The History of Gem Star Arabians

...Continued

The 90's

That winter, 1989-90, my sister married and started her own family. She is now a Jockey in the Cleveland Ohio area, racing Thoroughbreds and owning a few Arabian show horses. This explains the Thoroughbred's available for sale on the web site. Having a kind heart she often "rescues" horses from the track to give them a second job and a chance at a good life outside the race track.

So there I was 16 years old and 18 horses to manage. We decided to work with Budd's once again. We took Rave to Budd's in April and I continued to work Dan at home for another month, then Budd's agreed to help me out and only charge board as long as I worked. My sister had already broke Rave to ride, so he was ready to go to work once he showed up at Budd's. We had a great year. Rave was named Region 18 Top 5 halter. Dapper Dan had a great year winning many championships along the way. One of my best accomplishments throughout the year was breaking Deliverance (pictured below to right) to ride and making him a success that year. By the end of the year we were showing at the local Class A shows and placing in the top spots.
My favorite ride on him was in the Saddleseat Medals class, please keep in mind I was never an equitation rider, I decided to do it for fun and it would be a great experience for him. We had excellent rail work and then they excused us for the pattern. It was a diamond pattern, trot, canter, canter then trot out. Well, being on a four year old without much experience he jumped around a bit when we had to trot at the rail and all those scary people were there. Then we had a canter, which was actually quite nice. Then I trotted and when I got to my third point and realized I had to trot out and I didn't canter but trotted the third leg, I first thought about backing up, then turning around and going back to redo that part of it but then I just got the biggest smile on my face and trotted on out to finish my pattern. At that point there is no going back and you just need to have fun with it. I came out of the ring laughing. You know, I got more compliments from people about that, then any great ride I've ever had to date. I remember one of the show committee members coming up to me right after and laughing and saying, "I got the biggest kick out of you, You knew you screwed up and instead of throwing a fit you just smiled and went along your way". It was great. Needless to say that out of 18 horses that were in the class, I'm sure I was somewhere around 18th!

That was also the show, Fall Classic 1990, that we sold Rave Review to The Kitredges. Exactly one year, to the day, after our purchase of him. We sold him because A) it was really good money and B) Bill Amidon had called and offered us SStar AAttraction, Rave's younger brother we fell in love with, the week before. That year we sold about 12 horses. Budd's use to joke that we were the only farm they knew that could have sold our entire herd if we wanted that year.

The weekend after the show we went back to New York and there we bought the 2 year old Stallion, SStar AAttraction. The rest of the fall I spent time breaking him out and we had him gelded just before winter. The winter/Spring of 1991 we returned to KaTalPa Arabians/Mike and Terri Budd for training on SStar. SStar had a great year. Our first horse show he won the halter championships and won under saddle too. In June we went to our first Regional with SStar, there I showed him in the Open (no AOTR or JOTR at this time) halter and was Top 5, placing over trainers, I might add including Terri with NDL Cairo. Rave Review was Reserve Champion with Mike - thus why I showed SStar. I didn't show him performance because I had Dan still and showed him instead. It was also during these next two years that Mike and Terri went on to buy their own farm, Tri-Color Farm.

The very first time I competed in an Open (or any) Regional Class was 1992 in HA Halter Gelding Open with SStar AAttraction. Beating out Multi Regional Champion NDL Cairo.

The next few years were spent showing Dan, SStar and a young gelding we raised, Laddin-Toughguy. During this time I worked for my vet, Meijers and Budd's at Tri-Color Farm. It was a busy schedule, being full time at the vet with only three days work, then the other days spent at the other two jobs. It was a busy summer but I was able to show and have fun. I can even remember working thrid shift at Meijers all night and then all day I spent showing and catching what little sleep I could. It worked out fine but I wouldn't want to do that very often.

In 1993 I talked to a man I admired very much about working for him for a few months as a learning experience. Chuck Siemon was someone I'd watched for many years and really admired. It was all set I was going down in January and working for three months. So after the apartment was arranged Chuck called and didn't think it was going to work out. I was heart broken, it would have been such a great experience. 1993 was also a great year in that it was the year that we purchased Shah Jameel. We'd heard Bill was selling out and moving on. So we called him and when he told us he had Jameel still, and would consider selling him to us, it was a great thrill. We once again made the trip out to New York and this time brought home the best horse on Bill's farm, Shah Jameel!

