Los Acres: By: Jackie Tone Polk

I was born during the Great Depression year of 1933 in rural Stockton, California, in the old brick home built by my great-grandfather. I still live a half mile north of it. On part of the original farmland. I can see the old house from here and remember my happy childhood, running back and forth when the Calaveras River was dry, to visit grandma and grandpa and to play with favorite cousins.

Back then, my father still farmed with big workhorses and my mother cooked for the harvester crews. I was the first of five daughters born to Jack and Marge Tone, and they fastened a box under the wagon seat, where I rode along behind the big teams of horses. Soon I had four younger sisters, and we all inherited our mother’s great love for horses. Part of the farm land had a small island, surrounded by water and lined with valley oak trees. My father let me drive tractor and cultivate it, and I used to daydream of someday building a brick house near the oldest oak tree.

My father thought my sisters and I would outgrow our pleading for a pony, but I was so crazy over horses that when I was eight, my mother took an extra job sorting walnuts to buy one for me. It was 1941 and a trainload of Nevada mustangs came into Stockton. Some cowboys told us about them any my mother spent all she had earned on a skinny little pumpkin-colored gelding for me. I named him Pumpkin, of course, and he lived on the riverbank with two cows that I hated to milk. While Pumpkin was skinny, I could catch him with a bucket of grain. After that, I had to think of different ways to hide the halter. For six years, he bit me, hated to be caught, and ran away when I rode him, knocking me off under tree limbs. I never told my parents, as I was afraid this was the only horse I’d ever have.

My husband Paul was also born in 1933, a Texas farm boy. He moved to California when he was eleven and I met him on the high school bus when we were fourteen. We stayed friends all through Linden High School and he rode his bicycle 20 miles to see me on Sundays and help me clean eggs. At 18, Paul started farming with my father, and we married in 1952, the same year my mother got her first Arabian horse. She put a trailer hitch on her beloved Buick, borrowed a trailer, and hauled the filly to the Cow Palace. Our family met Frank and Helen McCoy there, and the McCoys invited Paul and me to see their horses in Southern California on our honeymoon, which we did. It was there that we had our first look at seven-month-old Fadjur The unforgettable sight of his face peeking over the stall made such an impression on us that my parents went on a second honeymoon, took home movies, and three months later my father bought him for my mother’s birthday.

Paul and I bought our first Arabian mare in 1955. *Muhaira was imported from Saudi Arabia by Dr. Esther Ames, who said the mare could be purchased for $350 if someone could catch her. So my mother and her good friend Delma Gallaher walked all over the Oakdale, California, hills and finally accomplished that mission. *Muhaira refused to be tied and refused to ride frontward in the trailer but enjoyed being ridden in costume classes. We bred her twice to Fadjur and she produced a bay champion named Fahaira, as well as a full brother, Fadair, who won five Tevis 100-Mile Ride buckles. Our Arabian horse breeding program was off and running, and despite her quirks, *Muhaira gave us a good start. In fact, we still have a descendant of *Muhaira today, our champion stallion Ibn Brahim, who is a favorite of all our young English riders.

Paul, who has never ridden horses, went to his first Arabian horse show in 1956 and there began a winning streak in halter with my mother’s Fadjur, which spanned three decades. The fun we had raising our five children and traveling all over the United States and Canada with lots of family members and horses was grand. Fadjur died in 1983 and it was an extremely sad and heartbreaking time for all of us. Everything changed so fast, but life did go on.

The Spanish stallion *Sidi-Brahim (Jacio x Dalia IV), bred by Diego Mendez Moreno, had entered the picture in 1977, when my parents and other family members visited Spain. There, they purchased the champion son of the Yeguada Militar stallion Jacio, by Tabal. When I first saw him upon his arrival in the U.S., I could understand why Joanne, Terry, and my parents had such an admiration for *Sidi-Brahim, and Paul and I fell in love with his babies. When Fadjur died, my parents gave *Sidi-Brahim to Paul and me so that we could begin anew.

By 1982, 30 years after our marriage, Paul and I had built our brick home near the huge oak tree, on the island piece of our farmland, as I had always dreamed of doing. My historian Aunt Alice suggested the Spanish name that had long ago been associated with our property: Los Acres. In 1985 we built a barn and indoor arena near our home, and soon after, Paul built a crossing and we added our daughter Terry’s barn across the creek, pole fences, pastures, and outdoor arena. We also have a special picnic area down near the waterfall by the creek, and enjoy sharing it with our barn friends and their families.

In telling my story, I can’t overstate the importance of our close family ties, and if I could impart only one piece of advice it would be this: the secret of a life lived with horses is to love family first. Live life as you believe in your heart, Breed horses that make you happy, and choose to be kind to them.

Farming and horses make for a busy life, and luckily, our 5 children and their families live nearby. We all share in this life, and love it. Our oldest son, John (Boo), and youngest daughter, Terry, built homes on the farm. John commutes by air to his construction company in Orange County, and spends three days a week here with his family and the horses. His wife Susan, is incredible. She helps with everything! She truly loves animals, and keeps a daily eye on all the horses health and needs. Their two daughters, Jennifer and Renee, love to ride, and have done very well in the show arena. Terry is up early in the morning feeding the horses and is the last one to leave at night. She helps with all the foaling and breeding, keeps all the horses clipped and pretty, acts as vet helper, farrier helper, and foal handler, takes videos, makes sales, trains, shows, hauls horses, and rides out for fun any time there is a spare minute.

