Victor Kerr reVisited
horse shows there. That was the big attraction for me. American saddlebreds were in the spotlight at those shows; there were no Arabian shows. “i really wanted to learn to train saddlebreds, so after high school i went to work for John T. Hook in mexico, mo. it was an honor to groom for a top horseman. The term ‘groom’ would later become the more dignified
Indian Genii (Natez x Serafire).
The Kerrs with Blue Angel (*Serafix x Rahaima), Crescenta Ima Electric (Electric Storm x Ima Geymna). (*Serafix x Ganada) and Royal Gold (*Serafix x *Royal Silver).
‘caretaker,’ but i was happy to brag about grooming Hook’s champions. When i told mr. Hook i wanted to learn to train, he began letting me ride a few horses, always under his watchful eye. Whenever he told me what to do with any horse, he explained why.” Widely recognized in his lifetime as one of this nation’s most knowledgeable saddlebred authorities, Hook selected, developed and showed many of that breed’s most influential champions from the 1890s through the early decades of the 20th century. “in the year i was with him, Col. John T. Hook taught me the most and best about training a horse,” acknowledges Kerr, who went to work for the famous horseman in 1948. “i also had the opportunity to work for the Art simmons stable in mexico, mo., and the e.C. Johnston stables in Longview, Texas, before i enlisted in the Air Force in 1950.” simmons, like Hook, was a very successful saddlebred horseman who trained and showed dozens of world’s champions. (more about the colorful horseman can be found in Arthur Simmons: American Icon of the Horse World—A Daughter’s Memories, by Jane simmons, published in 2008.)
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As time went on, the list of great horsemen and horsewomen that Kerr admired included many highlyregarded Arabian trainers. “i always tried to learn from the best,” he says. Among them were Harold brite, Jeff Wonnell, Harold Daugherty, and Tom bason (“true horsemen, as well as gentlemen, always willing to help others”) and the horsewomen at two of the top equestrian programs, mrs. Claude Drew at Christian
College and Cecile Hetzel Dunn at stephens College. (significantly, when Kerr lists people from whom he learned or who inf luenced him, he doesn’t stop with those in his past. He invariably adds some of the young people who worked with him over the years, such as bob Wise, who opened his own barn in southern California, and David savidge, who went on to earn a doctorate, teach in college and write books. savidge also wrote an article about Victor Kerr for Arabian Horse Times, september/october 2001, Vol. 1.) While Kerr was honing his considerable skills with missouri’s finest, the young horsewoman Detta shinn was riding saddlebreds at midwestern shows and on Florida’s sunshine Circuit, where she won high-point titles in equitation and three-gaited competition. she, too, was raised in Pike County, ill., where both the Kerr and the shinn families had been well respected for generations, and where high school student Victor showed Hereford cattle for Detta’s grandfather. However, he wanted to train horses, not lead cattle. After his 1954 discharge from the Air Force, Kerr partnered