ARABIANS AND PINTOS
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n a large barn atop a hill, a dark bay horse stands tied in a grooming rack ready to be ridden in the indoor arena just around the corner. Down the hill, the back door of another barn opens, and mares and foals spill out into a paddock that leads to a large, upward sloping pasture, the morning sunlight bouncing off their backs. One foal stops to sniff a rock, while another makes a quick run for it, bucking and cavorting through the paddock. A few of the mares pause to scold their errant youngsters with the backward cock of an ear or the pinch of teeth on hindquarters, silent signals that playtime — and luscious green grass — still await them at the top of the hill. Most days begin that way at Holly Dillin’s Western Cross Arabians and Pintos, 500-plus acres spread over several beautiful hills and valleys just outside Weatherford, Texas. Home to some 70 horses, the farm bustles with activity throughout the day: clients, riding students, and visitors peeking in stalls, walking pastures full of mares and foals, and simply enjoying the horses of Western Cross. “I acquired my first Arabian in 1993 as a present from my husband,” Holly says. “She was a dark dappled bay Khemosabi granddaughter named Sashi, and we did team penning and trail riding together. I loved her athletic ability and loyalty. On one particular ride, we were racing across a
Top right: WC Simply Spotless (WC Bodega Bey x Powder N Paint), 2001 bay 7/8 Arabian filly. Bottom right: Aiden Dillin, youngest of five children, with 2012 buckskin colt (Renaissanse x Ruby). Left: Holly’s daughter, Jenna Dillin, and WC My Ohmy (Renaissanse x CM Morningstar). “Arabians have been part of my life since the day I was born,” Jenna says. “I vaguely remember the first HalfArabian Pinto pony my mom led me around on until I was four. Then ‘Powder’ came into my life! A little girl couldn’t have asked for a better best friend. There isn’t much I haven’t tried with her, goat tying, barrel racing, bareback, trail riding, and trick riding (when my mom wasn’t around). Powder and I still take off for adventures every time we get the chance. I grew up showing the stunning HalfArabian Pinto mare WC My Ohmy. She taught me to be a better rider, a good sport, that winning isn’t everything, and that to strive to be the best you can be is a prize all its own. I am currently showing a Half-Arabian gelding in hunter pleasure named WC Khoronado, that we bred. He is as sweet as he is beautiful. I have had the pleasure of showing halter for the past five years and this year was especially fun due to the fact that my mom let me show her nationally decorated purebred mare WC Ciao Bella — together we won 2011 Youth National Reserve Champion Mare. If I’m lucky I may have that chance again!”
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Right: Holly Dillin and the 1997 bay Tobiano stallion WC Bodega Bey (Rofann Tastic x Hearts Afire DH), the first Half-Arabian Pinto stallion to receive National honors under saddle. Bottom right: Jenna Dillin at the 2010 Youth Nationals aboard Tiara Bey Amira (WC Bodega Bey x Ranan Tiara).
large field and my front girth broke and I went flying off her, knocking the wind out of me. Once she realized that I was not with her, she galloped back to me and stood next to me patiently looking down as if to say, what are you doing down there? My Quarter Horses never did that when I was growing up. They raced back to the barn and left me stranded many times! Sashi’s loyalty and companionship kindled my desire to raise these wonderful creatures. Shortly after that, we purchased the ranch. My husband’s big selling point to buy the ranch was that he would have a great place to hunt and I could start a small breeding program! Yes! I took the ball and ran with it!” In the past year alone, riders from Western Cross have amassed numerous wins on class A, regional, and even national levels, including Youth National Top Tens in performance for Emma Sitzman, Audrey Redman, Hannah Wimberly; a National Reserve Championship in halter for Holly’s 15-yearold daughter Jenna; and a Youth National Championship in purebred Horsemanship 14-17 for Claire Wimberly and the 22-year-old Sugarr Plum (*Krakov x Sugarr Babe). Before trainer Randy Anderson joined the team, almost all Holly’s halter and performance horses were trained by Wendye Gardiner, who spent five years at Western Cross and who now has her own training business in nearby Pilot Point. “I consider myself fortunate — I couldn’t manage without the amazing group of people who work with me,” Holly says.
