Live Oak Arabians
by Mary Kirkman
 
Live Oak Arabians has always been a study in contrasts. At one time, the telephone answering machine at the farm's main residence sported a message in a far-out Cajun dialect that said, “’Allo! How you are? Dis be de Holiday Zoo and Creature Emporium. De creatures be gone, and me too!” But lord help you if you ever thought that light-hearted approach applied to the farm’s breeding program ­ there, pedigrees were researched relentlessly, individuals studied, and broodmares designed through the generations to fit just so in the production line-up.
 
Or take the fact that many members of the general public regard Live Oak as one more breeding establishment among the many which cram the pages of the Arabian magazines. Just one more? Not true, report the trainers who know it to be one of the breed’s most reliable and prolific resources of show stock, particularly in the English discipline. For the past 20 years ­ and particularly over the last decade ­ the Louisiana nursery has pumped out talented, willing horses that have populated the show ring nationwide, winning at the national and regional levels. Listen closely at these shows; the truth is in the announcer’s voice, which repeats, “LOA ... LOA ... LOA ...”
 
Now Live Oak Arabians looks forward to its greatest achievement yet, and it comes wrapped up in one outstanding bay package: 2001 U.S. and Canadian National Champion Stallion Millennium LOA. He’s a halter star with decided English talent, a young stallion barely old enough to have made his own record in the ring, but who’s already siring national winners. For years, the farm has been known for its performance horses, and now, at the turn of the new millennium, it is suddenly front and center on the halter stage. And that’s just the way owners Sandy and Phil Witter want it. Millennium is one of those rare individuals who looks set to do it all, and that is Live Oak’s goal.
 
Millennium LOA
In Loving Memory
1998-2005
 
The story now sounds like a fairytale, told and retold with affection. In December 1998, Sandra and Phil Witter of Live Oak Arabians in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, were not in the market for a colt with stallion potential. In fact, with 300 horses on their 400-acre farm, they weren’t really in the market for anything at all. But California trainer Steve Heathcott was; he needed a good halter colt to show at Scottsdale in February, and he was on an arduous farm-to-farm search. A bay youngster at Javan Schaller’s place was his last stop of the day, and by the time he arrived, the sun was nearly gone. He and Javan turned on their vehicle headlights to illuminate the yearling by Bucharest V, out of Barbary Rose VF.
 
Heathcott knew immediately that he’d struck gold. “There was no question in my mind that he was going to be a great halter horse, a great English horse,” the trainer recalls, “but more important, he looked like a stallion. I’d been with Sheila [Varian] on and off for years, with Bay El Bey and Huck, and just something about him ­ God, this was a breeding horse.”
 
When the Witters’ daughter Sherry saw the colt, she agreed, and Steve had his buyers. Looking back, it might be asked why no one else had picked up on the classy youngster, if he was so exceptional that he would win at Scottsdale in less than two months. All Steve Heathcott can do is shrug. He’d learned to look beneath the skin, trust in the ripples of premonition that respond to certain horses. And Millennium ­ although the colt had yet to be named ­ made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
 
Millennium may have escaped extensive notice in December, but by Scottsdale in February, he was no longer traveling incognito. “Within weeks of buying him, we had offers to at least double his purchase price, and some much more than that,” Steve recalls. “I remember Phil Witter on the phone, saying, ‘Well, if we take this money, you have two or three times as much to go buy me another stud. How long do you think it will take to find one like him?’ And I said, ‘It took me 20 years to find him.’  He said, ‘Then there’s your answer. I don’t want to sell him.’”

At Scottsdale, the colt’s first show ring experience, a meteoric career was launched, as he was named unanimous Champion 2-Year-Old Colt and Junior Champion Colt. Judge Richard Petty later informed Heathcott that Millennium was so impressive that the colt had declared himself the winner when he trotted down the chute into the ring. The subsequent competition had just confirmed the judge’s decision. “The harder you look, the better he gets,” Steve Heathcott explains.
 
For most of the next two years, Millennium was simply a horse, enjoying his freedom, covering a limited book of mares. His only trip to the show ring was a brief foray at the Pacific Slope Championships as a 3-year-old, where he was selected Champion Stallion. Ironically, one of the judges was Mitch Sperte, who had been negotiating to buy the colt when the Live Oak check had been written ­ but Mitch had wanted Millennium as an English horse. At the Pacific Slope Show, he marked his card with everyone else; the win was unanimous.
 
As Scottsdale of 2001 approached, Millennium’s general appearance and attitude indicated that it was time for him to test the waters again. No one had really planned on going for the big titles at 4 years of age; 5 had seemed more appropriate. But the bay stallion had ideas of his own. He had ‘contender’ stamped all over him, and it turned out that he was right.
 
Millennium opened by winning the title of Scottsdale Champion Stallion unanimously, followed with the championship in Canada, and finally finished as the choice of all the judges in Albuquerque ­ one of the very few 4-year-olds ever to win the Triple Crown of stallion championships.
 
