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Southwestern eventer Barbara Crabo rides what she and her family breeds—with great results.
By Charlene Strickland
ow many U.S.-bred Warmbloods have won a CCI***, competed by his or her owner/breeder? Just one that we’re aware of: Eveready II, with
Barbara Crabo in the irons. In 2014, this Swedish Warm- blood (Irco Mena x Cruise On In xx) won the CCI*** at Galway Downs in Temecula, California. A 15-year-old, the bay showed his jumping ability both on the cross country course and in a clear show jumping round. This victory—their first time winning a three-star—was
a triumph for Barbara. After embryo-transfer breeding “Ready” in 1998, she’s brought him through years of riding over fences at sometimes uncontrolled speeds to this win. She’s since ridden more U.S.-bred Swedish Warm- bloods, all products of the Crabo family’s three genera- tions of breeding, to eventing success. But despite all that, Barbara, who operates out of her Four Peaks Farm in Scottsdale, Arizona, traces her eventing career back to a chance meeting with an unwanted mare.
A Fortunate Rescue In 1993, Barbara was soon to graduate from the University of
California, Davis. She had her horse boarded at the school’s equestrian center and one day she spotted a new mare there. “She looked like a broodmare, nothing special. A 15.2 black broodmare—a tiny little thing. I saw her there, and, ugh! I’m in love. There was something about her. I had no idea who she was, but I saw her and said, ‘OMG, that’s my horse,’” Barbara recounts. The mare was Fleetswinger xx (Cruise On In x Tumble
Turbie), a five-year-old Thoroughbred off the track, without papers. Barbara learned the mare had been abandoned at the vet school after her foal was adopted. “I was able to ride her a few times. She was broke to ride,
but knew nothing. She was quiet,” she recalls. The mare was due to go to auction, but Barbara was deter- mined to buy her before that happened. Convincing the vet
28 March/April 2015 m
school that she was serious about buying the horse, she was able to negotiate a deal. “Finally they said, ‘We’ll put her on the scale and we’ll sell her to you for market price.’ I paid 57 cents a pound for her,” Barbara says. “Today I still have her—she is 28.” Renamed Batteries Not
Included, “Bat” took to event- ing and competed for several years with Barbara up to the
TOP: Barbara and ‘Ready’ together win the Galway Downs CCI*** last November in Temecula, California. BOTTOM: Not Included (Fleetswinger xx), dam of Eveready II, ridden by Barbara in 1996 at Event at the Downs, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Amy McCool Photos
Charlene Strickland
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