his response was, “He is not for sale!” Her friend ended up buying a Friesian from Harry, but
since they had no trailer with them, they had to return to Tennessee and then make another trip to Canada. Arriving with truck and trailer to pick up her friend’s new Friesian, Sherry again inquired about Nico, but Harry still would not sell him. A subsequent inquiry yielded the same result. “Sorry, but Nico is not for sale.” A few months later, Sherry was surprised to get a call
from Harry. Nico was turning four and was beginning to act like a stallion. Harry felt he was too nice to castrate, but he didn’t want to deal with standing him as a stallion himself. So Sherry and Jon returned to Canada, pulling their horse trailer. Seeing Nico again, Sherry remembers thinking he was “the most incredible thing I’d laid eyes on.” Jon saw him for the first time and said, “Put him on the trailer!” Her husband was concerned that Harry might change his mind. He could see that Nico was something special. “I remember I didn’t have a big Warmblood trailer back then since I’d only ever had Arabians. Nico lowered his head and went on anyhow, and with excitement we took him back with us to Tennessee,” recalls Sherry.
NICO’S NEW LIFE When they first purchased Nico in 2000, the Koellas weren’t planning to stand and promote him as a stallion. Word traveled that Sherry had a unique Friesian cross. She remarks, “I took some flack for it because Nico was technically half Friesian, and FHANA especially was very opposed to crossbreeding.” She can even recall one person telling her he should be castrated, but Sherry knew that that would be a bad decision. Still fairly new to dressage, she took Nico to a clinic
with FEI trainer Jim Koford to get a professional’s opinion. At that point, Sherry says, “I was just having fun—I didn’t realize what I really had, or what he really was.” Nico was just five years old then and still fairly green, but after riding him for only about twenty minutes, Jim was already impressed with his talent and his trainability. He felt that Nico had FEI potential. Afterwards, Sherry and Jon decided to send Nico
to Jim for training. After approximately a month with Jim, he recommended that he show Nico at Dressage at Devon, and she and Jon agreed. The trip did not go smoothly. Their truck broke down, and Sherry remembers questioning the whole trip and wondering how people
Above: Jim Koford and Nico. 1996 – 2010.
would react to him. Standing 17 hands at age five, and with his pinto
coloring and the long mane and feather of the Friesian, Nico was clearly impressive and unforgettable. At that time, Friesians weren’t nearly as common as they are now. People weren’t really familiar with Friesians, much less a flashy pinto Friesian crossbred. Some people were appalled, as crossbreeding of Friesians was strictly forbidden, but Sherry remembers most people seemed genuinely interested in him. “Nico received so much attention,” she remembers. “We didn’t expect that, and I can remember Jim joking ‘I can’t even adjust my underwear because everyone is watching us!’”
BREEDING CAREER Soon Sherry began getting calls from people wanting a “horse like Nico” and inquiring about breeding to him. Meanwhile Nico was seven hours away at Jim’s farm in training. She missed him and was having trouble sorting out how to juggle breeding and training with him so far from home. Ultimately she took Nico out of training and brought him back to their farm, Hidden Promise Sporthorses, in Tennessee. “One of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t leave him with Jim and focus more on his training,” admits Sherry, “but the phone was ringing off the hook with people interested in him, and Jim’s farm was seven hours away. Yet he was so talented. It’s a shame we never got to prove how far he could go.” Another
big regret was that she didn’t take more time to ride him herself. “So many years were ‘busy-ness’ and were lost. I’ll never get that time back,” she adds. Nico was also taught to drive, and did a couple of combined driving shows too, but the main focus became breeding. Nico’s first foal was born in 2001, a filly out of a
Thoroughbred mare. “That foal was so nice, people started wanting one,” recalls Sherry. At first Nico was bred primarily to Arabs and some Thoroughbreds and even a couple of Quarter Horses. The Koellas were thrilled with all of his foals and his prepotency, but began to move more towards an emphasis on sport within their own breeding program. Dressage was becoming Sherry’s passion, and she began to learn more about biomechanics, the value of a good mind and developing her eye. Their breeding goals became fine-tuned. She and Jon agreed they wanted to breed horses with talent for the upper levels but “with a
Warmbloods Today 15
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68