Equine Obituary - Stingray Jr.
Friday, May 5, 2006
There have been some extremely special juvenile road ponies over the years and the little dynamo known as Stingray Jr. will go down in history as one of the best. From 1990 through 1998 he had a successive string of world’s and reserve world’s titles that included four world’s grand championships, three of those in a row.
The great pony died April 24 at DeLovely Farm, another casualty of colic. Owned by Beth Anne Arrick for most of his life, Stingray Jr. was 24 years old.
Developed by Jimmy Miller, Stingray Jr. was purchased by the Ron Arrick family of Lucasville, Ohio, with Chris Reiser as their trainer/agent. Their incredible run at Louisville began in 1990 with a reserve world’s title, followed by another reserve in the qualifier and the juvenile reserve grand championship the following year. In 1992, Beth Anne Arrick and Stingray Jr. won the first of four juvenile world’s grand championships. Numbers two, three and four would come in 1995, ’96 and ’97.
Plans were to retire the multi-titled world’s champion, however, the outdoors was not to his liking.
“They were going to retire him, but he didn’t like it,” said Todd Miles, who acquired the pony in 2003 for his son Tyler. “He didn’t get along well outside at all. They [the Arricks] sent him down to Mark Wilson for a while after that and a boy showed him there some. I had some interest in him for Tyler and we wound up getting him shipped here.
“He really helped Tyler have some interest in this. He always liked it, but not as much as when he got Stingy. He was something he could call his own, something to look forward to.”
The young Miles showed Stingray Jr. three times, winning all three classes. They debuted at Mercer County in 2004 to win the AHHS Youth Medallion. He won the same class at St. Louis that year. In 2005, they only showed at St. Louis, winning the AHHS Youth Medallion and the Junior Exhibitor Road Pony Championship, beating the current world’s champion both times.
“We didn’t get to show him much, but when he did, he had a blast,” said Miles.
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