9 minute read
Notable Non Pro: Polly Bremel
NOTABLE NON PRO
Polly Bremel rarely buys her cow horses. Instead, she breeds what she rides, one generation at a time.
By Abigail Boatwright
Watching her homebred cow horses compete at the 2021 National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity®, Paula “Polly” Bremel of Kingsburg, California, was as proud as can be. Slowly breeding one generation and then another, Polly has elevated the quality of horses she owns, rides and sells. Although she’s taken the long way to get there, that suits her just fine.
Polly’s parents weren’t involved with horses, but she and her sister, Laura Norman, were crazy about horses since they were children. They rode bareback everywhere and competed in every class at the local horse shows and playdays.
While attending high school at a boarding school in Arizona, she was introduced to cow horse legends such as Al Dunning and Shorty Freeman, and experienced working horses on ranches in the area.
“I developed a really big interest in cow horse then, and I bought my first horse that was really reined cow horsebred,” Polly said. “It was a Vandy II the 1978 Snaffle Bit Futurity® , and that was a catalyst for her getting into cow horse.
“I’ve been hooked ever since,” Polly said. “But my first one I competed in wasn’t until 1999. So, it took me 20 years from wanting to do it, to actually doing it.
“I love the people,” Polly said. “I love how open all the trainers are with everyone. They’re so helpful. The Non Pros are supportive of each other. The horses are amazing—there’s no better horses anywhere. They’re phenomenal creatures. We’re so blessed.” KELSEY HELLMANN
Polly’s homebred gelding, Shiney Little Rock, earned two Open Division Futurity titles in 2021.
mare, and she was bred to Bueno Chex. I raised her baby. That was my first colt that I started.”
When Polly went to college at University of California, Davis, she worked for Jim and Wendy Vaughan, who had stock horses and trained youth riders. Polly went with them to watch
BREEDING TORIDE
After college, Polly worked as a CPA, and, on the side, became successful in marketing and sales. She married her husband, Dave, and they had two daughters, Alana and Amarie.
Lacking the funds to buy a trained horse, Polly worked her way up, learning from each horse she rode on a determined trajectory that taught her how to improve her horsemanship. As Polly bred more horses, she improved her program.
“Each year that I bred [horses], my goal was to have that year’s baby be nicer than the year before,” she said. “And then, whenever I got a mare that was good, I would keep that mare and move up with her. I didn’t have very many mares, I just bred to good [stallions], raised the babies, started the babies and showed them.”
Before 1999, Polly only raised and sold the foals she bred. She has started her share of colts the past 20 years but gets the greatest satisfaction from building her horses from the ground up. She usually keeps two mares, but she hasn’t had a show-caliber horse every year. She sells one of the two horses she breeds every year to hopefully pay the bills for the other one. When she does have a good one, she has lots of horse folks to lean on for help.
“It was a lot of fun, and it’s always been my dream,” Polly said. “My goal was for each year, to have my horses be a higher quality than the year before. I have always bred to make a horse that I wanted to ride, because I couldn’t afford to buy one. So, I would just breed the ones that I wanted.”
Around 2001, Polly had a coming 3-year-old out of Chex Out This Remedy. Since NRCHA Million Dollar Rider Jon Roeser had Chex Out This Remedy, Polly got up the nerve to call him and ask for help.
“I’ve ridden with him about 17 years—until he moved to Idaho,” Polly said. “He’s amazing. He has helped me a ton.”
OVERCOMING TRAGEDY
In 2003, Polly had her best Futurity prospect to date, the 2000 bay mare Uno Smart Starlight (Smart Little Pepinic x Shotgun Lizzy x Badger Starlight). Polly took her to the Santa Ynez, California, pre-futurity, and they won the Amateur
Left: Amarie and Polly at Amarie’s track meet. Right: Polly’s husband, Dave, and Amarie.
COURTESY OF POLLY BREMEL
division. But while they were at the show, Polly’s 12-year-old daughter, Alana, felt sick and was subsequently diagnosed with leukemia.
“I freaked out—it was 20 years getting to this horse, and she needed to go to the [Snaffle Bit Futurity® in a couple of weeks],” Polly said. “She’s finally the one that can go and win the show.”
“My goal was for each
Polly determined the best thing to do was sell the mare to an interested buyer, thinking someone else would be able to take her to the show.
“When a prospective buyer called and wanted to come see the mare, my daughter had taken a turn for the worse, and I just felt like I couldn’t sell her, it had been too long getting there,” Polly said.
