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by Kymbirlee Jeschke, Sep 2000
It was March 24, 1987, Joanna Friebele and her best friend, Beryle Holley, had gone to their first Arabian auction, but first things first. Joanna had just purchased a Half-Arabian gelding and an Appaloosa just a week before and they were really not in the market for a horse. Nothing had really appealed to her at the time and the horses were mostly frightened two-year-old colts that acted the part running around the little arena calling for their companions. These were not what she would have had in mind at all, in fact, she had not even registered to enter the auction, but she stayed on…there was one yet to come whose pedigree had peaked her interest. She had seen it in the auction pamphlet, #52. He was by a line-bred stallion and out of an inbred mare…a big red colt from Georgia. When he walked into the sale ring, she knew she would have to make arrangements for a trailer. He was so quiet compared to the rest with a big brown soft eye that reflected a kind, gentle soul. He was big with ruggedly handsome features. He was a bold mover, well balanced with so much cadence that she knew then he had it in him to be a great horse. With cheeks flush red with excitement she bought him from outside the sale ring, if Joanna Friebele only knew how this colt from Georgia would change her life forever. This big son of Easter Raffon and Kishtee Lisa called Cahafra Inferno+ was the beginning of a new path for Joanna and only she knew she had found her "Boy".

Joanna had loved horses from the word go. Long summer days and evenings of her teenage years were spent on horseback. She took lessons and her instructor told her she was naturally talented at falling off. There were several girls in the area all bitten by the same "horse bug" and they would all take turns on the horses. Most of the time Joanna rode a big, gray Cobb mare, "Jessica" with a swayback that was blind in one eye, or a little Connemara pony named "Prince". In Ireland everyone rides an English saddle and of course Joanna like the other kids grew up jumping. "We had courses set up and we'd jump everything, even the donkey could jump 3 ft. on a good day!" Joanna remembers, "sometimes on Saturdays we'd ride eleven miles to the shore and race down the beach." When Joanna moved to America, she decided that she wanted a horse of her own, so in 1987 Joanna and Leary Friebele were introduced into the Arabian world through the purchase of a big gray Half-Arabian gelding called Mucho.

After being around Mucho and Boy, Joanna fell in love with the Arabian breed, so she decided that if she was going to own Arabians than she wanted to know everything about them. She subscribed to every magazine and newspaper that had anything to do with the Arabian breed. She began researching pedigrees and reading anything she could get her hands on.

Coming from a competitive family of race and rally drivers it wasn't long before she started looking at competing in the show ring. She and Leary did not know much about the show ring, but they started looking for trainers in their area. They discovered Martha Murdock, who had a really good show record and interacted well with the horses in her barn. Martha liked Boy and agreed to take him on. Since Boy was a pretty bold mover, they decided he'd be best started in hunter pleasure.

Six months into his training, Martha felt that Boy was ready for competition and his first show was the Azalea Classic. Boy went into his first class with twenty-eight other horses, several of them already National Champions. After winning his class, he went on to become Hunter Pleasure Champion and qualified to compete at the Region 9 Championship show. Not long after their win, Martha moved to Albuquerque and took Boy with her but they returned to show at the Region 9 show and took Top 5 honors, this was only his second show.

Since Boy's temperament was so mild and he was showing such great potential in the show ring, Joanna decided to leave him a stallion and try him out in the breeding barn. She had never been much of a "heads and tails" person, as she calls it, but preferred instead to breed a pretty horse with substance between the head and tail. If her horses were to make an impact on the Arabian industry she wanted that impact to be a good-minded horse that could endure the riggers of the show ring, and make a wonderful kid's backyard pet, too. Joanna liked the classic look of the older Crabbet/CMK horses with their handsome features, big bodies and free shoulder motion. After researching old Crabbet/CMK bloodlines and studying crosses between those bloodlines and the Egyptian lines, Joanna chose two *Morafic bred mares to breed to Boy. She leased the mares who were half-sisters from different owners and Boy began his career as the foundation sire of SoFine Arabians.

