Written by Presley White
Where do you begin with a horse
that was as amazing and versatile as Rugged Lark? He was truly an
amazing athlete competing in events in western and English. A two
time AQHA (American Quarter Horse Association) Superhorse, and the
only superhorse to sire a super horse, but how did this amazing
animal come to be? Well here is his story.
Rugged
Lark was born in 1981. His sire was the thoroughbred Regally Rugged,
by Roughn Tumble winner of the Primer Stakes and Santa Anita Derby.
His dam was the brilliant Alisa Lark, she was World Champion (1978),Reserve
World Champion (1977 & 1978), Top Ten World Show (1976 &
1977), Superior Performance (1977 & 1978), AQHA High Point Performance
Horse (1977 & 1978), AQHA Champion (1976 & 1978), ROM Performance
(1974, 1977 & 1979), and a Performance Point Earner. Alisa Lark
was by LeoLark who went back to the great Leo. Alisa Lark’s
dam went back to the stunning Joe Hancock. Rugged Lark definitely
had the pedigree for greatness, and he lived up to it.
When his owners, the Striegels,
bred Regally Rugged and Alisa Lark they were hoping for a filly
so they decided that it would be best to sell the colt. Alisa Lark
and her colt were being kept at Carol Harris’s ranch the Bo-Bett
Ranch. Harris had been searching the country looking for a future
outcross stallion to breed to her mares. One day while she was looking
out into the paddock at the bay colt the realization hit her that
the horse she had been looking for was right on her own farm. He
had a great conformation with a fine head and neck and large eyes.
The next morning Harris called
the Striegels and told them that she had found a buyer who would
pay what they were asking. When they asked who it was she informed
them that it was Harris herself who would take the colt. Harris
had used her own instinct and in the long run it would most certainly
pay off.
When Rugged Lark was two, the
two trainers of the Bo-Bett Ranch, Mike Corrington and Lynn Salvatori
Palm, broke him and began training him. As a two year old he was
lightly shown in western pleasure, but this would only be the begging
of a very memorable show career.
Corrington believed that Lark’s
true calling was reining. He was proved right when Rugged Lark won
the pre-futurities in Louisville, Kentucky. He instantly became
the favorite to win the reining futurity at the All American Quarter
Horse Congress, he was also, by Harris’s instinct was also
entered into the hunt-seat futurity. While doing his reining pattern
he over spun, which disqualified him, Harris was devastated. His
sliding shoes were removed and his mane was platted, he looked like
a completely different horse in only one hour.
Lynn Palm was to ride the horse
in the Hunt seat futurity. He looked and acted as though the only
thing that he had ever known was being a hunter. The judges loved
the performance and gave him the winning score in both go-rounds
of the competition against two hundred of the best hunt seat three
year olds of the time. This was the highlight of Lark’s young
career.
Harris was quoted saying, “Lynn
fell in love with Lark on that day, so I let her take him home with
her after the show." Palm took Rugged Lark to her home in Bessemer,
Michigan where she along with him founded Royal Palm Ranch. Palm
taught Lark to be an all around performer by using dressage skills
that she had previously learned. Palm’s training obviously
worked, because in Larks four year old year he qualified to the
AQHA World Show in six events!
Competing against the best American
Quarter Horses, 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 given to the horse * the highest
number of points in the most events at the World Championships every
year. Palm stated that the Superhorse win was her best victory because
Rugged Lark was still so young.
In 1986, Lark would have been
in the AQHA World Show but, Harris his owner was judging, deeming
him ineligible to compete in it. But in 1987 Harris entered Lark
into the AQHA World Show to attempt the unprecedented second Superhorse
Title. Once again her instincts were correct, for in the 1987 World
Show Lark scored higher than he had in 1985, and won a second Superhorse
Title.
"It was one of the most emotional
experiences of my life," says Palm. "I knew that Carol
would retire Lark from showing after the World, and when I rode
forward to accept the award, I was just bawling. Carol had given
me six years with this horse-the horse of a lifetime. I was overcome
with emotion."
(http://equisearch.com/horses_riding_training/western/pleasure/ruggedlark_120804/index2.aspx)
Suddenly, Palm slipped off Lark’s
bridle and rode him to receive his award. The crowd stood up in
applause. Lark was retired from competition immediately after receiving
his Superhorse Trophy. He did, although, continue entertaining audiences
at exhibitions and was later named the AQHA Ambassador to the United
States Equestrian Team.
In the years after his retirement
Rugged Lark became the only Superhorse to sire a Superhorse when
his son. The Lark Ascending. won the award in 1991. Then. Rugged
Lark sired another Superhorse, named Look Whos Larkin, who won the
Superhorse title in 1999. Rugged Lark was euthanized on October
26, 2004 due to complications of colic at the age of twenty-three.
He was later inducted into the AQHA hall of fame in 2006 only two
years after his death. Rugged Lark will remain in the hearts of
owner Carol Harris and trainer Lynn Palm, and in the hearts of all
AQHA members and horse lovers all over the world.
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