“Breeding manager Lisa Baker and trainer Randy Anderson are dedicated, knowledgeable horsemen, and I don’t think our farm fix-it-all man Jose Veliz ever takes a day off. At Western Cross, everything depends on teamwork, and we all work well together. We’re lucky, too, to have so many wonderful clients and young people enjoying their horses and developing their horsemanship skills at the ranch. Throughout the years the horses have brought some wonderful ‘forever friends’ into my life as well — and you know who you are! We all laugh that, together, we are making it happen.”
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Above and at left: WC Ciao Bella
(Xceptshahn x Je Ali Selene), is a two-time National Reserve Champion Mare, once with Holly in AOTH and with Jenna at Youth Nationals in JOTH.
And making it happen, they are. Anyone who thinks the old vision of the Arabian horse as “the versatile breed” is a thing of the past obviously hasn’t visited this ranch. Making “Your Source for Beautiful Arabian Athletes” the slogan of the ranch, Holly Dillin has been breeding horses that are both beautiful and functional. “I want Arabian type that is at home in the top halter arenas, combined with fluid athletic conformation and
movement, and a willing disposition that makes them fun to work with,” says Holly. “I love hearing from trainers who say that my horses are some of the easiest ever to train! ‘Deal breakers’ are conformational flaws that make real work difficult for the horse, especially a poorly built hindquarter, and an inherently poor attitude gets cut from the team quickly.” Most of the mares Holly purchased initially enjoyed long performance careers, and quite a few of the horses bred at
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Beautiful, stretchy purebred hunter junior horse WC Ciao Dante (Renaissanse x WC Ciao Bella), 2008 bay colt.
Western Cross have gone on to excel in several different disciplines. Even the halter stars in the barn spend time under saddle. Holly’s Region 6 Champion Yearling WC Ciao Psyche (Padrons Psyche x WC Ciao Bella), is well on his way to being a nationallevel western pleasure contender. “’Psy’ has everything you want in a western pleasure horse — great conformation and great movement. A horse like this doesn’t come along very often,” says Randy Anderson. As a rider herself, Holly valued form to function early on, and she envisioned a farm full of pinto and purebred horses that would not only wow people with their beauty, but also amaze them with their performance prowess. “In the early years I attended shows in Fort Worth to see what discipline and type of horse I was attracted to,” Holly says. “I found myself drawn to the Half-Arabian Pintos in the western classes, so I started my search for a couple of Pinto mares and a stallion. After Sashi, I was also smitten with the Khemosabi lines and purchased the beautiful black bay Khemosabi son Kakhem Sahib (x Allah Rakhi) in 1994. With Eddie Ralston in the saddle, Kakhem Sahib amassed numerous class A, regional, and national wins in Arabian working cow horse divisions, including four regional championships, six U.S. National Top Tens, and three U.S. National Reserve Championships. The scrappy bay stallion began step one of a series of showring successes for the Western Cross program with many of his foals echoing his success in the working western divisions. Among the most successful have been 2011 U.S. National Arabian Cutting Non-Pro Champion mare WC Rockin Robin (x Cynora) and 2010 U.S. National Reserve Champion Half-Arabian Cutting Futurity mare Shes A Kheeper (x Docs Frosty Freckles). The Western Cross transition to more type came in 1998, in the form of the beautiful aptly named Ali Jamaal son Renaissanse (x Carismor). Renaissanse began his show career
by defeating 13 other colts for the title of Region 7 Champion Yearling Colt, and more showring successes followed. However, “Reni” didn’t care much for the showring. It was almost as if he knew his greatest strengths would lie in the breeding shed, and, indeed, such is the case. His first foals were so impressive that Holly bought the handsome bay stallion from breeders Paul and Teri Barbaria. According to AHA datasource records, from a total of 91 registered offspring, Renaissanse has 30 regional or national winners to date, including two-time Canadian National Reserve Champion Western Pleasure mare WC Bey Juliet (x Hearts Afire DH); U.S. and Canadian Reserve Champion (in both amateur and junior horse divisions) WC All Reved Up (x CM Morningstar); and 2006 Half-Arabian Western Pleasure JTR 17 and Under Reserve Champion WC Skip The Smalltalk (x RW Padron Shadow Rose). Renaissanse offspring currently hold 146 regional and national top ten or