She grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin and
as a small child spent many days with her dad as he plowed
fields with his team of Percherons. Tiny Marilyn would insist
on riding the plow horses and would remain aboard all morning
long until her dad would break for lunch and take her back
to the house.
For her fifth birthday, Marilyn’s grandfather had
taken pity on this child, whose legs stuck straight out from
atop the draft horses and bought her, what would be the first
of several ponies over the coming years. The morning that
first pony arrived they unloaded her and saddled her up.
Marilyn was hoisted aboard Black Beauty (really), and she
proceeded to make the property rounds for the first time
aboard her own horse.
Marilyn never had a formal lesson, but was taught powerful
lessons by her ponies. All you have to remember about ponies
is that if you let them put their heads down to eat or to
frisk, it’s likely you weren’t going to go anywhere
good. Case in point was a distinctive bay pony she called ‘Red
Boy’, who taught her the true meaning of the word go!
He would regularly rear up and run off at top speed with
her. She tried hitching him to a cart and he still ran off.
She marvels that she survived ‘Red Boy’s’ lessons
but despite all the falls and scary looking wrecks she survived
childhood relatively intact.
By the time Marilyn was old enough to attend the 4-H
shows she was riding her first Arab-Pinto in gymkhana
classes. She won every class they entered; it was here
she laid eyes on the first Appaloosa she had ever seen.
His name was Thunder, a beautiful spotted blue roan.
Marilyn was awe struck as she watched him perform in
his classes and marveled at his good looks, athletic
abilities, and his kind attitude. He won all of his arena
classes consistently, no one could best him. |
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She made a special point to meet
and talk to his owner, and would hold his reins, talk to
and pet him during the breaks in his class schedule. It was
then and there that Marilyn swore her next horse would be
an Appaloosa.
In 1976, Marilyn now married and with her own family, moved
to California. It had been almost 14 years since she’d
vowed to have her own Appaloosa. Having never lost the urge
to ‘GO’ Marilyn started looking and found Deuce’s
Tippecanoe, a black, snow flake spotted roan mare that she
campaigned at regional gymkhana events. As the years rolled
by Marilyn replaced ‘Tippi’ with a new speedster,
June Moon, who was an Appaloosa/Arabian cross who closely
matched ‘Tippi’ in color, right down to her spots.
Marilyn had hoped that when she found June Moon, that she
had at last, found a horse she would be able to compete
on in distance riding, but the mare had other ideas and insisted
that she was a speed event horse. The duo burned up the California
Gymkhana Association circuit and ended up wining the High
Point of the Year award at the regional level. The duo had
also qualified and went on to the state finals where they
ended up the Champions of 3 out of their 6 events! Once Marilyn
retired June Moon to broodmare status, she started another
hunt and this time it would be for an Appaloosa she could
fulfill her long awaited dream of competitive trail and distance
riding.
After much searching Marilyn found Chickasaw, an Appaloosa
/ race-bred Quarter Horse cross. The pair started training
and once fit, Marilyn made the decision to enter her first
NATRC race. They placed third overall at their first ride.
Destiny bound, it turned out to be an epiphany of sorts for
Marilyn; she knew that she had at last, found her niche in
life with her beloved Appaloosas.
1997 Cal-Western Appaloosa Show Horse Association’s
Hall of Fame Inductee Irish Coffee 76 From Chickasaw, Marilyn
moved on to Irish Coffee 76 and then Mtn. Mist Mirage. If
those names sound familiar, they should, Marilyn trained
and rode both these great geldings into the Cal-Western Appaloosa
Show Horse Association Hall of Fame, and earned numerous
awards and titles in sanctioned programs offered by the Appaloosa
Horse Club, American Endurance Riders Conference, and the
International Arabian Horse Association, to name but a few.
She has spent 20 years and covered more than 5,000 miles
in her sanctioned endurance / competitive trail career. Her
accomplishments have appeared in major all-breed, and breed
equine publications, local and state newspapers, California
lifestyle magazines, and online news pages. As for posterity,
she and Irish Coffee 76 have been immortalized in 2 original
paintings by artists who were taken away by the ‘soul & spirit’ of
Marilyn and her equine partner.
She has earned great respect in the breed and open, all
breed world, for demonstrating the Appaloosa’s ability
at events that prove their hardiness, speed, endurance and ‘can
do’ dispositions. Just as the Nez Perce horse of the
American frontier earned his place in history, so has Marilyn
and her ‘flying spots’ in
the distance community. All have come to know and respect
Marilyn and her Appaloosas over the past twenty years of
intense competition.
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Marilyn is quick to point out that without her pit
crew, which has always consisted of one very able bodied,
enthusiastic fan; husband Frank. None of her rides
would have been possible without him. He acted as the
cool down expert at the checkpoints, the cheering section,
the food and water man, tissues for the tears and a
pocket full of band aids for the mishaps, and always
Marilyn could count on that warm, prideful smile when
she stormed over the finish line at trails end.
It is also important to note another outstanding feature
of the Orlando’s distance and competitive trail
program. They have always taken the greatest of care
of their horse family members, and to this day, both
of her Hall of Fame Champions, Irish Coffee 76 and Mtn
Mist Mirage, nicker greetings to visitors who happen
by the barn. |
Both are sound and content and regularly go on leisurely
trail rides with Frank and Marilyn through the golden hills
of their California home. Trail rides these days are moving
at a much more leisurely pace, and heaven knows, they’ve ‘all’ earned
it.
Story by Patti Ansuini © 2004
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