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Pearls From My Memories in North
America
By: Raul Risso
For those of you young and old, the
following are treasured anecdotes that I have retained in my memory, some of
them very instructive and others simply entertaining. They will tell you about a
few of the wonderful characters involved in our breed over the past years. I
have witnessed a lot and would like to share these few stories with you. In some
of the following tales you will find that I will be somewhat irreverent, but I
see no other way to relate the story.
I remember clearly, the Michael’s family run Hacienda de la Solana in
Guerneville CA and “Principe de la Solana” was just a beautiful colt, when I
came to the USA as an aficionado. Little did I know that many years later I
would be established as a breeder here in the USA and would seek to outcross our
mares to Principe. At the time Fernando Grana had been invited to judge the
PPHRNA show in Santa Rosa CA. A lot has been printed about Fernando and his
accomplishments as a breeder as well as his influence as a judge and promoter of
our breed. He belonged to the highest class amongst the many layers of society
in Peru. Truly educated and well traveled, Fernando had the intelligence and
personality to relate to people no matter their upbringing and always enjoyed
the company of younger people. I remember during that trip, when a group of we,
visiting Peruvians walked into a McDonalds for a bite to eat (there were none in
Peru in those days), and along came Fernando the elder who went and sat at a
table by himself, pretending that a waiter would come to serve him!
In those days my nephew Pepe Risso Jr. was a very young college student of Law
in Peru. He must not have been that great of a student as he spent long months
at Vivian Lundquist’s Meadows Springs Ranch in Moorpark, California doing the
Show Tour during the fall. One time when I happened to be her guest, Vivian was
untiring, walking the whole large ranch, climbing one fence after another as she
showed us each mare, her current offspring, who she was planning to breed that
mare to and asking for our opinions on the subject. This was not a small herd.
She must have had at least 80 horses at that time and she knew each and everyone
and their background. Vivian, who also had a tremendous personality, had
previously been a successful dog breeder and exhibitor. With her background, an
inquisitive mind, conviction, through trial and error, she took on to breed
horses with strength and gait. She was in my opinion, the most successful
American breeder and promoter that this breed has ever had in the USA.
In 1984 when I still lived in Peru, the AAOBPPH invited me to judge their
National Show in Denver, Colorado. One episode occurred that showed my lack of
understanding when it came to judging the Junior classes here in the USA. In
Peru, kids who wanted to participate were then required by the elders in the
ANCPCPP to “earn their keep” in a manner of speaking. For example, if you wanted
to ride with them, then you had to learn to handle, groom and saddle your horse.
Back then we did not have juniors classes at our shows. If a child did go in to
ride, he (there were no she’s) had to participate in the regular Breeding
Classes, competing with the grown ups. Anyway, here came the Juniors in Denver,
a rather large class. Unlike today, children were then given some pretty awful
horses to ride that could not gait well, while other children had no idea about
collection and did not or could not keep them in gait. So I had the announcer
repeatedly advise the children to “keep their horses in gait”, took my time and
finally selected just a few good horse and rider combinations and had the rest
excused. Little did I know then that here in the US, you simply don’t do that!
Parents raised hell, and I found out later through the grapevine that one had
even threatened to pull a gun and “kill’ the Show Manager, who happened to be
Bill McWhinney, Shawna Valenzuela’s father. Bill did not hesitate and called the
police, who came in promptly and took the parent with them. Later, when the
situation cooled down the police obviously released this understandably upset
parent.
In contrast at that same show, two very talented teenagers had tied for the Hi
Point Junior Exhibitor. The officials held a special class for the young ladies,
Dianna Whisenant and Kim Jaserie, to break the tie. I asked for further
maneuvers and all sorts of tests that I could think of to try to bring out a
winner but both girls and their mounts performed exquisitely. I lined them up in
the center of the arena, and while I stood there and conveyed my dilemma to the
girls, I had the officials and parents consulted on what I thought would be the
way to solve this. With their approval, and to the girls delight, Verne Albright
announced to the spectators that they were still tied and that the only way that
I could think of to break the tie was to put the class on hold and to have them
come back later on a pair of two different horses, provided by other exhibitors
and have them exchange the ride on each of those horses. And that’s what we did
later that afternoon. With their unknown horses they both did great. Kim the
gracious one, always in control but Dianna, not as refined a rider, would get
her message across to the horse by confidently slapping her strange mount with
the stirrups. Her self-reliance impressed me and that made me give her the
award. It was a toss up!