better titles. Once Renaissanse began proving himself as a consistent sire, Holly Dillin quickly figured out the importance of wellbred, excellent quality mares in the equation. Two illustrious purebred mares, JE Ali Selene by Ali Jamaal and Lady Bey Khelishah by Bey Shah, were purchased in the fall of 2001. Both mares soon qualified for Arabian Horse World’s “Aristocrat Mare” status. The Night Of Roses daughter Sassys Night Out HM joined Holly’s Arabian Pinto champion-producing broodmares CM Morningstar (El Montenegro x Supremes Fantasy) and Hearts Afire DH (Strike Fire x Fadjur Class) to produce her own successful Western Cross family, with four of her six foals becoming regional and national winners, including regional champion and U.S. Top Ten WC Sassy All Night, by Renaissanse, and Region 9 Champion Yearling WC Ali Night Long, by WC Ali Gazal. In 2003 a fortuitous trip to Michael Byatt’s farm proved to be another turning point in Western Cross history. Michael was
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eager to show Holly the new stallion who had just arrived; three-year-old *Marwan Al Shaqab. Holly booked multiple breedings to Marwan in his first season in the States, and during a subsequent visit she also booked breedings to his sire, *Gazal Al Shaqab. By 2004, Holly’s purebred mares had begun proving their worth. Je Ali Selene produced two class A and regional winning fillies, and in 2004 she produced WC Ciao Bella (by Xceptshahn), who became twotime National Reserve Champion Mare (in AOTH and JOTH). “Her full sister WC Xceptshahnal is one of the special mares owned by David Zouch Ross that graces his life and ours,” says Jeff Schall of Shada, Inc. “She is an exceptional cross with David’s illustrious stallion Marwan
Al Magnifficoo.” In 2007, Selene produced a special dark bay colt, WC Ali Gazal by *Gazal Al Shaqab. More about him later. Lady Bey Khelishah had already produced Region 9 Reserve Champion WC Renoir (by Renaissanse), and WC Marenah (by *Marwan Al Shaqab), 2005 U.S. National Top Ten Breeders Sweepstakes Yearling Filly. Khelishah also produced WC Martini (by *Marwan Al Shaqab), three-time Region 9 Reserve Champion in halter, and in 2006, the first of her *Gazal Al Shaqab offspring, the stunning black-bay WC Gorgeous Gazal, U.S. and Canadian Top Ten Mare and Arabian Breeders World Cup winner (with the second highest score of the entire Junior Mares section that year). WC Gorgeous Gazal is now owned by Dubai Arabian Stud.
Above: The Western Cross transition to more type came in 1998, in the form of the beautiful aptly named Ali Jamaal son Renaissanse (x Carismor). Renaissanse has 30 regional or national winning offspring to date. Top right: WC Skip The Smalltalk (Renaissanse x RW Padron Shadow Rose), 2002 bay Tobiano gelding, has seven National and 14 Regional wins. He is pictured here with Stan White III.
Bottom right: WC All Reved Up (Renaissanse x CM Morningstar), 2003 U.S. National Reserve Champion Half-Arabian Hunter Pleasure Junior Horse, ridden by Wendy Potts.
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Top right: Champion and Championproducing Half-Arabian Pinto mare CM Morningstar (El Montenegro x Supremes Fantasy), second from left, and three offspring from the Region 9 show in 2003. She was Reserve Champion in Half-Arabian Stock/ Hunter; WC All Reved Up, left, was Top five in Half-Arabian Hunter Junior Horse; WC Haley, third from left, was Reserve Champion HalfArabian Yearling Filly; and WC Enya Dreams was Top Five Half-Arabian Yearling Filly. Middle right: CM Morningstar with three of her daughters, all have been Regional champions or better. Left to right: WC Enya Dreams, WC Haley, CM Morningstar, and WC My Ohmy, all sired by Renaissanse. “This cross really jump started my breeding program.” “Morningstar has been such an asset to my breeding program and her foals by Renaissanse have been very successful in the showring,” says Holly. “I fell in LOVE with her from a baby photo that was in Arabian Horse World (February 1994 issue) and called about her.They said that she was not for sale and if they did sell her, Tom Chauncey had first rights to buy her. So, I carefully removed that page from the magazine and placed it in a file. A few years went by and I was cleaning out some files and came upon that photo and decided to call and see what happened with that beautiful filly. Well — the owners had just decided to sell her the week before I had called and were getting ready to advertise her. Can you believe my luck? I couldn’t believe that that beautiful mare was going to be mine! FINALLY! The rest is history as they say. This mare raised my breeding program to the next level. She is 19 years old this year and I am still her proud owner!”
