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 Linda and I bought our ranch in Texas in 1985 and shortly thereafter we decided we needed some horses - after all, what's a ranch without horses? Jack Zehren and I were classmates and friends at West Point (class of '66) and he had been telling me about Peruvians and how smooth they were, so when we were ready to buy our first horse we went to Jack. He had bought Fiestero
(left) as a young colt, wild as a March hare. In fact, when Jack was first transporting him to his place in Colorado, Fiestero kicked the door out of the trailer - he was only 6 months old.
Soon, Jack gelded Fiestero - he was just too wild. He settled down as a gelding, so much so that Jack felt comfortable selling him to me as a "ranch gelding." Since we had no buildings on our ranch at all, we kept Fiestero in Arizona with a trainer until we had some facilities.
Along the way, we bought a few other horses and began to show them. Fiestero never quite made the grade to go to a show and when our barns were finished our trainer told me to take Fiestero to the ranch and enjoy him on the trail. "He'll never be a show horse!"
I had never owned a horse; I had never trained a horse. But something clicked between Fiestero and me. Somehow, we understood each other. He knew what I wanted and would gladly perform for me.
After about a year of riding him on our ranch, I decided that I wanted to show him. The rest as they say is history. Fiestero was Laureado as National Champion of Champion Pleasure Gelding and is in the AAOBPPH Hall of Fame. He also won countless Luxury Gelding and Pleasure Gelding Championships at regional shows. There were times when he was Champion Luxury Gelding, Champion Pleasure Gelding, and Best Gaited Gelding at the same show.
I retired Fiestero from the show arena after his Laureado but continued to enjoy riding him at our ranch. When I would go out to the pasture to halter him, he would always come running to me. He was always nuzzling me. I knew he was looking for treats but I pretended that he was just happy to see me. He was a big fan of Coors lite beer. At the time, Coors was a client of mine and I used to joke with them about Fiestero's affinity for their product. I do think it helped him at the shows. He'd slurp beer out of my palm always before we'd enter a class - it could have been that it calmed me more than him, but it worked.
He was a big (15+ hands) blue roan, an unusual color. He held his head erect and proud when I rode him and he could fly without breaking gait. A lot of the old time breeders in Peru admired Fiestero because of his elegance and smoothness. He may have been a roan, but he carried himself like a king.
Fiestero passed away at the ripe old age of 22. He was the first horse I ever owned, was one of the reasons I fell in love with this breed, and brought many, many years of happy memories. Linda and I are keeping him entombed at our ranch. He is as much a part of our ranch as we ourselves and so his memory will always be with us.
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