Published: May 08, 2008 02:37 am      

ROYALTON: Super stallion still a sire of champions

ROYALTON — Abdullah lives. The great white horse that gave the United States gold and silver medals at the 1984 Olympics and won the 1985 World Championship is still leaving his mark in town and around the world.

Sue and Terry Williams bought the Trakehner stallion as a 3-year-old in Canada. The stallion was put down in 2000, at the age of 29. That’s like living to 100.

Sue estimates that the world champion has about 500 offspring around the world. “He has had horses competing in the Olympics, the World Cup and World Championship. None have done as well as he, but no horse has ever done as well.”

Abdullah was named one of the top 50 horses of the century in “Chronicle of the Horse.” He helped carry rider Conrad Homfeld into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame.

Semen for sale

There are still hundreds of progeny to come. Williamsburg Farm sells the frozen semen all over the world, although Italy sold its last straws just this week.

World championship horses are owned by syndicates. Sue and Terry Williams of Chestnut Ridge Road, private owners of Abdullah, invested all off their savings when the bought the big white stallion from Gerhard Schickedanz in Unionville, Ontario, in 1973.

“What I paid for it was nothing near what’s he’s worth,” Sue said. “A horse trader wouldn’t tell you what he paid. We spent all of our money on him. I was looking for a competition horse that had a lot of ability. I didn’t want just a pleasure horse. I wanted a horse that I could seriously compete on.”

Bought 1826 farm

Sue and Terry, graduates of Cornell University, taught science at the Park School of Buffalo. They bought the abandoned Williamsburg Farm, which was built in 1826 and which once served as the Royalton Town Hall.

The couple put stalls in the cattle barn before they fixed up the home. Sue and Terry commuted from Buffalo twice a day, before and after school, to take care of their seven horses.

Sue was a well-qualified rider, winning dressage championships around the Northeast. Terry, whose father had horses on a farm south of Rochester, was the trainer.

“He was the most wonderful horseman that ever existed,” Sue said of her husband. “He had a very special gift for the stallions. He understood how to handle them. They are big and they are strong and they are always testing you, and you have to know when to give and when to take. If you try to outmuscle them, you can’t do that. You have to get along with them.”

Terry died in December 2007 at 69 of colon cancer.

Tall, white and magnificent

Abdullah was agreeable, tall (17 hands) and handsome. “He just looked magnificent. He was a beautiful animal. He was tall. We wanted to make it an investment rather than just a cash outlay. His value in his heyday was in the millions. We didn’t pay that much for him.”

Abdullah was dark when a foal and turned gray as he matured. By the time was 14 and in the Olympics, the stallion was white.

“It is a good color,” Homfeld said. “It’s a striking color.”

A very big heart

Nancy DiVita, who helps care for the 20 horses at the Chestnut Ridge Equestrian Center, did not get to ride Abdullah until he retired. “He had a very big heart,” the Gasport resident said. “Whatever he was asked to do, he tried. He was a willing horse who did what was expected of him.”

The breeders, who brought their horses from Lithuania in the 1960s, never regretted the sale, according to Sue. Schickedanz took great pride in Abdullah’s success and acknowledged the Trakehner stallion may have been gelded if it did not make a home at the Williamsburg Farm.

Abdullah succeeded in Eventing and Dressage, but the stallion’s fame came as a jumping horse, and Sue Williams was not ready to take that leap.

Career change at 10

“I got too old for eventing,” said Sue who became a home economics teacher at Emmet Belknap School. “I was no longer as brave as I had been. I had never ridden horses over big fences. I needed to find a different career.”

Abdullah and Sue were a team until he was 10. Abdullah won in the dressage arena and in eventing before becoming a world-class show jumper.

“He would anything you asked him to do. He was a winner for me. I wasn’t brave enough as the fences got bigger.” The courses include 5-foot-6 high fences.

Abdullah was bred to jump; Debbie Shaffner of Lockport got the ride. “She was the best in the area, the best jumper rider,” Sue said. “She knew immediately he was a horse with great talent.”

Shaffner competed with Abdullah for three years — 1981-83.

“He took her where she had never been, Grand Prix jumping classes, World Cup Finals in Rome. It was an amazing ride,” Sue said.

The cost of transporting a horse to Europe is high, but Abdullah was so good, and he could pay his expenses and a little bit.

Let Conrad ride

While not on road trips, Abdullah was breeding at home. At the time, it was unusual for a stallion to do both.

The Williamses got to know all the players on the circuit, and Conrad Homfeld of Virginia was one of the best. He was tall, thin and athletic. They were well aware the Olympics would be held in 1984 and wanted a more experienced rider. It takes time to develop a relationship with a horse.

“In the long run (we thought we’d have) more success if we let Conrad ride it,” Sue said. “He is a magnificent rider. He’d been there, done that. It was magic when he got on the horse. He knew exactly what his job was and a horse that had enough mileage. The two of them put it all together.”

Training was in Florida, and the Olympic Trials were at Lake Placid. Abdullah was selected as one of the five finalists, but only four would compete in Los Angeles.



Olympic tension

“I can’t tell you what we went through. It was crazy. We were just beside ourselves,” Sue recalled. “It was phenomenal. Abdullah knew everything that was going on.”

But because world-class horses are traditionally owned by syndicates, owners were not allowed in the stabling area. Because owner Terry Williams was the trainer, too, he was allowed to be with Abdullah as the groom.

European teams dominate the equestrian events, but Abdullah and company gave the U.S. its first gold medal. Abdullah took an individual silver medal.

“ I have no idea how I survived that,” Sue said. “I could tell you every fence. I could tell you everything about the entire round. When they play the Star Spangled banner and the flag goes up, there is nothing like it in the world.”

Terry, Conrad and Abdullah had their picture taken with Prince Phillip.

Beyond the Olympics

The 1985 World Cup was held in Berlin, and Abdullah helped the U.S. secure the first gold medal in the team competition. The four best riders rode the four best horses for individual honors. Abdullah was the leading horse, and Conrad came in second as rider.

In 1986, Abdullah won the World Championships in Aachen, Germany. Abdullah retired when he was 18 in 1988, but Sue was still able to ride the stallion until the day before he died.

Conrad’s career

“He was very good to my career and I enjoyed riding him,” Homfeld said Wednesday. “It’s all a happy memory, a high point in my riding career. Overall, it was wonderful.”

Homfeld lives in Florida and is retired. He has returned to the Olympics as a spectator and has a little recreational involvement with horses.

The Royalton Historical Society placed an historical marker in front of the Williamsburg Farm.

Semen preserved at lab

There is a lab in the Sue’s home where frozen straws of Abdullah’s semen are preserved. Paul Loomis does this commercially out of Hilltop Farm in Colora, Md.

Straws are $500 and most times, insemination takes three straws. There are about 300 straws left in the U.S. and more in Denmark and Germany. Sue Williams noted that offspring of Abdullah that were bred in Europe have wound up in Florida.

His son Abracadabra was Jumper of The Year in 1999. In the U.S., Abdullah has produced IHF and IJF Champions as well as numerous AHSA Horses of The Year.

The success of the Williamsburg Farm was not just luck. “We were experienced horse people and we were looking for a quality animal,” Sue It’s more than winning the lottery. We did a lot of things right. We made a lot of good decisions.”

Contact reporter Bill Wolcott 439-9222, ext. 6246.