WC Sassy All Night (Renaissanse x Sassys Night Out by Night Of Roses), 2010 Scottsdale Champion Half-Arabian Mare Stock/Hunter AAOTH. 7 ▪ WESTERN CROSS ▪ WORLD
The 2007 stallion WC Ali Gazal (*Gazal Al Shaqab x JE Ali Selene), sired his first foal crop of seven foals in 2010, three of which came home with regional wins — one championship, one reserve, and one top three — and a U.S. National Reserve Championship.
Both Selene and Khelishah have continued to produce beautiful, typey foals, but even more exciting is the fact that their sons and daughters are now producing their own champion offspring for Western Cross. Selene’s daughter WC Ciao Bella produced the Region 6 Champion Yearling Colt WC Ciao Psyche by Padrons Psyche. In 2010, Selene’s son WC Ali Gazal sired his first foal crop of seven foals, three of which came home with regional wins — one championship, one reserve, and one top three – and a U.S. National Reserve Champion title thrown in for good measure. Khelishah’s daughter WC Gorgeous Gazal produced the Region 9 Reserve Champion Yearling Filly WC Marissa. Though he has been only lightly campaigned to this point, astute breeders have already begun to notice the exotic dark bay WC Ali Gazal because of his showring successes and his stellar pedigree, which combines two of the most highly acclaimed families in the breed. With the success of his offspring, breeders have even more reason to seek him out. In fact, Ali Gazal’s breeding at the 2011 Scottsdale Signature Auction created quite
a bidding war, and in the end sold higher than the auction breedings of a number of national champion stallions. Twelve Ali Gazal foals are expected in 2012 — only three of them from Western Cross mares. To add to the excitement, WC Ali Gazal will be going back into the showring this year. He is finally getting his big chance with Shada trainer Jeff Schall at the 2012 Arabian Breeders World Cup show in Vegas. WC Ali Gazal’s own show career has been a story in itself. Conditioned by Holly as a yearling and trained by Wendye Gardiner, the big, bay colt was catch handled by Terry Holmes to the title of Region 9 Reserve Champion Colt. Later that year, Holly had Ali Gazal in the trailer, headed for Nationals where she thought she had a trainer’s commitment to show him, only to find out some 45 minutes from the show grounds that the trainer had committed to another horse. Devastated, Holly continued to the show grounds, where plans had already been made to stable Ali Gazal with Shada. Ali Gazal’s maternal sister, WC Ciao Bella, was already there, waiting to be shown by Jeff Schall. Shada’s talented assistant trainer Austin Miller helped Holly unload Ali Gazal, and was immediately taken with the colt’s beauty and quality. According to Miller, “The first time I saw WC Ali Gazal was at Nationals when he walked off the trailer. He was tall, smooth, and pretty!” Jeff Schall had already committed to showing a colt the same age as Ali Gazal, so Austin volunteered to take Ali Gazal into the ring. “At the moment I learned that I was going to show him, my excitement soared! To this very day, I remain grateful to
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Holly and Jeff for entrusting him with me!” Austin exclaims. A few practice sessions later, the pair floated out of the arena with a U.S. National Top Ten! Two years later, Austin again showed WC Ali Gazal, this time to U.S. Top Ten Futurity Colt honors, beating Jeff and his colt, and finishing fourth in the class, one point away from third place. Looking back over the history of Western Cross, Holly points to many peak experiences with her favorite young mare WC Ciao Bella. “Bella’s first of five regional championships was really special because she was only two years old,” Holly remembers. An even bigger moment came for Holly and Bella at the 2009 U.S. Nationals when Holly conditioned and showed the typey, big-trotting bay mare to the U.S. National Reserve Championship AOTH title. Jeff Schall had shown Bella to a tie with Broken Promises PGA for Reserve Junior Champion Mare the year before, with the tiebreaker going to Broken Promises, so