As Joanna began finding and purchasing broodmares suitable for crossing to Boy, he was entering a new phase of his showing career - the Western arena. He loved it and began winning at Class 'A' shows and then on to Regional level.
He had a new trainer, Doug Thompson and they had a great relationship. They went on to take a Top 5 at the Region 9 show and started on the road to US Nationals. At Nationals, Boy and Doug had an exceptional ride but unfortunately did not make it to Top Ten. People lined up with money in hand to purchase the up and coming star. This marked a bittersweet moment for Joanna. She had known that day at the auction that Boy was meant for great things, but also knew that she did not hold enough political clout to take him there herself. Someone once said that if you love something enough you must be prepared to let it go…and that is what Joanna did. In 1995, Boy was sold to Julie Wrigley. Along with a good monetary settlement, Joanna would receive a Top Ten National Champion English mare, SA Passing Fancy and she would be allowed to retain breedings to Boy.

Joanna watched from afar as her Boy rode the wave of success with Julie and later her close friend, Carolyn Leslie. He took several Class A and Regional titles and again made his way back to Nationals. When he made his victory pass as Reserve National Champion Western Pleasure AAOTR, Joanna stood in the stands and cheered for her Boy. Pride and joy filled to overflowing as her Boy proved to the world what she had known all along. A big trainer had told her along the way that Boy did not have the class to win a National Championship. She felt great satisfaction as she watched him prove the trainer wrong that day!

As Boy's show career slowed Joanna began focusing on her breeding program, again. She experimented with many different types of mares with a variety of backgrounds and pedigrees. Egyptian and Russian crosses with pretty heads and long necks seemed to be the best crosses with Boy. He began producing pretty, large-bodied fillies with gentle dispositions and big soft eyes. Joanna crossed him with an old Quarter horse mare and fell in love with the beautiful bay filly that resulted. Tragically before the filly was to begin her show career she was struck by lightening and Joanna had to let go once more.

In 1999, Joanna received a phone call Boy was for sale. It seemed that the old adage had proven true…if you love something, you must be capable of letting it go…if it is meant to be it will come back to you. The questioned that loomed in the forefront was would he be the same Boy or had years of the fast-paced show scene changed him. She knew that an abusive trainer had injured him and rumor had it that he would never show again. At the time of the call he was being boarded at The Brass Ring, so Joanna decided to pay him a visit. When she stepped into the hallway, he recognized her instantly and called to her from the end of the hall. As she put her hand to the stall he reached out with his pink tongue and licked it, he was her good ole' Boy nothing had changed.

In April of last year, Joanna brought her Boy home. She had purchased him back with the sole intention of breeding him and showing his babies. She decided since she had spent all this money it would be nice to actually ride him herself and so she began taking lessons on him under the tutelage of Sandy Bentley. "Sandy has been great, she knows just what to say to make me do the right thing at the right time and we have come a long way together. It's hard for me, since I injured my spine in an accident rallying cars through the hills of Ireland in my wayward youth, but we are able to work well most days. He is so well trained that he does just what you tell him to do, unfortunately I don't always tell him the right thing at the right time, so he is training me well! My other unfortunate personality defect is I'm a perfectionist and that's just not possible showing horses, but I'm coming to realize that and live with it!"

At the 1999 GCAHC Christmas show, Sandy and Boy decided to give the show ring another shot and they had a fantastic time. "Winning that first blue ribbon again, with a great ride and a trainer who wants the best for him, I know I had done the right thing when I bought him again."

As much as Boy loves the show ring he loves his mares twice as much. Joanna has been more than pleased with his offspring and continues to breed two to three mares a year. Last year was a first for the farm as Boy's first grandson was foaled. He also produced another bay filly out of the Quarter horse mare and an exciting colt, lovingly named after George Straight, out of the Top Ten National Champion English mare. Joanna is waiting in anticipation to see if George will follow in his father's Western career or his mother's English career. This year's foal crop included an exciting bay colt out of an Al Marah mare and a large chestnut filly out of a Namet daughter. Next year the farm is expecting another Inferno foal out of an Egyptian bred mare. Boy is expecting several other foals at different farms across the country and Joanna is excited about her clients' upcoming babies.

The next show season should find a new Inferno daughter following in her father's footsteps. Joanna also has a beautiful bay Matoi daughter out of SA Passing Fancy who should be debuting next year in the English division and a chestnut Half-Arabian filly by DA Napitov+/ who will be starting in training this fall.

Joanna hates to sell Boy's offspring, but realizes that it has to be, she says, "We are kind of like Blue Bell - We keep all we can and sell the rest!" She has decided to keep several of his daughters and will breed them to proven Western sires. So there you have it - Joanna's Boy has come home to breed… to show… and to simply be a horse.