Remembering Remarkable Rugged Lark
By Karen Smith
When dawn's first light finally came, she phoned the colt's owners. "I sold Rugged Lark," she said, "and I got you the price you wanted."
"Great," said Teresa Striegel. "Did he go to a good home?"
"He sure did," replied Harris, with a laugh. "He's staying with me."
It was rather an instinctive decision to buy the colt. But then, over the years, Harris had learned to trust her instincts. They had led her to leave the cold New Jersey winters behind and buy Bo-Bett Farm. And they fueled her desire to apply her creative talents to the breeding and development of fine young horses, which, in turn, brought her great success in the Quarter Horse industry. Her instincts were generally pretty good.
The decision to buy Rugged Lark was no exception. By his third year, the colt had picked up many more fans. Harris' trainer, Mike Corrington, was pleased with Lark's progress as a reining horse, and a young trainer, Lynn Salvatori Palm, who had gone to school with Harris' daughters, worked with him as well. Palm and Corrington rode Lark during his 2-year-old year and showed him lightly in Western pleasure.
"I really liked this horse as soon as I began to work with him," says Palm. "The thing about Lark that was so astonishing was his mind. We used to say to him, 'Lark, slow down. You're not supposed to be this good this fast.' It was just natural for him to pick up the right lead, to do the right things at the right time. He just picked up whatever you taught him, and since he was so naturally balanced and athletic, it was all easy for him."
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Lark had a particular flair for reining. In 1984, he won the 3-year-old reining pre-futurity in Louisville, Ky., and was a heavy favorite to win the reining futurity at that year's All-American Quarter Horse Congress. Harris entered Lark in the reining event, but--going on a mysterious gut feeling--also signed him up for the hunt-seat futurity, even though he'd only competed in a few hunt-seat events.
In the first go-round of the reining futurity, Lark was disqualified for an overspin. Harris, who had hoped that Lark would win the prestigious event, was devastated. But there was no time for reflection: The hunt-seat futurity was only an hour away, and Lark had to undergo a speedy transformation. His sliding plates were pulled, his mane was braided and his tack changed.
By the time Lark carried Palm into the ring for the hunt-seat competition, he looked as if he'd been a well-appointed hunter all along. And apparently the judges liked what they saw. Defeating more than 200 competitors, Lark won both go-rounds and then the finals of the hunt-seat futurity, a mind-boggling achievement for a young reining horse.
"Lynn fell in love with Lark on that day," says Harris, "so I let her take him home with her after the show." Palm and Rugged Lark traveled to Bessemer, Mich., where Palm had established her training operation, Royal Palm Ranch.
Back in Michigan, Palm used her dressage training skills to help Lark become an all-around performer. Working with the colt both on the ground and under saddle, she focused on developing trust and understanding as well as building basic obedience and manners. For variety, Palm took Lark for swims in a nearby pond or leisurely hacks along the shores of Lake Superior or in the North Woods.
Palm's training philosophy, inherited in part from Bobbi Steele and shared with Carol Harris, is built on trust: "You have to trust your horse. You learn to communicate with him, and when things don't go right, you get off and try to figure out where you went wrong. You don't intimidate, you don't bully. You don't snatch or jerk, or you risk losing trust. And you let the horse remain an individual."
Palm's success in broadening and deepening Lark's skills was evident later that year when the 4-year-old qualified for the AQHA World Championship Show in no less than six events. And, once at the big show, he did not disappoint.
Competing against the best of his breed, he brought home the world championship in pleasure driving, a third place in junior reining and fifth-place finishes in the junior trail horse, junior hunter under saddle, junior hunter hack and junior working hunter classes. All of which earned Lark the title of Superhorse, an honor bestowed on the horse who receives the highest number of points in the most events at the World Championships.
Palm counts Lark's Superhorse win her most exciting victory ever, and the accomplishment was made all the more satisfying because Lark was still so young.
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