Equine Obituary - Arboria Noble Victor
Monday, March 23, 2015
Arboria Noble Victor played a major role in the lives of Diane Conrady and Dale Farabee.
With a heavy heart, Diane Conrady announced the passing of the great stallion Arboria Noble Victor. Foaled March 18, 1985, Victor was by the noted sire of champions Noble Command out of UVM Victoria by UVM Flash.
Dale Farabee had a noble plan in mind to raise the foundation sire for Arboria Farm. He leased the grand mare UVM Victoria and bred her to Noble Command. Clearly, it was destined to be, as Arboria Noble Victor proved to be an influential asset to Arboria Farm and to the Morgan breed as a whole. Victor was structurally correct and possessed one of the squarest and boldest trots in the breed, characteristics he consistently passed on to his offspring.
He began his show ring career by winning the Two-Year-Old Park Harness World Futurity Championship in 1987 under the direction of Judy Whitney. He was also the 1991 Reserve World Park Saddle Champion.
Diane Conrady and Victor formed a special bond when he was only three. They dominated the junior harness division at shows across the country winning the Three-Year-Old and Four-Year-Old World Championships at the Grand National.
is last show ring appearance at the age of 18 found he and Diane winning the Open Park Saddle Class at Jubilee. His last public appearance came in 2013 at the age of 28 when he was inducted into the Jubilee Regional Hall of Fame. After such a long and successful show and breeding career, he was blessed to live out his retirement years in his paddock in the warm sunshine.
“He was the first super good park horse I ever had,” said Conrady. “The thing about Victor is that he was so natural, what you saw was what he was, he was so honest. He was always great to work and tried so hard; he had such a great heart. It was really a privilege to work a horse like him. Throughout his life, he always did everything right. On top of it, he was so much fun to be around.
“I used to laugh, because when I worked him I’d put a little chain on his front end. Not for him, but for me. It made me feel like I was a trainer. Everything about him was completely natural.”
While trophies and tricolors are great, the true reward of a stallion comes when his get prove themselves as outstanding show horses or producers. Victor has not let anyone down over the years. One of the reasons he is so special to Conrady is that he brought to her current World Champion Spice O’Life Present Tense. Other outstanding offspring include Arboria Top Gun, Arboria Perfection, Arboria Victorious, Arboria Victor’s Pride, Arboria La Belle, TE Mike’s Legacy, Bells and Whistles, and Arboria Cashmere.
“We are fortunate to have his son, WC Spice O’Life Present Tense GCH to carry on for him in the breeding shed as well as grandsons and granddaughters that are just beginning their show ring careers. We will miss seeing his face every day, but he will forever be etched in our memory and in our hearts,” said Conrady.
“When we planned the cross of Victor and SpiceOLife Allura on paper, we had high expectations. It worked exactly like what we expected. Present Tense got his heart, his great attitude and his natural talent from Victor. That’s where his great drive off the hocks comes from and his natural athleticism, and then Allura gave him the little extra pretty that we wanted.
“Now Present Tense’s babies are passing those same qualities along. Victor’s influence on the Morgan breed will go for a long, long time. I have the last of Victor’s daughters and we have grandsons and granddaughters that are a nice testament to what Victor could do and what he passed along.
“Victor was my best buddy for 30 years. You don’t usually get the opportunity to have them around for such a long time. He wasn’t sick or in a bad situation, age just caught up to him. I’ll miss him, but when you look all around the farm, you kind of see a little bit of him every day.”
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