Shah Jameel and Mike Budd winning 1994 OHAHA Champion Stallion

Through 1994 I continued to work with Mike and Terri Budd. They had Jameel and SStar in training with them. This was the year my mom finally started showing. She showed SStar and had a great year! OHAHA was a great show. It was our début with Jameel. He was named Champion Stallion and the class before his daughter, Mrs. Robinson was named Champion Half Arabian Mare! We showed Jameel a few more times that year winning many Championships along the way. Considering that he was 12 competing against five year olds, we couldn't be happier. At Region 18, he ended up 6th overall out of 18 stallions. It was an amazing class and he looked great. In the HA Sweepstakes class, three of his colts were named in the top five and one went on to be Champion. Even without the Top five it turned out to be a great show for us. Mom had some beautiful rides on SStar but him being more of a country horse and country not being a class yet, it was hard to compete with horses like Rave!

My Mom, Pat Stover, showing SStar AAttraction

At the Region 13 show we were stalled down from Siemon Stables. About half way through the show Chuck came up to me and said "I've been watching you and your a good worker, I think we might be able to work something out later if your still interested in coming down." I was thrilled. being 19 and having one of the biggest in the industry actually talk to me, was a big deal!

The end of 1994 I made arrangements with Chuck when he called me out of the blue just before Christmas and needed someone to come and work for him. So January 1, I started at Siemon Stables in Ohio. Gas Light Farm had wanted to lease Jameel for two seasons so December he went to their farm. We just had the six horses at home, with two mares expecting our first Jameel foals. Later Dan and Toughguy would join me in Ohio to continue their work.

I very muched enjoyed working with Siemons and learned a ton. I was impressed by their training and the quality of the horses in the barn. We worked our butts off and it wasn't uncommon to start at 9:00 and still be in the barn at 10:00pm. The days were long but full filling. Then the shows were longer and very tiring but I loved it. We all - at that time the boys, Matt, Jason and Jake, stayed at the stalls at night also, managed to have fun. I still remember waking up around 3:00, just shortly after going to bed, to feel something in my hair. I was out of it and somewhat sat up say "what the..." At that point I heard the boys laugh and go running out of our room. So I took off after them (no glasses) and tried to run into their room, which they had cooler clamped shut and they had taken off somewhere else. As it turned out it was vasoline in my hair, they'd tied Malinda to her cot with baling twine and Dawn was just about to get Horseman's One Step (saddle cleaner) in her hair when I woke up and "ruined" their fun. I have to admit the "fun" started when Dawn put safty pins in their beds. Not very nice but I didn't take part in that, a shower was calling my name. As it turns out I got the worst of it. Ah - the good ole' days! I still owe you boys!

That spring our two Jameel babies were born, two fillies. One out of a Half Arabian Mare and one out of R.G. Baye - my sisters old pony she'd bought back for her daughter, Kirsten. Very nice fillies. I worked most of the year with Siemons then came home to "find myself". I took a few years off from showing and we sold a few of the horses over that time.

After a few years absence from the show world and a few hundred country concerts later (I spent my free time and money traveling every where to watch concerts and travel - love Nashville) I jumped back into the horses with both feet. I just couldn't stay away. This was the start of "Gem Star Arabians". I really buckled down and started researching Jameel. I contacted many of his progeny owners and ended up with five extra horses in the barn to work, show and sell. I was having a blast and loved those five horses. They were wonderful. Everything you'd want in a horse and they were Jameel babies! They were also HA/NSH and that seemed to be where Jameel excelled as a stallion. That fall I bought my first Saddlebred broodmare, My Precious Dream. She came with a companion, My Fire - a 28 year old Saddlebred Mare who was a Multi Champion Three Gaited horse. Over the winter I purchased yet another Saddlebred mare, Spring Fever's Honey. That October my friends gave me thier Arabian mare, Tender Moment LS a Fire On Ice daughter. Before you knew it I had 18 horses on the farm. Two of the Jameel babies I broke out sold right away, GL Motown Magic and GL Pearls N Lace. Then HL SoloFlight sold a little later that summer. Things were looking great and I bred ten mares to Jameel that year. The most we'd ever bred, three were mine, the others outside mares.

What I consider my first foal crop was in the spring of 1998. I had two HA/NSH foals, both Fillies. The first was Long Neck Bottle GSA and the second was On A Good Night GSA. Ona went on to become Region 18 Champion filly as a yearling for her new owner Kelly Garner. She has since won many Championships in halter and regional Top 5's. She'll start her performance career in 2004. Long Neck Bottle GSA has been shown for a few years with wins in Hunt for her owner Lisa Terlecki.

The next few years were spent working horses and breeding some fine babies. During these years I still worked shows for Budds, Siemon Stables and when I first started working with my current trainer, John Lambert of Lambert Arabians.

[2000 and on]