Norco R.P. bios

["Thomas, Barb" <thomas@amgen.com>]

Here's the bios on our retired buddies. 
 
Also, just a word on safety of P&R people.  At vet 2 at Norco, we were
asking people to come away from the water tanks to get their pulse taken.
This kept volunteers in a safer zone out of the fray of drinking horses and
sponging riders.  No one had any objections after they realized it was
safer.  Also, if you're pulsing a green horse..you know the kind that step
away and look at you like you have three eyes when you put the stethoscope
on them?  It really helps to put your free hand on their neck by the
withers, talk to them, then put the scope on them, touching their side with
both your hand and the scope.  Somehow the "completed connection" of two
hands on the horse has a calming effect.  Applied Tteam!
Happy Reading...Barb

EL SINCHI ROCA - Lynn Kinsky
El Sinchi Roca is a 17 year old Peruvian Paso who has competed successfully
y in NATRC rides and Limited Distance.  Roca has 1710 NATRC miles and in
1992, he received his 1000 Mile Horse Award.  NATRC sanctions Competitive
Trail rides of 20 to 60 miles in length.  He is the only Peruvian Paso to
earn 1000 miles in any distance sport or organization!
Sinchi is truly an ambassador for his breed in the competitive trail world.
In 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, and 1998 he was PPHRNA (Peruvian Paso Horse
Registry of North America) Trail Horse of the Year - 6 times, including last
year at age 16!
In addition to his impressive NATRC record, he has competed in the AREC
arena, completing the Tar Spring 25 in 1989 and Bear Valley Springs 25 in
1993.
 Sinchi is retired from competition and is presently being used to explore,
time, and mark trails for the three NATRC  Competitive Trail Rides that I am
Trailmaster for in the Santa Ynez Valley this year.
Earlier this year, I suffered a stroke and if it hadn't been for Sinchi, my
best bud, I would not have gotten back on the trail so soon.

LOS NOBLES HARLOT - Sandy Adams
LN Harlot is by a Fadjur stallion named Hardluck out of Rose of Aleric,
foaled in 1975 and bought by me in 1981.  Harlot had minimal training in her
when I bought her but over the years she became most competent over fences,
in dressage, western, costume, and most of all, as a schoolmaster.  As a
young mare, she went Regional as a western horse, and regularly placed high
(3rd - 5th) in Classic Head and Halter, back in the days when an Arabian was
both a model for the breed and an athlete! 
After a spotty career as a broodmare (she lost more than she carried), I saw
a flyer one day for the Pacific Coast 30/50. I thought, SHE could do that!
So, at 16 years old, Harlot and I fitted up for the 30 miler. She completed
with about an hour to spare, and that was the start. At her age, and with
her history of bowed tendons, it was nearly unthinkable that she would
continue this path, but she did - for 8 years, picking up a BC at Norco last
year in the LD ride with my daughter up. 
I have many memories of this precious mare - the parades, the camping trips
into the San Jacintos, sitting up with her when her foals were due, her
first show, her first endurance ride, her last filly, delivered on July 4th,
1993.  She has served as a Search and Rescue horse, full time schoolmaster
extraordinaire, and best friend for nearly 2 decades. Over the last months,
she has begun to lose both stamina and flexibility, and so we decided to
retire her from active competition. It appears no one has told HER yet, and
so she will still be active but not competitive. At 24 and a half years old,
she is exemplary of what an Arabian should be - beautiful, gentle and
athletic! Who knows, maybe she'll have a comeback someday!

KYLA - Lauren Horn
If Endurance Riding were a book, this horse would be under the chapter,
"Sorry, Its Harder Than It Looks".   Kyla was purchased as a half endurance
prospect and half "project" horse.  With her endurance bloodlines, I knew
that she was destined to become a great endurance horse and take me along
for the ride.  NOT!
While we managed to complete 4 limited distance rides, our dream,
unfortunately, was not to be fulfilled.  Kyla was laid up with an
undetermined knee injury that keeps her from competing any further in
Endurance Riding. 
Kyla will go the way, as many horses do, to the section of one's memory,
which holds hope, desire and fulfillment to be one of the Greatest Endurance
Horses Ever.

