Tribute To A Champion - Lemrac’s Dancing Poet

This article is from the November 2019 Horse Deals magazine.

**Poet literally travelled the length and breadth of the country before he established himself as one of the most successful show horses of the first decade of the new millennium.

Foaled in 1993 he was bred in Western Australia and was by the Rancher son, Bold Rancher out of the mare, Bruvain, a granddaughter of Vain. On paper certainly, he was a hopeless racehorse, having three starts and virtually running last in them all. Even his name, Bonanza Boy did not suggest success. But a good type never goes unnoticed and then WA resident and successful show horse producer, Kerry Clarke got the tip-off that there was a nice horse soon to be on the market. Kerry takes up the story.**

“A friend of mine saw him at the races and said the horse literally floated down to the barriers, looking as if he was not touching the ground. Neville Parnham trained him and the horse’s lack of form combined with the fact that he was difficult in many ways to deal with resulted in him being sacked. I rang the Parnham’s about him and they said, yes, he had been sacked, so I organised to go down and have a look at him. The horse was lying down in a yard and I just said, yep, I’ll take him! I said that before I even saw him stand up. He was an absolute vision of beauty lying there with big, dark eyes and an iridescent bay coat. He stood up and could hardly walk, as he had no shoes on and was footsore, but I bought him anyway. That was in 1996 and he was a three-year-old colt. I organised for him to go straight to the Belmont Vets to be gelded.

“He came back to my property at Mundaring and it was obvious that he was not coping with the gelding and his condition just fell away. I made the decision to turn him out for a year on a friend’s farm. He was fed and looked after, but he had almost a year off to get over the gelding and really let down after racing. He came back after a year and at that time my girls were aged two and seven, keeping me very busy. I didn’t have much horsey help close by and he was always very difficult with leading and wouldn’t tie up etc. Everytime I worked him, he broke something. I lunged and rode him, but the problems on the ground made him difficult for me. One minute I would be leading him along and the next he would rear or just stop and refuse to go any further. He would jump up and down and then start jumping backwards. The last time I worked him I thought I’d catch him in his bridle and that would stop him with his leading tricks, but he was a very smart horse. He managed to get away from me, careered around the paddock until the bridle was in a hundred pieces. I struggled on with him for a while, but it all got too hard. I knew he had the potential to be a superstar, but he had to go.

“I put a little ad in the Saturday’s West newspaper in about February 1998. Juanita Porter from Darwin was in Perth for a car racing event that her family were involved in and she answered the ad. She came out and saw him a couple of times and when I heard she was from Darwin, it made my day. I just wanted him gone and Darwin was as far away as possible. But I always knew that in the right hands he could be a great horse because he was a breathtaking mover, and for all his annoying ways, he was a loveable rogue. Juanita and I always kept in touch about the horse and she would send me videos of his progress and we have become very good friends because of that horse.

“I was the WA Team Manager when Juanita brought him to the Nationals in 2000. There was quite a lot of fuss about him when he arrived and people wanted to know about the young horse from Darwin. I was staying with Gary Beaton and Brian Scholes at the time and they were looking for another horse and I think Peter and Caroline Wagner were interested in him too. Juanita loved him and wanted him to go to the right home. Gary and Brian were very interested in the horse and they asked me if I would put in a good word for them. They bought him and it has been the best thing, because we have all stayed friends through that horse, so anything he has won, we have all jointly celebrated. Poet was Gary’s unicorn. You can have a lot of horses in your life, but you only get one unicorn. Poet was a horse you could not walk away from, although he could be difficult. Juanita did a great job with him on her own in Darwin and then I helped Gary get him. I felt that I put the horse in the right hands and I got a great deal of joy out of that.”

“The moment I saw him, I had to have him,” says Juanita Porter. “I had him vet checked and the transport people tried to talk me out of buying him, as they said it would cost more than his purchase price to get him to Darwin. I got him back to Darwin and friends came up with his name. Lemrac is my mother, Carmel’s name spelt backwards and Dancing Poet, because he was such a lovely mover.

“It was a rough first year, as he wasn’t easy, but he was so special and a very smart horse. I kept him in a stable and yard in the corner of a big trucking yard in the industrial part of Darwin, next door to a welding business. I floated him out every day to ride him. When I first got him, every day he would pull back, but in the end he would just stand there as the trucks, and they were big trucks, made their way around the yard. It got so I could ride him across the Stuart Highway to go for a bush ride or ride him around the corner bareback to a friends place. He wasn’t really hot, he was more horse shy I would say. If I couldn’t ride him, I would take him for a walk like a dog, around the industrial estate.

