Huckleberry Bey (Bay El Bey x Taffona) Sheila with Peter Cameron and Gene LaCroix.
Bay-Abi (Errabi x Angyl)
The Significance Of Sheila Varian In The Arabian Breed “Sheila had her definite convictions about her breeding program,” says Gene LaCroix, who knew her for much of her life (she once informed him that she saw him at his first big show, in Santa Barbara in 1959, and he remembers her early-1960s visit to Lasma in Scottsdale after *Bask’s initial national championship). “The last time I was at the ranch in 2011, we walked through the herds as we had previously. Now we’re into 10 or more generations of breeding, and she’s injected some lines that maybe I wouldn’t have, but she made it work for herself and she produced really good horses. “It reminded me of going to Poland when you could see generation after generation of horses,” he continues, “and they may have changed in type, but they didn’t lose structural integrity. She was breeding for the market, and there is nothing wrong with that, but she did not compromise good, basic conformation. If something was going to take her in that direction, she wouldn’t do it. She’d stop using it in her program. She produced a beautiful horse, and obviously, the record speaks for itself.” Like many others who commented, he noted that her rigorous devotion to conformational excellence is an increasingly valuable resource in today’s industry. “You can see now where some breeding programs are going for a certain type of horse, which can be a saddle horse, a halter horse, or whatever different type,” he says. “And they are going so much for that look that conformational integrity is lost, and you see club feet, straight hocks, things like that. People don’t seem to be concerned about that.” He shakes his head. “Sheila was concerned about it.”
The progression of the Varian breeding program is well documented—old news at this point—but bears repeating. A study of her sire line, coupled with the performance of her most successful mares, reveals a blue chip strike rate of national champions and national champion producers (as well as winners and accomplished participants in most other equine disciplines, including Sheila’s own beloved cattle gathering and trail riding). In 1959, Varian acquired her first stallion, a 2-year-old colt named Bay-Abi, at the first Arabian auction held at San Francisco’s Cow Palace. As she told the story, the catalyst was that when she looked at Bay-Abi, she felt an instant connection to him. He had the essentials of what she liked: balanced conformation (he was a three-circle horse), beauty and a willing temperament. She was with her mother, Wenonah, at the time and it is likely that the pair found his pedigree to their taste as well. Two years later, they purchased their foundation mares. The first Arabians since General Patton’s World War II rescue were beginning to emigrate from Poland, and the Varians were among the earliest to participate. Wenonah researched pedigrees and, through British horsewoman Patricia Lindsay, selected three mares to import. “It sounds strange now,” horsewoman Christy Egan says, “but back in those days, it was more expensive to transport horses from Poland than to purchase them in the first place. You bought them ‘by the [shipping] crate.’ That was more practical than buying one or two.”