VERY nice pedigree. Blue's last foal was out of a Tornado daughter. They are nice mares...good and solid.
When Blue was coming up 2 and Fame was about 3 they were in a stallion exhibition at Summit Farms (then Bridges Arabians). Yes, Fame was a Varian horse.
When we first got into the business in the '80's one of the vacations we took was a pedigree tour where we hit a lot of So-Cal ranches and then out to Las Vegas and Logandale to see Wayne Newton's set-up. We went to Sheila Varian's, the Khemosabi ranch in Riverside, Green Gate Farms, the place with Barbary and a couple of other places down in Santa Barbara. A childhood friend of mine was the secretary or something of the local area Arabian horse association and she arranged a tour of Armand Hammer's Arabian barns.... Beautiful grounds and chockfull of National winning horses as he had a penchant for buying whatever mare won. (Back in the 1980's money was plentiful and lots of it flowed into the Arabian horse business, but this guy was a magnate before all the tax breaks and his barn was spectacular and immaculate and shiny). I remember the trainer was Polish and ever so gracious. Eventually my husband and I moved to the Sierra Foothills/Gold Country and visited often BruMarBa (home of Barich de Washoe and Simeon Shai). Big barns always threw the best parties and events and the BruMarBa picnic was great fun.
At horse shows, though, all cordialness went out the window and everyone was in it to win it at all costs. I saw and experienced some pretty cutthroat stuff. So glad to exit the show circuit as it was not fun. I'm hoping the ethics of the Arabian horse industry has cleaned up, but.... Sigh..... Some horses won by sheer juice, you know? Conformation had nothing to do with the ribbon.
My biggest blunder claim to fame is that I was offered Baskabella at the aforementioned exhibition as I had done business with the Shelleys before and turned her down (at a discount, no less) as I just wasn't into the National Showhorse scene. Grace (a boarder at the barn Blue was at) then purchased her and then shortly thereafter moved her to Sherman Arabians (a half block away) for training and within 18 months Baskabella swept the Nationals in performance AND halter. Oops! Baskabella then sold for, like, a third of a million and Grace's kid's college education was set. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Oh, well!
Yeppers, fond memories of horsey times and horsey friends.
Somebody post more pictures now or I'll ramble forever....
When Blue was coming up 2 and Fame was about 3 they were in a stallion exhibition at Summit Farms (then Bridges Arabians). Yes, Fame was a Varian horse.
When we first got into the business in the '80's one of the vacations we took was a pedigree tour where we hit a lot of So-Cal ranches and then out to Las Vegas and Logandale to see Wayne Newton's set-up. We went to Sheila Varian's, the Khemosabi ranch in Riverside, Green Gate Farms, the place with Barbary and a couple of other places down in Santa Barbara. A childhood friend of mine was the secretary or something of the local area Arabian horse association and she arranged a tour of Armand Hammer's Arabian barns.... Beautiful grounds and chockfull of National winning horses as he had a penchant for buying whatever mare won. (Back in the 1980's money was plentiful and lots of it flowed into the Arabian horse business, but this guy was a magnate before all the tax breaks and his barn was spectacular and immaculate and shiny). I remember the trainer was Polish and ever so gracious. Eventually my husband and I moved to the Sierra Foothills/Gold Country and visited often BruMarBa (home of Barich de Washoe and Simeon Shai). Big barns always threw the best parties and events and the BruMarBa picnic was great fun.
At horse shows, though, all cordialness went out the window and everyone was in it to win it at all costs. I saw and experienced some pretty cutthroat stuff. So glad to exit the show circuit as it was not fun. I'm hoping the ethics of the Arabian horse industry has cleaned up, but.... Sigh..... Some horses won by sheer juice, you know? Conformation had nothing to do with the ribbon.
My biggest blunder claim to fame is that I was offered Baskabella at the aforementioned exhibition as I had done business with the Shelleys before and turned her down (at a discount, no less) as I just wasn't into the National Showhorse scene. Grace (a boarder at the barn Blue was at) then purchased her and then shortly thereafter moved her to Sherman Arabians (a half block away) for training and within 18 months Baskabella swept the Nationals in performance AND halter. Oops! Baskabella then sold for, like, a third of a million and Grace's kid's college education was set. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Oh, well!
Yeppers, fond memories of horsey times and horsey friends.
Somebody post more pictures now or I'll ramble forever....