“He was outstanding and did well, even if at times he was not so well behaved. Not so much in our first year, but after that he won everything there was to win in Darwin. He was nice to ride and I even did well in riding classes. The community up here really got behind us to get me to the Nationals, because they thought he was so special, it was worth sending him down. When we got to Melbourne, I had come the furthest in the smallest float. Unfortunately, he did not eat from the moment we left Darwin, so he was like a racehorse when we competed at Werribee. I was green to it all too, but Gary liked him and bought him.
“A couple of years later in 2002, I was the NT Team Manager at the Nationals and Kerry the WA Manager and we were all there to see Poet claim the National Hack Championship. Poet introduced me to the world of showing and through him, I have met so many people who have become great friends. He was one in a million and I won’t have another as good. My time with him was only a short time, but he was very special to me and he certainly opened up my world.”

“When I saw him at the Nationals in 2000, I thought, I want that horse”, remembers Gary Beaton. “I loved his expression and his movement. He was still green, as he had not done a great many shows with Juanita who travelled him all the way down from Darwin on her own. There was just something about him; he had a lovely length of rein and he just looked a real character.

“Kerry, who was staying with me did mention that he could be difficult, but with age comes confidence. Poet became a very special friend to me and he brought me in to contact with Juanita who became a very special friend as well. When I went to see him at Werribee, he had not been ridden for a couple of days. Juanita tacked him up and got on and almost immediately he grew to about 17hh and was snorting like a dragon. They were playing polo behind the trees and he could hear the galloping and the whack of the ball. Oh well said Juanita, you won’t want him now! I replied, I’ll come down this afternoon and pick him up!
“He was never wild; he was bold and sharp, but he was a safe horse to ride and an easy horse to train. He was quick off the aids and I did a lot of road work with him and thanks to his time in Darwin, he was not at all concerned with trucks. If you had no fear, he had no fear and wherever you pointed him with confidence, he would go. He was a show horse and on the circle, he would know he had been called in before you did, as he would just stop. And parading out of the ring, he was a real show off. As long as I gave him some work, he was a really quiet horse. Towards the end of his career with me, I was only giving him 45 minutes work down.

“Aside from what he won, he was a horse you couldn’t help but love. He supported me when I was very ill and he carried me around when I was very precarious up there; he looked after me. I had other good horses, but only one unicorn and that was Poet.

“I had been teaching Demi Morrison for some time and I had known her grandmother, Barb Begley for a long time and knew that they were both good horse people. Poet was about 13 or 14 and I felt he had done enough for me. I had had some generous offers for him, but I did not want to sell him, he deserved a lovely home and that’s what he got. Demi came and rode him and rode him very well and I knew he would be looked after beautifully. He was a horse that enjoyed being in and ridden and he went very well for Demi and gave her the feeling of what it was like to sit on a horse of that calibre.”

“I was 13 when Gary gave him to me,” says Demi (now 24). “And I was very lucky with him right from the start. My first show was Barastoc (Vic) and I was Runner Up in the International Championship they used to have and Runner Up Horse Of The Year. I was Champion Rider in my age group as well and at the Nationals I was Reserve Champion Rider. I had a lot of success with him and when I was 18 I won the award for Best First Year Competitor in the Garryowen and I won the John Lithgow Turnout (18-25) that year as well. I started university at 18 and did not have so much time to ride. I rode him for another year and about five years in total and after that Barb rode him and showed him a bit, just to keep him ticking along. I am sure Poet was proud of his life, as he always put on a show.”

“Demi loved Poet and he loved her” adds Barb Begley. “Also during that time Rachel Lawrie came fourth on him in the Garryowen and won the Lady’s Hack class at Adelaide. He was in his 20s when I took him over and I rode him and took him to HRCAV and a few of the local shows, just to keep him ticking along and he loved it. In the end, cancer had got hold of him and he developed lumps on his throat etc. He was retired by then in a lovely five-acre paddock. We monitored him constantly and kept up his arthritis medication and attended to everything we knew about. But we could just not keep the weight on him and the blood tests were bad and he had serious internal issues. He was going downhill rapidly and we did not want his wonderful and successful life to end painfully. In consultation with the vets and after much soul searching and on their advice we euthanised him in March and he is buried on the property.”

Some of Lemrac’s Dancing Poet’s achievements:

• 1 Champion Hack
• 5 Reserve Champions
• 13 Wins (15.2-16hh)
• 5 HOTY titles
• 1 National title
• 1 Hidden Valley Hack Championship
• 1 Equitana Hack Championship
• 1 Pope Cup Sydney
• 1 Pope Cup Melbourne
• 1 VASA Supreme Rider (with Demi)
• 1 VASA Championship
• 3 Barastoc International Championships

Article written by Anna Sharply

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