to get that reserve herself in 2009 was even more rewarding for Holly. The Western Cross program has earned its share of accolades along the way. Holly has been named Region 9 Breeder of the Year several times, and in 2011 was named one of the Las Vegas Arabian Breeders World Cup Top Five Breeders. At that same show, the Western Cross-bred filly, WC Godiva, a full sister to WC Ali Gazal, won her class, was named Bronze Junior Champion Filly, and, in another shining moment for Western Cross, was sold to Lenita Perroy and Eduardo Gama of Brazil. Quite an honor for the Ali Jamaal granddaughter to return to the home of her legendary grandsire. October 2011 brought one of the highest achievements of the Western Cross breeding program when Kim Morgan showed the beautiful black-bay Arabian Pinto filly, WC Enya WildestDreams to U.S. National Reserve Champion HalfArabian Yearling Filly in her second show. By WC Ali Gazal, the filly’s dam is WC Enya Dreams who is by Renaissanse and out of CM Morningstar, so the filly represents multiple generations of Holly Dillin’s breeding on both the top and bottom sides of her pedigree. “There is a special sense of pride and overwhelming gratitude for this wonderful breed that surrounds me when the horse show announcer says, ‘bred, owned, and shown by … ,’” says Holly. “The partnership Bella and I had when she went Reserve National Champion AOTH in 2009 was a year in the making. The time we spent together working and playing really paid off. I kept telling Bella, as she was eating grass in the shade
drying from her bath, that we were getting ready for ‘The Big Dance.’ And dance she did! “I had that same wonderful feeling last year, when my daughter Jenna showed Bella at Youth Nationals to another Reserve Champion.” There is yet another area in which the Western Cross horses excel: Linden, Holly’s husband, has successfully bow-hunted elk in the San Pedro Parks Wilderness in New Mexico the last three years, off horses his wife has given to him. “I don’t ever want to go up into the mountains except on Holly’s horses. It amazes me how adaptable they are,” he says. “I think it’s a combination of their breeding and the gentleness with which they are raised that permits them to trust me enough so that they can focus on learning their job. And talk about stamina. These horses come from near sea level to climb trails at 10,000 feet and I never hear them blow. This year I’m adding D.J., a purebred double Ali Jamaalbred mare to my string. I can’t wait — it’s like a family trip!” It is once again springtime in Texas. A new show season is under way, the foals have begun arriving, by WC Ali Gazal, Renaissanse, and by the outside stallions *Regal Actor JP, Vitorio TO, Eden C, Art Dekko TT, and Psymadre, and Holly is thankful. “I am just so blessed,” she says. “I thank God every single day that I have such a wonderful life, and I thank my husband for his love and support. The ranch has turned out to be a blessing for my whole family. My husband and the boys enjoy fishing and hunting there, and the girls and I enjoy the peace and serenity as well as the horses. Every year there are new foals, new goals, and even more exciting accomplishments to look forward to!
Holly’s husband Linden has successfully bow-hunted elk in the San Pedro Parks Wilderness in New Mexico the last three years off horses his wife has given to him. Pictured here is his three-quarter Arabian mare, WC Desperada, aka “Bonnie.”
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“As I reflect on my breeding program of nearly 20 years, I can’t think of anything that I would have done differently,” Holly says. “I did a lot of reading and listening over the years to help me make my decisions, but sometimes you also have to go with your heart. I have to admit, my program has a lot of that in it!” At Western Cross, one is reminded of the poet Robert Browning’s words, “God’s in His Heaven, All’s right with the world.”
Western Cross’s trainer Randy Anderson.
Linden and Holly Dillin.
Breeding manager Lisa Baker.
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The farms “fix-it-all man” Jose Veliz.