MEKSIKO - Cynthia Binder
Meksiko, a fifteen-year old Arabian stallion, was bred in Russia at the
Kossack Stud.  He is by the illustrious Murmansk (by Muscat) out of
Mexicanka.   Imported as a weanling with a destiny as an Arabian racehorse,
he sold for $50,000.  After making his qualifying times, his backers got out
of racing and sold him to an endurance rider.
Meksiko has had a very steady career as an endurance horse and competed at
50-, 75-, 100-mile distances, and multi-day rides.  While not a front
runner, he has a 100% completion rate, including completing a 100-miler one
weekend and top-tenning a 100-miler the following weekend!  As his owners
were looking for a more competitive horse, he was passed on to a beginner
rider, then came into my hands in 1995.  I have found him to be one of the
sweetest, bombproof, rock-solid horses I have ever known.  He packs beginner
riders, ponies babies, and remains the perfect gentleman even in large, slow
groups.  He can be ridden through camp in a halter and lead rope and only
his masculine good looks betray the fact that he's a stallion.  He has
competed successfully in carriage driving, including the Pacific Regional
Driven Dressage Festival for the last two years.  He was also cover stallion
and month of June stallion in the 1998 national Stallions calendar
(featuring stallions and studs of the human variety!).
His offspring are impressive.  He adds bone, substance, good looks, and a
steady temperament to all his babies.  His 5-year old daughter is beginning
her endurance career; a 2-year old son is currently a class A show
multichampion in halter and he crosses well with other breeds.  I have a
7-month old Quarter Horse cross by him who is following his daddy's
hoofsteps down the trail already!
"Siko" was retired in 1998.  Two weeks later, he severely injured his
shoulder and it was thought he would never be sound again.  Showing the
toughness and tenacity of his breed, though, he has recovered and regained
his interest in trail riding.  His favorite thing after his post-ride nap is
to call out to the incoming girls... "Hey baby, come share MY hay!" 

SHAHLEEN - Linda Smerber
Shahleen is a 13-year old Arabian mare and she's still my favorite ride.
We've spent many, many hours on the trails together.  She's been faithful
and loyal, never refusing to do whatever I've asked of her.  Even at times
when we came across some seemingly unsurpassable obstacles along the trail
that most horses would have turned away from without a thought, Shahleen
would only look back at me as if to ask, "you're sure you want to do this?"
... and then charge on without hesitation!  
I'm lucky, I suppose, that we can still enjoy a good trail ride together.
Still, I can see it hurts her when I leave her in her stall, choosing
another horse for the endurance riding we once enjoyed together as a team.
She paces and cries to go as we pass by her and if you're not looking,
she'll even try to grab a bite of flesh from my chosen mount, ears pinned
and eyes glaring, as if to say to me, "no, I thought You and I were a team!"
Luckily, though retired from endurance riding, her injuries have
sufficiently healed to allow her to become my gymkhana horse, already taking
her place by winning many High Points.  

SIERRA FAD-FARAH - Jane McGrath
Sierra Fad-Farah, better known to family and friends as "Happy", is a
22-year-old Arab gelding.  He is the oldest son of AERC Hall of Fame
stallion, Sierra Fadwah+/.
After an illustrious career in the show ring at Class A Arab shows, Happy
began his endurance career as an 11 year old.  He has a total career mileage
of 5,285 miles.  In 1990 he completed 1,700 miles to finish third in the
National Milage standings, first in the Southwest Region Mileage standings,
and second in the Lightweight Division.  That same year included a 16th
place finish at Tevis.  In 1989 he set the Tevis record for most weight
carried when he finished the ride carrying Jim Bumgardner.
Happy has been a joy to own and ride.  He is enjoying "retirement".  He
keeps busy bossing his younger brother, giving "pony rides" to my second
grade students, dabbling in theater with a starring role in an elementary
school production of Oklahoma, carrying Santa Claus across the playground,
and trotting through an occasional short-course Ride and Tie with beginners,
being careful never to get his pulse above 28!
Sierra Fad-Farah is a true equine gentleman!

WHISPER - Barb Thomas
The tiny black Morab filly with a white blaze stood dejectedly in the
pasture and stole the heart of a fifteen-year-old girl.  At four months and
just weaned, the barn manager said she's just a little whisper of a thing,
so Whisper became her name.  Working cleaning stalls and flipping burgers, I
was able to save the $275 it took to buy her in less than a year.  We did
everything wrong and somehow it turned out right.  Broken to saddle at 2
years, she won her first pony hunter hack class two weeks later.  She was
successfully shown pony hunter at local shows and started her trail
competition at age 3, winning Grand Champion at her first 20-mile judged
pleasure ride.  At age 4, we completed our first competitive trail ride with
such speed that she made it clear endurance was going to be her forte!
We went away to college together then picked up her endurance career.  At
13.2 ¾, Whisper was one of the smallest endurance ponies on the East Coast
during the early 80's.  We rode many rides in our signature Ferrari
T-shirt...little but mighty!  She had that classic Morgan roadster trot
where her feet barely touched the ground and few could keep up.  No one ever
told her she shouldn't play with the big boys and she finished her first Old
Dominion 50 in 11th place.  She completed the Old Dominion 100, several more
50's and a handful of competitive trail rides.  Though her career wasn't
high mileage, she was never pulled from a ride and she never said, "I give
up".
When I stopped competing for a time, she remained my riding companion.  She
taught kids to ride, including one little girl who was blind.  The look of
delight on Chrissy's face when she trotted on the leadline lit up the day!
Through the best and worst of my life, Whisper has always been there.  At
age 27, she fought off severe founder and proved again how tough she is.
Today, at age 28, she's still my constant companion and my Best Friend!



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