A Bowlful of Berry
by Michael Damianos
I was a young horse trainer in 1986. My business was all Quarter Horses and I was dating a local Ventura girl named Dawn DeFisher. One day she told me she needed to borrow my two-horse trailer because a friend was giving her a two-year-old Arabian gelding. I thought that was probably a bad idea but I just went with it. When she and her father arrived with the young gelding I thought to myself, “What am I going to do with this thing?” The horse also had a name that made no sense, Vals Roubear and he wasn’t very attractive. She said we were calling him “Berry.”
I was much younger then and only considered it a coincidence when I looked at the two year old’s registration and saw his sire was a stallion named Boreau. Boreau was a son of *Naborr that stood at the old El Capitan Ranch in Goleta, California, near Santa Barbara. Trainer Chick Sheridan gave me lessons on Boreau when I was in my early teens. He was a very kind stallion.
I thought luck happens when your wife won’t let you give up on her horse.
Dawn and I started Berry in November of his two-year-old year. We rode him consistently all of his three-year-old year. I found him to be awkward and clumsy sometimes, but willing and trainable most of the time. We took him to some schooling shows at a local park. We initially had mixed results but saw gradual improvement. In the spring of his four-year-old year he went to his first show away from home. It was an open show 45 miles up the road at Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara. The experience was discouraging. He did not like being out of Ojai and found the Santa Barbara facility overwhelming. Dawn was riding him in the main arena one evening after the show, and he tried to jump the arena wall. We left the show a bit discouraged, but on the drive home Dawn told me that she knew what the problem was. Much to my chagrin she said, “You just have to try harder.”
Recognizing the power of a stubborn woman I took Berry to every show I went to, even all the Quarter Horse shows. Eventually he got better, but not without a few relapses. One time Dawn took him in a Green Trail Class at a show at Costa Mesa, California. There was a water box on the course. I said to her, ”He won’t get near that water box, but he should do the rest of the course fine.” They went on course and Berry knocked every piece of lumber in that arena into the next county, but he dropped his nose and walked through the water like a veteran. That was a moment in the progression of a horse where you have to decide if you are a pessimist or an optimist. Dawn was unwavering in her belief in that horse.
Despite a few setbacks he did improve and by the time he was six that grey gelding was growing solid in Trail, Western Horsemanship, and Western Riding (a class seen commonly in AQHA shows). In the years to come we took him to some of the best open horse shows of that era including the Santa Barbara National, the Kern County Classic, the Del Mar National, the California Grand Slam, the Orange County Fair, the Santa Barbara County Riding Club shows and the Ventura County Fair. He had wins at all of them at one time or another and he was usually the only Arabian there. He and Dawn were Reserve Champions in open Western Riding at Cal Grand in Rancho Murietta among 20-plus Quarter Horses. Another time I rode him to a top five placing in an open Trail Classic at the Bakersfield Quarter Horse Show in a huge class with a very difficult course for the time. He was always the black sheep because he was the only Arabian in the class. He even packed a septuagenarian client of mine to many year-end high point awards for the Ventura County Saddle Club, another venue that saw few Arabians. That white horse had become a darn good black sheep.
Berry knocked every piece of lumber in that arena into the next county…
We took him to his first Arabian show in 1993 when he was nine years old. It was the Region II preshow in Santa Barbara. Dawn won the Trail Championship on him which qualified him for the Regional Championships where they got a Reserve Championship in open trail. With that success we went on to the U.S. Nationals in Albuquerque, winning National Reserve Champion Trail Horse with Dawn riding. Berry had genuinely come into his own.
By 1995 the black sheep had become an all star. He won at many open shows and he returned to Albuquerque and the U.S. Nationals. Dawn DeFisher had become Dawn Damianos in 1990 and gave birth to our first daughter in late September of that year so we planned on me riding him. Berry gave me a great ride on a challenging course. In that era the scores were not announced and the placings were unknown until the class was lined up. Announcer Carol Lee then said, ”There is nothing more special than being a National Champion, except possibly when that championship is a unanimous decision of the judging panel. Tonight our unanimous National Champion is from Ojai, California.” How incredibly lucky we were. A give away horse just provided us with a life changing moment. Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” I thought luck happens when your wife won’t let you give up on her horse.
We never forgot where we got that horse or the trials and tribulations to that point. As a result we never took ourselves too seriously. A perfect example was the day after his first national championship. I was sitting in the cafe called “Horseman’s Kitchen” located in the middle of the stabling area eating lunch and getting congratulatory comments from friends and strangers. A lady came up to me and said, “I was told you never showed that horse until you got here. You screwed some poor girl out of her horse and won on it.” I replied to the lady, “Ma’am, I have ridden that horse since he was two years old, but you have no idea how literally true the second half of your statement is.” The people at my table erupted in laughter. One of them knew her and told her the real story…that the owner is my wife and she just had a baby. She was mortified and apologized. I only saw humor in the moment and was just very proud of my retort.
