Sport Horse Nationals

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September 24, 2009

Perfect Baby!

After nearly 50 years of waiting to enter the winner's circle at a national show, 84-year-old Dorothe Fisher realized her dream on Wednesday afternoon. Trotting Last Goodbye+++/, who she co-owns with Martha Murdock, Fisher headed in to the ring to accept her mare's Top-10 award in HA/AA Sport Horse Mares In-Hand, with a mile-wide smile lighting her face. "At last, I finally made it in the ring with a winner," Fisher shared the next day. The 5-year-old bay tobiano with flashy lacing was just short 1 point of achieving her Legion of Masters before the start of Sport Horse Nationals. That Top-10 finish in the Half-Arabian/Anglo-Arabian Sport Horse Mares In-Hand Championship, scoring a 68.25, secured her that final point needed to achieve it. Murdock's goal was for the mare to earn the designation while still a junior horse-mission accomplished. Fisher of Billings, Montana, who has also worked in center ring multiple years at U.S. Nationals through the years, is extremely proud of her mare's accomplishments at such a young age. She confessed that the hallway in her house is lined with the awards Last Goodbye has earned during the past four years.
Affectionately called "PB"-for "Perfect Baby"-by her owners, the triple-registered Half-Arabian/Pinto/Warmblood mare has held true to Murdock's request of her in-utero. Fisher said Murdock's ideal request was for a perfectly marked, good-minded pinto mare. "She got exactly what she ordered," Fisher says. "When she popped out, Martha said, 'There's my perfect baby.' " In her short show career, PB has more than lived up to the expectation. Described by Fisher as an "aloof, all-business, who likes her work," PB has been successful in the show-ring from the start. She has earned multiple wins in a variety of disciplines, including halter, sport horse in-hand, sport horse under saddle, sport horse show hack, working hunter, hunter hack, hunter pleasure, trail, western pleasure and English side saddle. A little more history to the significance of PB being the perfect baby was that she was sired by Murdock's blind 1976 stallion and Bask son, Bask Elect+/ (out of IMA Electric+++), a horse that she was very fond of and worked hard to keep him healthy and try to restore his sight. "Her faith in him was phenomenal," Fisher says. Murdock rode Bask Elect to a championship in Ladies Side Saddle English in 1991 and a reserve in 1989 at U.S. Nationals. Murdock had a feeling that pairing Bask Elect with Vallejo Lovebug++++// (by Fame VF+), who was bred by Kathy Hart, would produce a winning combination. (Vallejo Lovebug earned the HA/AA Sport Horse Mares In-Hand reserve champion title in 2005). Because PB was one of Bask Elect's last foals, she was given the name Last Goodbye. The other two were named Never Enuff and The Last Dance HS. During the interview as we watched the awards for the Arabian Sport Horse Geldings In-Hand ATH class, Fisher shared many stories of Arabians and Half-Arabians who she has bred or owned during the past 50 years. Two of the top successes she discussed at length were Cinco Grande+ (*Bask++ x FQC Sarsi), a successful reining horse, and FQC Top Brass+ (Spellbinder x Aarababa), a successful English pleasure horse. The first purebred she owned back in the 60s was Aw Gee Wiz (Awiz x Imperial Pixie), a 1962 bey gelding. Last Goodbye performs Friday afternoon in HA/AA Sport Horse Mares In-Hand ATH Championship with Jason Reed. Murdock will ride her in the HA/AA Sport Horse Under Saddle Junior Horse preliminaries on Friday evening.