Ed Houston is another long timer, still actively involved in the breed both as a
breeder and as a judge. There are a couple of lessons I learned from Ed.
Unorthodox as he is, he was the first judge in our breed here or anywhere else
that I saw make the horses walk during a class (a very valuable tool for a
judge) long before this was, rightfully so, made a requirement. Secondly, Ed has
what it takes when rules are to be enforced. He was acting as Manager at some
show in CA. Vivian who headed the Club, went to Ed with a complaint about some
known exhibitor who was misbehaving badly and nobody dared to confront. Ed did.
He quietly “talked” to this exhibitor and the individual was gone for the
remainder of the show! Nevertheless they have remained best friends. That’s Ed
for you!
We now move on to another old-timer, a persevering (we Italians are so) and most
successful breeder, Gene Pepe. There I was at his beautiful place in Pawling New
York amongst his other guests, the McCormicks from Calistoga, California, Adele,
Tom and their daughter Deborah. We were having a good time after a long day,
enjoying each other’s company with some bread, cheese and wine in his warm old,
old house. The conversation was pleasant until Adele, who had dug through the
archives in Seville, Spain announced that she had found, so she said, no
evidence that the Friesian Horse had been present in the background of the
horses brought earlier by the Conquistadors and later on, by the settlers to
Peru. She complained to me that we Peruvians shouldn’t allow such nonsense to be
written. I really had no opinion in the matter but defended the thesis of the
possibility of our breed having Friesian blood. The conversation was becoming
heated and turning into an argument when Gene, in his characteristic manner
suddenly jumped in. Turning to Adele he said: Adele. She answered politely: Yes,
Gene? To which Gene responded: You are full of S….! Needless to say Adele, a
great gal, took it in the spirit intended as all of us burst into laughter.
Raul Del Solar, the owner and breeder of “RDS Me Llamo Peru++” the only Stallion
in history to have won two National Laureado Breeding Division Titles, is one
amongst the few, still active, original true aficionados, no question about it.
Raul is not only a breeder, he also loves to teach children. Many who are now
middle- aged people and successful breeders, exhibitors and or trainers in their
own right, owe Raul a great deal and they profess their devotion to him. But
Raul is also a character and we all know that he’ll be irreverent and sometimes
loud and exaggerated in making his positions known on an issue. One day at a
National Show in Ft. Worth Texas, Raul and a bunch of Peruvians, myself
included, were hanging out together, boys alone, kidding each other or anybody
else, plainly having a good time. We all know how close a couple he and his wife
Jo Ann are so I feel free to tell you this short story. We were walking along
the alleyway in the inside area of the arena where the service stands and
vendors are located. At a distance he spotted Jo Ann amongst a group of lady
friends coming from the other direction. As the groups ran into each other,
pretending that he had not noticed her, Raul said, with his potent voice raised,
clearly meaning to be heard: “I’m missing my wife. I hope I don’t find her” and
kept on walking. We all, of course, cracked up.
We old timers remember Louise and Ray Amsden, presently retired from the horses
and still living in Santa Inez, CA. They were the proud owners of *Lancero one
of the first imported Stallions from the old Hacienda Casagrande in Peru, a
horse that lived well into his thirties. I was judging a show around 1980 in
Ventura California and Louise and Ray had been appointed to be my escorts. By
this time, rules had been placed on the conduct of the exhibitors and officials
here in the USA. Coming from Peru, where there were no such written
restrictions, I felt that I knew how to handle myself in an appropriate manner
and was not very comfortable with the situation of having an escort everywhere
that I went. But the Amsdens and I thoroughly enjoyed each others company, plus
they were aware of our two countries cultural differences and knew how to take
care of me and interpret the rules. The Ventura fairgrounds arena was out in the
open with the sun shining high above. A short time before lunch break between
classes on that hot summer day, I was leaning on the fence that surrounded the
arena, away from the bleachers and crowds, when Louise approached me holding a
glass. She had thought I might be thirsty and passed the full glass saying:
Raul, here’s your lemonade! It was so thoughtful. I thanked her and took a sip.
