Polka Parr T

He's been so very much on my mind of late, and I love to talk about him. He's been a sight at shows in Region 10 since 2000, though he was foaled in my head in the summer of 1999.

He is Polka Parr T. The mighty Polka Parr T.

If I have a favorite, this is it.

In 1999, I had just discovered that not only was Weird Al Yankovic still around, he'd just released a new album, AND, HELLO, he toured. I had to go see him once, right? That was like 72 shows ago. On the 1999 album, there was a parody song called "Its All About the Pentiums" and I loved driving around in my Pontiac LeMans with the windows down and that blowing out of my speakers.



In 1999, I had also been introduced to freestyle reining, and as someone used to the very formal dressage musical kur, this event was just outrageous to me. Not only were routines set to pop songs, riders *and horses* could wear costumes. The model horse implications were endless.

One night, these two things got married in my head. MODEL HORSE FREESTYLE REINING SET UP TO ALL ABOUT THE PENTIUMS. Yes. I needed to go get me a reining horse. Doing a dramatic sliding stop. There were options for this, and I settled on a Black Horse Ranch reiner that I turned from a very yellow palomino into a dark bay with only a thin, Y shaped stripe on his head. His name was a joke, as well--the Parr echos the Zan Parr Bar family of Quarter Horses, while Polka Party! is the name of a somewhat obscure Yankovic album (it fits in between Dare to be Stupid and Even Worse)

Polka Parr T. I thought I was hilarious.

Polka got his first run at a CT show where he managed to come home with a trophy. I think he won reining and his halter class. This only encouraged me, and I spent the winter dreaming up an entire freestyle ride--with all the compulsory moves!--to Its All About the Pentiums. Part of my set up including placing the song's lyrics with the choreography written out. There was also a CD player with the song cued up, should a judge want to hear this (many did) I made a doll, and metallic silver boots for Polka. He was so blinged out, it was ridiculous.

Being the type of performance shower that I am, though, I could not leave him a single class horse. I'd also been exposed to marathon driving in person in 1999, and part of what I saw were single horse entries, going down steep hills. So Polka got a harness, and a hill, and he went on to win more harness classes than I can name--certainly enough to earn him a Superior Event Horse award (so that would be 12) and gain entry to NAN twice as a harness entry. The first time he went, in 2001, he was National Harness Champ. I love that.

Polka went on to win performance championships all over the place. He picked up champs in harness and western, and was Versatility champ at NESE at least once. He got a second National Champ in 2001 in trail, and was Top Ten in all his performance classes. I had so much fun showing him, and never seemed to run out of things to show him in. He roped, he did working cow horse, trail, games. He earned a Superior in Roping, and had ROMs in games and working cow. There was no end to him.

Sadly, the second time he showed harness in NAN--2006 (there was a large gap due to both issues with NAMHSA and my serving on the BOD that prevented my entering again until then) he had a tragic acident. I had to re-engineer his hill from 2001, and I apparently did not do it right. I used it several times without incident, but when I set him up at NAN, he rolled off the hill about 15 minutes later, and hit the concrete floor and he shattered. He broke 3 legs, his tail and his ears. I really was devastated, and my day of showing at that NAN was over--my heart went out of it. Everyone around me from Region 10 felt my pain, and offered condolences. And super glue. I did eventually cobble him together and showed him in another class that day, but I decided he was done. It was just too painful to even look at him.

A few months later, Liesl Dalpe came to me and asked if she could repair him. At first I turned her down. It was still hard to think about him. But she asked again, and I agreed, and turned him over to her several weeks later. I forget what Spencer show I was at when she returned him, and I honestly was not expecting a lot. But when I opened his box, I could not tell where he'd been broken. It was an amazing restoration, and I am so thankful that Liesl put him back together for me.

Of course, he could not STAY retired. He went to NAN in 2008 and came home Reining champion. Not bad.

He broke again enroute to a show in summer 2011. I remember stopping short and cussing out someone who cut me off on I-95, but I did not realize that in doing so, Polka sheared off his (I think) one good leg. This was the one time I did not pack him in his own box, and I'll never do that again. I sighed when I saw him at the show and brought him home. Really retired now. Really.

Then NAN made plans to come to Harrisburg. So close. And I looked at Polka's break and said "I can fix that."

He's back under saddle in a few weeks. I have hopes.