LIFESTYLES
WEEKEND, MAY 13-14, 2017
Arabian
affection
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
An Arabian mare stands in a pasture at the Widman Hill Arabians farm in Echo.
Hard work, passion define Echo horse ranch
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
The sun highlights Mary
Widman’s thick white hair and tan
skin as she looks at faded photos of
the place she calls home.
“These were innocently taken at
the beginning, but they show what
water and a lot of work can do,” she
said, a hint of pride in her voice.
It’s hard to believe the faded
photos of the run-down house and
dry fields are of the very place she
stands now: a white house with green
shutters, raised beds on the patio and
lush surrounding pastures where
horses graze.
But it’s the same property, and for
the last 38 years it’s been home to the
Widman Hill Arabians farm.
The farm is just under 10 acres,
but along with the 16 horses that live
there, it keeps the couple busy every
day.
“It’s just enough to make it a lot
of work,” Mary said with a laugh. “If
you’re going to have 10, you might
as well have a hundred.”
Though Fred has had horses all
his life, the couple started raising
Arabians in earnest in the 1970s. Fred
bought Mary a horse at Christmas in
1972. The couple had also acquired
some rescue horses and decided they
wanted to start raising horses but
weren’t sure which breed to focus on.
When Fred was working in Port
Angeles, Washington, something
happened that made the decision
a little easier. He wanted to rent a
corral, and the owner of the corral
had two Arabian horses he was trying
to sell. He insisted Fred take a look.
“I couldn’t afford them. They
were very expensive,” Fred said.
“But the more we talked, the more
my interest showed.”
Arabians tend to be on the smaller
side, and are known for their versa-
tility.
“They can do anything you ask
them to do,” Mary said. “They’re
beautiful to look at, and also beau-
tiful to ride.”
Eventually, Fred asked how much
the man wanted for the horses.
“He said, ‘I’d take $3,000 for both
horses, the trailer and the tack,’” Fred
said.
Fred told the man he couldn’t
afford that price, so the man agreed
to accept a down payment of $1,500,
with the rest paid out over the next
few years. Mary came up to look at
the horses, and agreed they should
buy them. So they sold a milk cow
and the quarter horse Fred had bought
her, and came up with $1,000.
The man said he couldn’t let the
tack go, but gave them both horses
and the trailer.
“So that’s how we got them,”
Fred said. “We started out with very
simple means and built this herd over
40 years.”
In 1979, they moved into the
place in Echo — then an abandoned
farmhouse with only two trees on
the property. Through years of work
they, transformed it, removing the
weeds and star thistle and turning it
into a livable property. The couple,
now in their 70s, still manages the
entire property by themselves.
From the groomed horses and
grounds to the neatly planted raised
beds on the patio filled with vegeta-
bles and flowers, everything about
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Fred Widman gives two of his Arabian mares treats Tuesday evening at the Widman Hill Arabians farm.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
An Arabian stallion named Caeser plays with a
huge ball Monday at the Widman Hill Arabians
farm in Echo.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
An Arabian mare named Cherokee Juell runs around
her pasture at the Widman Hill Arabians farm.
Mary Widman works with a horse Monday
at the Widman Hill Arabians farm in Echo.
Widman Hill is impeccably cared for.
“I don’t see it,” Fred said. “All
I see when I go out there is more
things that need to be done.”
WH Juiluisz Caesar is the farm’s
only stallion and, at three years old,
is a bundle of energy. As Fred leads
him out of his stall and into the arena,
Caesar runs around the space a few
times before turning his attention to
a giant pink soccer ball. He pushes,
nips and tosses it around, kicking up
powdery dirt as he does.
Through the clouds of dust,
Caesar’s steel gray coat glints in the
sunlight.
“Gray horses are not born gray,”
Mary said. “They’re born either
black, chestnut or dark bay. But you
can tell a baby is going to be gray
very early on, because they have thin
little white hairs around their eyes
within a few days.”
Caesar pauses momentarily from
tearing around and trots over to Mary
to say hello, poking his nose over the
fence at her.
“Stallions have great personal-
ities,” Mary said. “We have happy
horses.”
Caesar goes back into his stall —
after some initial resistance — and
Fred leads three more horses into the
arena. WH Harlem, Sterling V and
I’m Your Huckleberry WH graze and
meander around the arena.
While these three horses are
geldings, or males that have been
castrated, one of them can still be
bred.
“Sheridan is a gelding, but we
have frozen semen for him,” Fred
said. “He’s very well-bred. He was
a good stallion and a good perfor-
mance horse.”
Many horses are now bred
through artificial insemination,
making it easier for the owners.
“Before, we had to haul the
horses,” he said. “You had to take the
mare to the stallion, leave her there,
make sure she was safe.”
Now, he said, it’s just a matter of
taking a mare to the veterinarian and
making sure she’s ready to breed. An
owner can then order semen and the
vet can inseminate the mare when
she’s ready.
The three mares in the lower field
come to the fence as Mary passes by,
interested in the newcomers. WH
Cinema, a bay mare, leans her head
over the fence, while Cherokee Juell
V, another bay, and Huck’s Halo V,
a gray mare, watch from a distance.
All the horses are fairly social and
curious about people.
“They had to be,” Mary said.
“When they lived in the desert,
they would live in the tents with the
Bedouin people.”
Bloodlines run deep for many of
the horses. The names of the horses
reflect who they are, and who they
come from.
“For the most part, names start
with the first letter of the mother’s
name,” Mary said. For example,
several horses, including Caesar, are
named to reflect their mother, Chili
Pepper V.
“I’m Your Huckleberry” is the
son of “Huck’s Halo V,” a 24 year old
gray mare that lives at Widman Hill.
Both are descendants of Huckleberry
Bey, a famous stallion that died in
1992.
An exception is Caesar’s brother,
El Jahezz, who was bought by a
breeder in Brazil.
“He’s registered as ‘WH
Cavallo,’” Mary said. “I’m Italian,
and Cavallo is my maiden name.”
She laughed ruefully. “I waited to
have a stallion to name Cavallo. Then
when we sold him, she changed it to
El Jahezz.”
Fred trains most of the horses
by riding them, or trotting them. If
they’re going to be shown, however,
he will send them to professional
trainers around the country.
The Widmans have several horses
for sale, but acknowledge it’s not for
everyone.
“I think people are discouraged
by what they expect to be high
prices,” Mary said. “In reality, you
can find a good Arabian horse to fit
any pocketbook.”
Fred added that they hope the
horses will go to people who genu-
inely want them.
“We’ve had horses leave this
place for as little as a dollar, and
as much as $200,000,” he said. “It
varies — who comes through, who
wants them. We pray they’ll go to the
right kind of people.”
Because in the end, it’s really all
about the horses.
“Early on, we had a horse in the
stable, and there was a woman who
worked there,” Fred recalls. “She
had a horse she truly loved, and there
were a bunch of boys who bullied
her. She told me, ‘You know, a horse
is big and strong. It can hurt you, but
it’ll never hurt your feelings.’”
Both acknowledge how much
effort it’s taken to run the farm, and
how much they’ve put into it.
“We’ve had some really good
horses,” Mary said. “Lots of success,
and some really devastating failures.”
She laughs, recalling the way
things started out — with a horse
Fred got her for Christmas.
“We’ve never done anything in a
small way,” she said.