchase of the embryo right to multi National winning RD Fabreanna was an emotional and special moment. The auction resulted in the sale of the embryo for $44,000 to Dan and Maureen Grossman. It was donated by Claire and Margaret Larson. All of the proceeds from the event went to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. All involved in the Farm Tours greatly enjoyed the opportunity to showcase their horses and share their facilities with their friends, family, and customers. “A dedicated group of Arabian horse lovers braved the elements to share a delightful evening featuring beautiful horses, gourmet food, music, and camaraderie,” said Annabella Gelbard of Brookville Arabians, one of the farms featured on the tour. “These are the moments that remind you why you chose to become involved in what is so much more than a business.”
The Rae-Dawn Arabians facility, a featured destination on the Scottsdale farm tour.
At the
Waterhole The Latest Scoop
Scottsdale Farm Tour Arabian horse lovers from all over the world converged in Scottsdale for the 2010-2011 Scottsdale farm tours in January. Scottsdale’s most prominent Arabian horse farms opened their doors, welcoming the public to enjoy National Champion horses, meet top trainers, and learn more about this incredible breed. The farm tours, organized by Scott Bailey and David Cains, began December 29 and continued through January 2. This year, a fundraiser associated with the farm tour raised over $70,000 for Healing Hearts Animal Rescue and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital through the benefit auctions and raffle! The auction and raffle consisted of breedings to world-renowned Arabian stallions, heirloom Arabian halters, custom art, gift certificates for wine, restaurants, magazines, and more. For many, the purchase of the embryo right to multi National winning RD Fabreanna was an emotional and special moment. The auction resulted in the sale of the embryo for $44,000 to Dan and Maureen Grossman. It was donated by Claire and Margaret Larson. All of the proceeds from the event went to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. All involved in the Farm Tours greatly enjoyed the opportunity to showcase their horses and share their facilities with their friends, family, and customers. “A dedicated group of Arabian horse lovers braved the elements to share a delightful evening featuring beautiful horses, gourmet food, music, and camaraderie,” said Annabella Gelbard of Brookville Arabians, one of the farms featured on the tour. “These are the moments that remind you why you chose to become involved in what is so much more than a business.”
The Rae-Dawn Arabians facility, a featured destination on the Scottsdale farm tour.
Scottsdale Farm tour visitors catch a glimpse of Ever After NA (*Sir Fames HBV x Entaicyng NA), facing page, owned by Robert and Dixie North; Etro PA (Enzo x Emandoria), left, owned by Pomeroy Arabians and pictured with Gary McDonald; and Bey Ambition (*Regal Actor JP x Bey Shahs Lady), right, owned by Murray and Shirley Popplewell.
Added Gary McDonald of McDonald Arabians, another tour host, “McDonald Arabians was proud to be a part of the exciting ‘New Years Farm Tours.’ We have been a participant since its inception, and support the efforts made by the Arabian Horse Network team to promote the Arabian horse in Scottsdale. As Arabian enthusiasts, it is a wonderful way to see our friends and colleagues and share the renewed excitement that comes with the beginning of the new season. As participants, each year we receive many inquiries and comments from the general public who say it is the highlight of their holiday week! We will all succeed when activities can bring the experienced as well as the newly interested into
interaction with each other. Arabian horses cause people to adjust their lifestyles and bring passion into their hearts. The New Years Farm Tours has become a major vehicle in creating this opportunity. “In our eyes, the tours were a great success,” said tour host Murray Popplewell of Rae-Dawn Arabians. “The event gave us a chance to debut our new presentation facility and at the same time debut the foals of Bey Ambition. Both looked amazing — and with approximately 300 people present sparked the interest enough to sell a couple of horses. Thanks to all of the organizers on a job well done — a good time was had by all, including the charities.”