Our daughter Nancy works in Lodi at a Radiology firm, and has helped many kids learn to ride. When Terry is away out of the country, Nancy helps with the graining of the horses, and is always encouraging people to own an Arabian. Nancy's daughter Polly (Jackie) is a true hard working determined horse woman, that is constantly training and showing, and her sister Bonnie is a wonderful person too that helps yearly with our Happy Horse Day. Nancy's son, John, works with Paul and Walt with the farming, rides horses, helps with the breeding and doctoring of the horses. Mike, our youngest son, an Electrical Engineer here in Northern California, rides every night and goes to horse shows on weekends. Terry introduced him to our horse veterinarian, Dr. Linda Lauper, they married, and what a happy horse riding couple they make. They soon blessed our family with their son, Josef, who loves to be on a pony or a horses back. Our middle son, Pete, lives in nearby Elk Grove, and is a Manager at the Stockton Chase Chevrolet, loves to keep all of us laughing at his humor! His daughter Kassidy studies in Sacramento, and enjoys her spare time here riding her love, Ibn Brahim.

Paul helps deliver every foal and handles the five stallions for breeding. I answer the phone, do the bookkeeping, keep the mare and stallion records, enter shows, take pictures, baby-sit, and drive horses to shows.

Although my sister Joanne has a barn and horses of her own to tend to a mile from Los Acres, she helps us every day too. Joanne is every horses love here at Los Acres, and takes care of all of them daily. Joanne's hard working husband Walt Gyr is one incredible person. He farms with Paul (together they have farmed since the 1950's) and is a never ending daily worker. Joanne and Walt are two of the kindest (best) people in the world. Joanne's daughter Beth helps too, along with Joanne and Walt's granddaughter Jenna - who is one of the most beautiful "classical" riders we have ever seen!

There are so many shows now, and so many champions to read about, that it’s impossible for most readers to realize how rare Arabian horses used to be. We continue to breed for beauty and disposition because we must sell them in order to continue breeding them and our family must handle them until they leave for new homes. Our breeding stock consists of old, established, beautiful Fadjur and *Sidi-Brahim bloodlines. We breed for big, dark eyes, beautiful heads, trot with “show-off”, and happy dispositions. They are also successful show horses, and many of *Sidi-Brahim’s get have become champions, both here and internationally. They make beautiful and intelligent performance horses, many excelling in Open Jumping and Eventing competition.

All our children and grandchildren ride. Sixteen year old Jennifer Polk loves to show and has already won a Top Ten in Youth Nationals showing in Open Trail riding the *Sidi-Brahim daughter Spanish Flare. This kind mare was bred and raised at Los Acres, chosen and trained by granddaughter Jackie Lewis.

Each season and every day with the horses brings new reasons to be happy. *Sidi-Brahim is silvery white and more elegant as time goes on. He is content now to enjoy his stall and paddock overlooking Los Acres, to breed his mares, and occasionally ride out along the trails with Terry, his best friend. Stabled next to *Sidi-Brahim is his favorite broodmare, the bay Fatima Ala Bahr (Amir Al Bahr x Ala Fadaya). Fatima's first son, Julio Brahim, is the light of our lives, and such a character. Nicknamed "Hooley Booley", he delights in eating rotten apples and overripe oranges, and in tossing his very long mane and forelock while showing off.

Some of the most exciting times with our horses have been our sales (or frozen semen) to foreign countries and the resulting friendships we have made. The country of Oman, near the Arabian Sea, is now a home to a beautiful grey*Sidi-Brahim son. And we recently shipped our black bay beauty, Jair Tamaal (Tamaal FA x Sidcerely Yours, by *Sidi-Brahim) to Portugal to live his life with his proud owner, Joao SerraCoelho, and is becoming a spectacular Bullfighting Stallion. Our tall classic beauty, Thee Jesidi James (Thee Desperado x Jfarah Brahim, by *Sidi-Brahim) flew over with Jair Tamaal and won Top Ten All Nations Cup in Germany, then went on to win the Gold Medal of Portugal at their National Show.

It’s so easy to get carried away when talking or writing about horses. I can remember a few disappointments over the years, but mostly I recall the happy times with horses and humorous memories involving our children—like the time we drove off and left Terry at a horse show in Southern California when she was seven years old (she still hasn’t forgiven us), or when our son John, who was always thinking up ways to make money, set up a wishing well at the Canadian Nationals (unbeknownst to us) and was happily raking in the coins as people wished for a Top Ten or better, or when (a really embarrassing moment, to be sure) Norm Dun discovered our middle son, Peter, then six years old, selling Cal Poly postcards for ten cents each, out of a display Professor Dunn had set up…

I still believe today is a great day to get an Arabian horse. There are so many to choose from. If you are a beginner(or have owned them for years) make sure it looks like an Arabian and is a kind horse. If possible, live near your horses. The fun is in caring for them. If it isn’t possible, visit them often and insist on treating them like your own.

I really should write a book about our lives with horses, but the problem is I have never been able to plan ahead—just cross each bridge as I come to it. As for the future, all I can say is that if I’m still raising horses ten years from now, and my family is still getting bigger, I sure hope Paul and Walt are still raising hay.