As rewarding as Albuquerque was, the biggest thrill was yet to come. A year later in 1996 Berry returned to the Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky. Dawn rode him in both the open trail class and the new amateur trail class. Carol Lee was the announcer again and we had the pleasure of hearing her sweet voice call them out as unanimous National Champions in both classes. That is a feat that will likely never be replicated and cemented his legacy as a great horse. He had now made us both National Champions.
Vals Roubear (Boreau x MB Roulette), a 1984 gelding, better known as “Berry.”
Berry and Dawn DeFisher (before she became Dawn Damianos), on their way to a Reserve Championship at the California Grand Slam in Rancho Murrieta
Dawn and Berry stepping into the water box the at the Santa Barbara National Horse and Flower Show, where they went Champion Intermediate Amateur Trail. This was a Tim Kimura Trail Course decades before he was a famous trail course designer (and the course designer at the Arabian Nationals).
Shelbee Damianos in leadline with Berry.
Berry and his family, with youngest daughter Zoe, up.
A quilt made from some of Berry's ribbons.
Berry and Michael winning 1995 U.S. National Champion Trail.
Recognizing the power of a stubborn woman I took Berry to every show I went to, even all the Quarter Horse shows.
Berry went on for years to win many awards at both open shows and Arabian shows. No horse in the history of my business won more silver belt buckles. At age 19 I showed him at Scottsdale and won the open Western Riding Class and the Trail Horse Championship. He introduced our oldest daughter, Shelbee, to horse showing. She also rode him in parades and trail rides. I gave lessons on him to many young people who got their first introduction to Arabian horses from him. Elementary school teacher, Dawn Damianos, use to make me take him to her school every year for Vaquero Days. In 2023 I was judging a horse show in Paso Robles, California and a horse show mother asked if she could talk to me. I thought, “Oh boy, here we go.” She told me her name and said, ”I don’t know if you remember me but you use to give me lessons on Berry when I was a kid. I loved riding him and got our daughter into horses because of your horse.” I gave her a hug and said, “Thank you for reaching out. You made my heart feel warm, but do me one favor, lie and tell everyone I was in high school when I gave you lessons.”
We lost Berry at age 24. Dawn and I were devastated. We both knew that horse was the source of many of life’s sweetest memories, big and small. He had an impact on the course of my life like no other horse. Sadly, I was not smart enough to choose him, God just dropped him in our laps. Thirty-eight years after Berry became a part of our family, I have lived enough to recognize that the important people, horses and dogs that enter our lives are never random. A higher being is responsible for our time with the special ones. There was clearly an aura of serendipity about our union. I rode his sire as a teenager. Oddly, my trail mentor, Chick Sheridan, won his last National Championship on a grey gelding named Elazhar and I won my first National Championship on a grey gelding that didn’t look much different. Both horses had El Capitan Ranch horses close-up in their pedigrees. Berry started out as a liability and evolved into an asset. Poet Emery Allen wrote, “Do you think the universe fights for souls to be together? Some things are too strange and strong to be coincidences.”
That was a moment in the progression of a horse where you have to decide if you are a pessimist or an optimist.
Berry accrued an eclectic inventory of horse show accomplishments. My wife, Principal Damianos, has hanging in her office a quilt made from some of the ribbons that horse won that stands as a tribute to his remarkable life. There are ribbons from some of the greatest horse shows of his time, both open and Arabian. It is an amazing showcase of memories. 16 years after his passing that quilt is still a sacred monument for Dawn and me. No matter where life takes us, that quilt will be with us. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold."
I have been married for 34 years to the woman who got that horse as a gift. Some of my dearest and longest clients started out on Berry. Other people put horses in training with me because of his success. Some of my early judging invitations were a result of his success. He initiated a legacy that I never saw coming. Trainers from other breeds appreciated that horse and respected me because of our success outside of the Arabian breed. Trainers in the Arabian breed sought my advice because of Berry’s success. He put us in the Arabian horse business and we have never looked back. I have no idea what more that selfless horse could have given us. Columnist Erma Bombeck said, “When I stand before God at the end of my life. I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’” Vals Roubear is the equine personification of that quote.
Certain berries are said to be antioxidants which aid in health and wellbeing. An Arabian horse we called Berry was the most profound antioxidant I ever encountered. He had a gargantuan heart and the spirit of a war horse. Alexander the Great had his Bucephalus, this Greek had Vals Roubear.