Passages Murrell Van Lacey July 17, 1934-October 31, 2010 Murrell Van Lacey, 76, owner of Lacey’s Arabian Ranch and an honored and revered lifetime horseman and breeder of Arabian horses, passed away on October 31, 2010, in St. John’s Hospital, Springfield, Missouri. Murrell began his career with Arabian horses in the early 1960s when John Rogers asked him to manage his Top of the World Farms in Colorado. Murrell honed his craft at Rogers’s facility before opening his own horse training and breeding business in California. He and his son Dean (with his wife Sheri) later purchased the famous BruMarBa Arabian Stud Ranch in Garden Valley, California, which they renamed Lacey’s Arabian Ranch. The Laceys enjoyed sharing their knowledge of Arabian horses with others, and encouraged clients to participate in horse activities and to train their own horses. They owned many of the breed’s famous stallions including *Karadjordje (Gerwazy x Karramba by Witraz), Fixeyn (*Serafix x Chloeyn by *Raseyn), and Spellbounde (*Bask x SX Carmalita by *Serafix).
Murrell Van Lacey with *Karadjordje (Gerwazy x Karramba).
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Pat Trapp with husband Bill at the 2004 Egyptian Event.
Murrell Van Lacey and *Karadjordje.
“It was important to my dad to give kids something productive to do besides getting in trouble,” says Dean. “The ribbons we helped the kids win were often forgotten within a week, but dad believed the patience, consistency, and determination they learned working with horses would help them through situations they might not otherwise have been able to handle.” Later in his career Murrell received correspondence from grown-up students thanking him for the life lessons they learned from him and the horses. “Everyone always saw dad as the grimfaced competitor — probably rightfully so,” says Dean. “He got pretty mad when the judges made a bad call — he’d tell them about it. At one class a judge congratulated him for winning the class. My dad replied, ‘Don’t congratulate me, the best horse was in third place!’” Lacey will be remembered as a highly respected trainer and a master in the art of reading and communicating with horses. Says Dean, “It’s hard to look anywhere in the business and find someone he hasn’t influenced. His horse philosophies were best boiled down to: ‘Show the horse how to do what you want it do, make sure it’s comfortable, and let it figure it out on its own.’ Dad was a firm believer in trying to un-complicate things instead of making them worse.” Memorial services were held on November 13 at Springfield Livestock Marketing Center, in Springfield, Missouri.
Pat Trapp The Egyptian Arabian community was saddened recently to hear of the death on January 8, 2011, of longtime breeder and horsewoman Pat Trapp after a long illness. Pat and Bill Trapp were highly regarded as breeders of straight Egyptian horses at the Arabest Stud, Big Bend, Wisconsin. Among their most notable horses was the magnificent Nabiel (*Sakr x *Magidaa), whose reputation has never faltered in Egyptian Arabian breeding. Together with other Wisconsin breeders, Pat and Bill established the Wisconsin Egyptian Arabian Horse Alliance (WEAHA), which remains one of the longest-surviving regional groups of breeders of straight Egyptian horses. Pat led an amazingly healthy and happy life. At the time of her passing, Pat was living near her daughter, Gale and son-in-law, Bob Dressler, in Barksdale, Texas. In addition to Gale Pat is survived by her husband Bill Trapp, who has been in an Alzheimer’s nursing home for the last two years. Plans for a memorial service are pending. Gifts in Pat’s memory may be made to any local humane society. Pat Trapp will long be remembered and her contribution to breeders large and small endures.
Greener Pastures Cytosk June 10, 1983-January 14, 2011 by Christy Egan A great Arabian champion and outstanding sire died in January. Cytosk (Mi Tosk x Cystyr) will be sorely missed by Roger and Linda Lervick and the entire staff at R. O. Lervick Arabians where he has been the icon of their farm, their senior sire, and the foundation of their breeding program for the last twenty years. Bred by Oak Haven Arabians, Cytosk was in his prime as an eight-year-old when he came to Lervick’s. Already a Canadian and U.S. National Top Ten Halter Stallion and Top Ten Informal Combination horse, he arrived in Washington in time to be bred to many of the Lervick broodmares before making the trip to the 1991 U.S. National Championships with Ray LaCroix. That fall he was U.S. National Reserve 138 b ARABIAN HORSE WORLD b FEBRUARY 2011
Cytosk (Mi Tosk x Cystyr).
