42 Facts About Sheila Varian

Sheila Varian was an American breeder of Arabian horses who lived and worked at the Varian Arabians Ranch near Arroyo Grande, California.

Sheila Varian grew up with a strong interest in horses, and was mentored in horsemanship by Mary "Sid" Spencer, a local rancher and Morgan horse breeder who introduced Varian to the vaquero or "Californio" tradition of western riding.

Sheila Varian started her horse ranch, Varian Arabians, in 1954 with the assistance of her parents.

Sheila Varian used vaquero-influenced methods of training horses, although she adapted her technique over the years to fit the character of the Arabian horse, which she viewed as a horse breed requiring a smart yet gentle approach.

Sheila Varian began her breeding program with a small number of mares whom she bred to her national champion stallion, Bay Abi.

Sheila Varian then acquired three mares from Arabian farms in Poland at a time when that nation was still behind the Iron Curtain and importation of horses to the United States was very difficult.

Sheila Varian grew up in Halcyon, California with a strong interest in horses, combined with a fondness for horse books such as the works of Marguerite Henry and The Black Stallion series written by Walter Farley.

Sheila Varian credited Farley's books as the origin of her interest in Arabian horses.

Sheila Varian was given her first horse, a Morgan-Percheron crossbred, at the age of eight, and rode bareback until she obtained her first saddle at age 12.

Sheila Varian credited her parents for helping her believe that she could do whatever she wanted to do and for trusting her own judgement, which gave her confidence in her own ability to work with horses.

When she was young, Sheila Varian developed an interest in finding the "perfect" horse.

Sheila Varian soon realized that the way to achieve her goal was to begin breeding horses.

Ronteza was the second Arabian Sheila Varian purchased, and she trained the mare herself.

Sheila Varian was aware that both Farlotta and Ronteza were sired by stallions imported from Poland, out of American-bred mares, and believed this bloodline cross was a major source for the good qualities of these mares.

At the time, the Arabian industry had little interest in western disciplines, so Sheila Varian competed with her horses in English riding classes.

Subsequent generations of Sheila Varian stallions continued the pattern of winning in the show ring and then producing champion show horses across multiple disciplines.

Sheila Varian then became the leading sire of US National Champions for five years, and in 1999 his likeness was reproduced as a Breyer horse model.

Sheila Varian leased the young, then unproven stallion Khemosabi for his first breeding season in 1969.

Sheila Varian continued to seek performance ability in her mares; in the Sheila Varian program, every mare is trained under saddle and must prove suitable as a riding animal.

Sheila Varian did not originally work her ranch name into the names of her horses, but today all Sheila Varian-bred horses have a registered name suffixed with the capital letter "V".

The Sheila Varian ranch acknowledges the importance of the mares by using the first letter of each mare's name to start the name of their foals.

Sheila Varian-bred horses are freeze branded with the Sheila Varian "V" logo.

Sheila Varian learned horse training methods that derived from this tradition.

Spencer helped Sheila Varian learn the underlying principles of training and riding horses, how to work cattle in the mountains, and introduced her to vaquero training methods.

Sheila Varian learned how to handle well-trained horses by riding one of the Spencer family's finished Morgans, a gelding named Little Horse.

Sheila Varian introduced her to his "soft approach" of working with horses, and his methods were an additional influence on Varian's training philosophy.

Sheila Varian was one of a very few experts in the 21st century who was still teaching about vaquero equipment, methods, and history.

Sheila Varian had a strong interest in the history of the spade bit horse in California.

Sheila Varian compared the ride and handling of a horse trained in this manner to that of a Jaguar automobile.

Sheila Varian started young horses under saddle at the age of three, beginning with a bridle and a snaffle bit because it sends clearer signals to a young horse, particularly one of sensitive disposition.

Sheila Varian then introduced the traditional hackamore, and, after a couple of months to transition between the hackamore and the snaffle, began teaching neck reining, which allows a horse to be ridden one-handed.

Sheila Varian introduced horses to the spade bit at the age of seven or eight, if they had suitable conformation and temperament to carry it.

Sheila Varian considered Arabians the most "people-oriented" of any horse breed.

Sheila Varian roped off of her horses and took them into the mountains.

Sheila Varian viewed Arabians as requiring a smart and gentle approach.

Sheila Varian advocated for trainers who used the methods of master horsemen such as Ray Hunt and Tom Dorrance, with Dorrance's philosophy being especially suitable for Arabians.

Sheila Varian explained the nature of Arabian horses by analogy, comparing them to precocious children who show their ability with delight, but cannot be bullied or pushed around.

Sheila Varian was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 2003.

Sheila Varian was honored for both her contributions as a horse breeder and as a trainer, but the honor represented, in many ways, her roots in the vaquero tradition.

In November 2015, Sheila Varian announced that she would be working with the California Rangeland Trust to place her ranch into a conservation easement to protect it from development.

Sheila Varian had begun the project with the intent that her longtime ranch manager, Angela Alvarez, would operate the horse breeding program after Varian was no longer able to do so, and then once Alvarez was no longer able to run the ranch, the property would be gifted to the Trust to be sold, the conservation easement running with the land, and attempts made to find a buyer that would be interested in maintaining the Arabian horse breeding program.

Sheila Varian was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2013 and died on March 6,2016, at the age of 78.