It was lemonade all right…..a Tom Collins!
The following is a true story and even though it didn’t happen in this country I
can’t help myself in telling it. Years ago there was a horse from the North of
Peru who ended up being not memorable and I will not offend anyone if I call him
by his name, Rey Castanio. This stallion had caught the attention of a couple of
aficionados. They had seen this horse at a small show and felt certain that they
had discovered a hidden jewel and were determined to promote him! He was
extravagant in his lift and termino and not a bad looking horse but the timing
in his footfall was not good and he was very rough to ride. The stallion was
brought to the Lima area with much anticipation, build-up and fanfare to compete
among the better of the breed and for a while had some followers passionately
defending him. As time went by, however, the attention fizzled as he proved to
be “no big deal”. Years later we heard that the horse was back in the North and
had been taken to a local show held in Cajamarca, a beautiful deep valley in
between the Andes Mountains. The installations there were not great and in an
unfortunate situation, the horse had died after being electrocuted from chewing,
I assume, some loose wiring. Somebody carried the news on to others claiming
that the horse had, “committed suicide”.
Not too long ago, a nephew of mine was managing a very important breeding unit
here in the USA. We would talk often on the phone and had lively discussions
about the high hopes we had for our young, upcoming show horses. As often
happened, we were competing against each other in the first show of the year
with a couple of promising Bozal colts. At the first show his colt beat mine. My
nephew, with the help of some devilish friends went to the trouble of taking
photographs during the class and selected some in which I appeared angry, hot
and/or disgusted, or pleased while I was riding my colt. They went on to prepare
a booklet of photos telling a tale that they entitled, “M……….., a sad story” and
delivered it to me upon a visit to our ranch to great hilarity and my chagrin.
But the story doesn’t stop there! At the following show, the reverse happened
and my colt beat his, with very high compliments paid to both horses by the
Peruvian judge. I was on cloud nine! The ending to this story is that all of us,
my nephew, his friends, the two judges and I, all ended up being the butt of the
joke, as both colts turned out to be…. nice geldings!
Once, while visiting a ranch I was curious to find out what “real inexpensive”
horses they had for sale. A very attractive looking, almost three y/old, already
gelded chestnut caught my attention. The youngster had good disposition and had
been taught manners. I also noticed that he “could trot”. In my mind I thought
this was fixable with proper training. I could not go wrong on this fellow!
Having brought my horse trailer along for this trip I decided to go ahead and
bought him “cheap”, took him back home and proudly showed my wife my
acquisition. The horse turned out to be exactly what I thought! Beautiful and
energetic he sure was the easiest to handle. But, after several months ridden,
he would not gait and would only “pasitrot”. Given my geldings background, (his
sire was the same) and that I am not a patient one, the young horse ended up at
a local horse auction sold for a very reasonable price, no papers added, just a
nice, great looking young horse. Later that day I sat at our porch talking with
my wife Lauren as we usually do, about the events of the day. I asked her what
she thought these people at that ranch did with horses like “my gelding” to
which she replied: “they sell them to people like you”.
This were just a few of my memories……..
Louisiana, February of 2005
Visitors Welcome!
We are located just 90 minutes north of New Orleans Airport in Southeastern Louisiana.
Please call or email us for your questions, additional information or to book breedings
to our stallions, or make an appointment to view our stock.
Raul Risso M &
Lauren Carter-Risso
64486 Bracy Ln
Amite, LA 70422
Telephone: 985-748-4811
E-mail: ryrusa@i-55.com
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