One of Roeser’s former assistant trainers, Erik Martin, agreed to take Uno Smart Starlight to the Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity® and show her at that year’s event. With just 28 days in the saddle with the mare, he was a halfpoint out of making the Finals. Polly was so pleased her horse had achieved so much.
Sadly, however, Alana passed away during the Reno show. Laura said Polly’s faith, her husband and her friends in the cow horse world helped her through that difficult time.
“It was the cow horse community that really rallied around her and supported her,” Laura said.
Not feeling ready to ride herself after losing her daughter, Polly decided to let Martin continue to show the mare, and she went on to win more than $6,000 at the Idaho Reined Cow Horse Association Futurity—the first of Polly’s horses to win any kind of money.
Polly showed the mare at the Triple Crown that year, a big Non Pro show in Paso Robles, California, followed by all
the major shows her 4- and 5-year-old years, taking reserve or third just about every time they went out. At Reno in 2004, Polly showed her in the Non Pro Hackamore class and took the top spot.
“That was my first big win, and it was really special, especially with that horse, who got me through it with my daughter passing,” Polly said.
Ultimately, Uno Smart Starlight won more than $45,000 before Polly started breeding her at 6 years old. She produced 14 foals, only one of which was a filly. That filly, sired by That CD Rocks (CD Lights x Shiney Tari x Shining Spark), is the 2013 sorrel mare Rockstar Lights. Not only was she Polly’s first bridle horse, but she became special for other reasons.
Rockstar Lights was born the year Polly’s youngest daughter, Amarie, went away to college on the East Coast. Polly started the mare herself and did most of her own training. But when she moved into competing in the bridle, she realized she needed more help, especially since Roeser had moved away.
“Recently, when it was too hard to go to Idaho to get help from Jon, I’ve ridden a lot with Cara Hencratt. I’ve been to Jo Anne Carollo. I went to Jake Gorrell, I went to Tracer Gilson, so many people have helped me and been so generous,” Polly said. “So, finally, I got the steering, and in Reno last month I showed in her in the Non Pro Bridle and I won the class.”
Laura became interested in cow horse because of Polly, and today she’s an NRCHA show secretary. She says she’s proud of her sister’s tenacity in breeding.
“She has these generations of horses that are showing that she’s bred and trained herself—I think it’s really awesome she’s stuck with it and had that vision, always wanting to improve,”
COURTESY OF POLLY BREMEL
Above: Uno Smart Starlight drives Polly’s program. Right: Polly Bremel showing Rock Star Lights.
PRIMO MORALES
Laura said. “And if she has a problem, then she finds the best person she can to help her, while still doing it herself for the most part.”
LOOKING FORWARD
Proud of the horses she’s produced, Polly is carefully planning the next generations of her breeding program. While she says her horse showing days are nearly behind her, Polly is excited to see others compete on the horses she’s bred. Her best friend’s daughter, Cara Hencratt, has been showing two Pollyraised horses in the Open and had an exceptional 2021 show year.
“My goal now is to have enough money to breed to a name-brand horse and see what happens,” Polly said.
The horse Polly brought to the 2021 Snaffle Bit Futurity is Shiney Little Rock (That CD Rocks x Uno Smart Starlight x Smart Little Pepinic). The 2018 chestnut gelding, trained and ridden by Hencratt, placed first in the Limited Open and the Level 1 Limited Open, and was sixth in the Intermediate Open, taking home two saddles and a total of $42,937.50. Adding in the $2,400 the two won at the Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity just before heading to Fort Worth, the gelding has earnings of $45,337.50. The first offspring to exceed the dam’s earnings in Bremel’s program.
“It’s so awesome,” Polly said of Shiney Little Rock’s performance at the Snaffle Bit Futurity. “Cara has done a fabulous job of training [Shiney Little Rock]. She’s a natural showman and is really smart and aware of her horses. I’m so proud of her and feel that she’s like a second daughter to me.”
Polly also has a 2-year-old in training for Open competition that she’s also excited about. She says the sense of accomplishment she gets from doing well on her own horses, and breeding horses that others do well on, are equal.
“Those really go together,” Polly said. “Because if you breed them but never compete, you don’t really know what you have, and they’re so fun to be around. They’re such a joy to me every day. But while I love showing, and I love competing, it’s really, really fun to watch someone go out and show a horse that I raised. I’m as much of a proud parent of those horses as I am happy and fulfilled when I do it myself.”
