Horse lovers celebrate Arabians

 < Capital Press video by Jacqui Krizo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM2blTBTqP4

Event features music and horsemanship on state border

By JACQUI KRIZO For the Capital Press

Jacqui Krizo/For the Capital Press - Kate Paterson and her grandfather Jack Dershimer drive his team of Percherons between ranches at the Celebration of Our Arabian Horses. His father started him out breaking ponies when he was a little guy, and now he feels it is his calling to share his joy of horses with others.

MALIN, Ore. — Jack Dershimer, guiding a horse carriage filled with passengers, beams with pride as his granddaughter sits on the seat beside him. He has places to go and stories to tell.

He especially likes to tell about driving his team of horses from Napa, Calif., to Jackson Hole, Wyo.

“I just think that’s what I was put here for — to do it and enjoy it,” Dershimer said. “I like to share the fun with everybody else.”

More than 220 horse lovers from all over the West attended the May 24 Celebration of Our Arabian Horses east of Malin, Ore., near the Oregon-California border, at Sara and Laurence Bagg’s Scarab Farm and Pat and Marie Gregory’s Arabian Farm.

Pat Gregory showed his breeding Arabian stallions from the Crabbet and Polish blood lines of pure-bred Arabians and his new foals. Sara Bagg showed her Arabians, which are of the same bloodline as Pat Gregory’s horses, and she also showed her half-Arabian half-Friesian foals. She imported some of her horses from Poland.

“Today is about celebrating our Arabian horses and foals, and getting people to see what we do here and what our horses are all about, and how beautiful they all are, and to see what the Arabian-Friesian cross is all about,” Bagg said.

While Bagg and Gregory showed their horses, several drivers gave rides in horsedrawn carriages between the two farms, which are 2 miles apart.

Gregory’s son Jerry drove their team of Belgians for the event. He said driving the team is a hobby for him. He likes to pull a little cart behind the team when he is alone.

Bob Lafferty and many of the other carriage drivers belong to the Klamath Horse and Carriage Society. He built a business, Happy Trails Cowboy Campground, near Chiloquin, Ore., to provide trail rides, wagon rides, campouts, cookouts, and a great experience for cowboys-at-heart.

To enhance their guests’visit, the Baggs and the Gregorys offered lunch and fruit, and Klamath Basin Equipment did the barbecuing. The Baggs decorated the stalls with prize ribbons and hung flowers outside. Corey Murphy entertained all day with traditional and contemporary Irish music.

Arabian Horse Association of the Redwoods President Kim Chamberlain came from Fortuna, Calif., to visit her friend Bagg and help with the event. She said her club does a lot of things to promote Arabian horses.

Jacqui Krizo/For the Capital Press - Jeramey Johnson of Sprague River, Ore., drives her team of Percherons to Scarab Farm. She said her team is not used to large crowds as they've only been in small parades and events of the Horse and Carriage Society.

“We just put on a ‘Relay for Life’with horses,” she said. “A high school girl invented it … it was called the Hero Ride. And we just raised $26,000 for the American Cancer Society.”

She said Arabian horses are versatile and are able to do reining, roping, trail riding and racing. “They’re just a wonderful breed of horse.”

Freelance writer Jacqui Krizo is based in Tulelake, Calif. E-mail: krizohr@cot.net.