Te One and Only LEGEND AR Y
By Gigha Steinman
When Sherry Koella decided to accompany her husband on an emergency
vet call more than a decade ago, she never would have guessed the path her life would soon take...
IT WAS THEN that she was first introduced to the grace and beauty of the Friesian. She began an unusual journey which led her to own one of the most famous Friesian crossbred stallions in the world. Little did she know she would become a pioneer in pinto Friesian Sporthorse breeding, and her unique stallion would become a legend. She also never could have predicted how tragically their journey together would end.
FROM ARABS TO FRIESIANS Sherry Koella remembers loving horses her entire life. When she first moved from Las Vegas to Tennessee in 1997, she had three Arabians. She mostly rode the trails and some endurance and even dabbled in team penning and working cows with one of them. She met and eventually married veterinarian Jon Koella. One day she happened to join him on an emergency veterinary call. This particular patient was a Friesian, a breed Sherry was not familiar with. Jon had always wanted to stand a Warmblood stallion, but Sherry was immediately enamored with the Friesian. As fate would have it, the Friesian had come from importer Harry
Witteveen in Ontario, Canada, not far from where Sherry’s own parents lived. On her next trip to visit her parents, she decided to also visit Witteveen Friesians. She wasn’t ready or able yet to purchase one, but she continued to stop by to see Harry and the horses whenever she saw her parents in Canada and took advantage of the opportunity to learn as much as she could about the breed. Meanwhile, Sherry had a friend in Tennessee with a Warmblood
who wanted to buy another horse. Sherry’s recommendation was “Let’s go to Canada!” because she wanted her friend to see Harry’s Friesians before she bought anything. So in early 2000 they made the trip to Canada together. That trip was when Sherry first noticed Nico. Friesians are bred
to be solid black horses with no white markings. Sherry remembers, “Harry had a long row of them lined up in standing stalls, and there among all the black faces, I saw this face with white and more refined.” Unlike the others, Nico was not a purebred—he was a Friesian/Dutch Warmblood cross, by Tamme out of Cindy by Samber. He was also a black and white pinto and only three years old and still a stallion. He was immediately her favorite, but when she asked Harry about him
14 July/August 2011 Above: Nico poses with owner Sherry Koella and trainer Jim Koford in 2001. All photos are by Susan McAdoo
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