Champion English Pleasure Horse. “In February of 1992 the first Lervick foal by Cytosk was born,” says Julie Jones, R. O. Lervick office manager for many years. “It was a chestnut HalfArabian filly out of a Saddlebred mare named Bold Anne. The baby was so upright and pretty that Linda Lervick named her Cymply Red.” Later, that same mare became an NSH National Reserve Champion Two-Year-Old Mare and 1995 Canadian National Champion Half-Arabian Futurity Filly. Today, in the Lervick broodmare band, she is the leading producer and the dam of 13 HalfArabian progeny, seven of which have National credentials. “The next foal was a stunning black colt named Out Of Cyte,” Julie notes, “and his first offspring was named First Cyte, a multi-national champion halter stallion in his day and the sire of national winners.” Over the years, Cytosk get have become national winners in English pleasure, hunter pleasure, halter, country English pleasure, show hack, dressage, western pleasure, sidesaddle, native costume, and country driving. His greatest champion thus far is Cygn Of The Zodiac, the winner of 12 National
and Reserve National Championship titles and 27 National Top Ten awards. Second is ROL Cylencer with 26 national awards in western pleasure and sidesaddle. Cytosk would have been 28 this June and has sired 365 registered foals. Among them are 66 national winners (37 purebreds and 29 Half-Arabians). Twenty of them are national champions. Altogether they have won 397 national awards. The potential for more is excellent as well, since there are foals due this year sired by Cytosk and his frozen semen is in good supply and of top quality. “You could take anyone into Cytosk’s stall, including little kids to feed him carrots,” Julie reminisces. “People flocked here to sales and open houses just to see him.” “He will be missed every day,” says trainer Dennis Wigren. “He was a wonderful representative of the *Bask bloodline, a superior stallion for Roger and Linda, and a great ambassador for the Arabian breed. He lived a complete life. He did it all and he did it all very well.”
and junior exhibitor classes and in addition to her championship wins, had multiple reserves and top tens. Second Editions Debut was owned by Beth Harrison, who also rode her in the amateur classes along with other members of the Harrison family. Beth was usually in the irons in the HalfArabian English pleasure classes, and her sister, Jennifer Kerby, often rode her in pleasure driving. Jennifer’s daughters Taylor and Lindsey, along with young clients from ChriShan Park, showed the mare in the JTR classes. More often than not, Second Editions Debut brought home ribbons for anyone who showed her. Second Editions Debut was bred by Kathleen Ernst of Beverly Hills, Florida, and trained by Shan Wilson. The mare’s sire was Regal Basque, a son of Canadian National Reserve Champion English pleasure horse and halter horse La Basque (by *Bask). Regal Basque’s dam was out of Gainey- and Crabbetbred Gay Gazelle, and the mixing of these lines with American Saddlebred mare Vanitys Gal produced the tremendous trotting power of Second Editions Debut.
Second Editions Debut April 8, 1993December 13, 2010 Half-Arabian English pleasure super horse Second Editions Debut (Regal Basque x Vanitys Gal) passed away December 13, 2010 at ChriShan Park in Springfield, Missouri. Nicknamed “Honey,” Second Editions Debut was one of the breed’s winningest mares, garnering 16 National Championships including U.S. National Champion Half-Arabian English Pleasure open in 1998 and 1999, and U.S. National Champion Half-Arabian Pleasure Driving in 2000. She showed in open, amateur, 139 b ARABIAN HORSE WORLD b FEBRUARY 2011
Second Editions Debut (Regal Basque x Vanitys Gal) in the ribbons with trainer Shan Wilson and owner Beth Harrison.