Scottsdale Show News - Wednesday February 18, 2015
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
Welcome to the 2015 Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show News and Reviews for Wednesday, February 18th. The sponsor for today’s news is Rae-Dawn Arabians, Shirley and Murray Popplewell.
Rae-Dawn Arabians is home to U.S. National Champion Futurity Colt and Canadian National Champion Stallion, Bey Ambition (Regal Actor JP x Bey Shahs Lady), as well as a group of world-class show and breeding mares.
The Popplewells have two facilities. The farm in Saskatoon, SK, Canada is primarily home to the breeding horses and the Scottsdale facility is the perfect setting for the stallions and show horses. Bey Ambition travels between the facilities and is here in Scottsdale to meet breeders and the public.
Bey Ambition has had a very successful show career and is proving to be equally talented as a sire. He is producing exceptional offspring with impressive consistency. His first foal crop is now five-years-old and just those first foals have already earned 11 national titles in halter and performance.
Not only are Bey Ambition’s foals beautiful, correct and charismatic, they are also kind, wonderful horses to be around as demonstrated by the Popplewells who show many of them in the halter amateur to handle classes with great success.
The Popplewells were very confident about the Ambition babies’ trainability and wanted to introduce them to performance trainers in the industry. They established an innovative payback incentive for performance winners sired by Ambition. Trainers responded with interest and after the national titles earned by RD Habenero last year, there’s no doubt we will be seeing more Ambition babies wearing leather.
The Popplewells participate in several of the top futurity programs in the country. Bey Ambition is a Scottsdale Signature Nominated Sire and breeders will have the opportunity to bid on his breeding service tonight at the Signature Stallion Auction, which will be held in the South Hall of the Equidome, beginning at 6:00 p.m. We hope to see you there!
Shirley and Murray Popplewell invite you to contact them to make an appointment for a private showing of horses at the farm, located at 11249 E Arabian Park Drive in Scottsdale. Please visit rdarabians.com/contact.
Watching classes and speaking to people over the past several days has been such a blast. Reconnecting with long time friends and people from the past, as well as meeting new people has been so much fun. I had the chance to talk to Richard and Linda Patterson of Patterson Arabians in Sisters, Oregon. As I listened to Richard’s stories, I caught a glimpse of what it must be like to sit in a confessional. If he said, “this is off the record.”, once, he must have said it 20 times. And all I could do was try to keep from laughing as Richard told us crazy stories of his visit to Poland with the late Mike Nichols. It was seriously funny. In keeping with my thread of questions about Scottsdale experiences, Richard recalled his first trip to Scottsdale was in 1958, at the McCormick Ranch. Richard also remembers it was a little before the influx of Russian and Polish horses – still the horses were wonderful. Richard also shared his memories of meeting and riding the legendary Witez II, the subject of the delightful book, And Miles to Go: The Biography of a Great Arabian Horse, Witez II. FYI: This classic book is still available on Amazon.com.
Another entertaining conversation was with longtime Arabian horse breeder, Shelly Hjelm of Marosh Arabians Hartley, Iowa. Shelly is the daughter of Ed and Florence Brinkert and Shelly remembers attending the 1961 Scottsdale show with her parents and sisters, Margo and Roxie, and staying in the family’s camper at the McCormick Ranch. The family had one horse to show, Galah, which was in training with Ray Leese. Galah was a stallion by Nitez and out of the mare Bride Rose. Shelley said she and her sisters took turns showing Galah in halter, western and Native Costume and that they took a ribbon in every class.
If they gave out ribbons for sheer cuteness, then Grace Stimson of Spokane, Washington would be a blue ribbon winner. This ten-year-old little competitor won a $750 scholarship for Hunt Seat Equitation, 14 and Under. Grace is the daughter of Steve and Angela Stimson and is in training with Jessica Wentland. Grace said the best thing about Scottsdale is the excitement of going into the class with her horse, an Arabian mare named Twisted Cyster. Grace also had this to say, “If I had the chance to talk to other kids about Arabian horses, I would say that they are really sweet, smart and kind, and they have a lot of personality. I would also like to say thank you to my mom and dad for letting me ride and show Arabian horses.” Leave it to ten-year-old Grace Stimson to remind us all to be appreciative of our good fortune to have Arabian horses in our lives. Way to go Grace – you are a winner!
For those of you around the world who are not able to attend the Scottsdale show this year, there’s no need to feel left out. You can catch all the action in the Equidome, Wendell Arena, Wells Fargo Reining Arena and the Aljassimya International Arena through the live feed provided by IEquine and Arabhorse.com. Watch the live feed at www.iequine.com
The IEquine live feed provides the most important communications network in the industry. In 2014, there were 420,000 visits to the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show Webcast from viewers in 101 different countries around the world. In addition, advertisers received 6.3 M banner impressions. Log on to the live feed at www.iequine.com . Contact james@iequine.com for the unique advertising opportunities throughout the Scottsdale show.
We hope you enjoy the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show – wherever you are – and visit the website and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/scottsdalearabian