For Steve Heathcott, Millennium transformed the win at Albuquerque, the highest honor of the trainer’s career. “I’d never won National Champion Stallion,” he reflects. “And in all the excitement and celebration, I’m running across the ring to get the ribbon and get my picture taken, and all I could think ­ I can remember it so clearly ­ was, ‘Okay, that’s over. We’ve got to win with the babies now.’ That was it, as far as I was concerned. Yes, we’d shown him in halter and it was fun, and we’d promoted him and we’d proven his quality that way . . . but the whole thing in my mind, then until now, was I think his babies will be as good or better than he is.”
 
Phil Witter was enjoying his own set of surprising thoughts as he hurried to the ring. “I never aspired to own a National Champion Stallion,” he says candidly, citing all the years where his attention had been on performance horses. “Very honestly, I was fine when they announced it, and I was fine when Sandy and I got up and started walking toward that gate to go into the ring.” Then he pauses, and the change in his voice is apparent. “To this day it gives me chills and I get choked up, because when we started down those steps, I had this vision of the McCoys, the Gaineys ... all of those people who bred those national champion stallions. We happened to buy this horse, but I was thinking of all those people who had bred them. It was truly one of the most overwhelming experiences of my entire life. My only real regret ­ and Sandy’s too ­ is that I don’t believe that Bob and Pat Radmacher, who bred him, were at Nationals that year.”
 
His mind ranged back over all the years he’d attended the U.S. Nationals and what the title of National Champion Stallion meant. “Twenty-nine or 30 years of watching people walk down and accept that award ­ it was very surreal. I never aspired to be here, I never dreamed I would be here . . . and here I am.”
 
Did it change his philosophy after all these years? It wasn’t as if Live Oak had ignored halter; back in the heyday of the Louisiana Futurity, the farm had retired all sorts of trophies, against some of the strongest competition in the show ring. Their Arabians and Half-Arabians had to be beautiful, but even so, the overall goal had always been performance. Had Millennium brought halter more into focus?
 
“I don’t think there’s any question of it,” Phil says. “His national win was kind of an epiphany in many, many ways. It broadens your scope, it changes your perspective, it changes your appreciation. It’s made it a totally different ballgame, so to speak.” And the ballgame, they are finding, is very enjoyable. The first Millennium babies arrived in 2000, and from that crop, Millaya LOA started by winning the Scottsdale Breeders Cup as a 2-year-old filly. Later in the year, she added the Filly Jackpot Championship in Canada, and the following year, was Canadian National Champion Junior Mare 3-5. In 2003, she went U.S. National Top Ten in Arabian Futurity Fillies. Also in 2001, the Half-Arabian yearling gelding Millitia, by Millennium, was champion at Scottsdale. 
 
Then from the 2002 crop, Milleah won her yearling classes at Scottsdale and added a Top Ten in the U.S. National Arabian Yearling Filly Breeders Sweepstakes. And the Half-Arabian filly Mellissa LOA was named 2003 National Show Horse National Champion Weanling Filly. By anyone’s standards, that’s a stellar beginning for a young stud who’s been only lightly bred.
 
Although Millennium had introduced more emphasis on halter potential at Live Oak, his own athletic ability was never overlooked. Sherry had started him in long lines, carefully and gently so as not to interfere with his showing or breeding concentration, and one fact had become immediately clear. As easily and naturally as he had taken to halter exhibiting, Millennium liked furthering his education. He learned quickly and with little effort, and in everything he did, his willing nature was apparent.
 
“He’s a gentleman in every way,” Sherry observes. “He won’t give you any trouble about anything ­ he’s just a kind horse. I’ve been around a lot of breeds, but I’ve never been around a horse like this one. You look in those eyes and he’s some kind of horse.”
 
For the 2004 breeding season, Millennium moved from Steve Heathcott’s California training center to Live Oak in Baton Rouge. Now 7, he’s ready to embark on an English career, and has entered training with his old admirer Mitch Sperte, now the farm’s resident trainer. “To me, Millennium is the real deal,” Mitch says, and adds, “I’ve charted and watched some popular stallions over the years ­ we all know that a lot of stallions out there will gain an enormous amount of popularity, and it tends to be a little bit of a trend or a style. The smart marketeers in our breed capitalize on that and they understand that there’s a shelf life on those studs.” He smiles. “But then there’s a small handful of sires who outstrip that philosophy, who may reach a peak or height of interest, but because of their honest ability to be exceptional sires, their popularity remains constant. From what I’ve seen in Millennium and his offspring, he has that ability.
 
“Millennium has the honest ability to merge the performance and halter worlds at the highest levels of competition. He is the quintessential show horse and sire.”
 
At home in an historic breeding program
 
It might be said that Millennium represents the third phase in Live Oak’s remarkable life as an Arabian breeding establishment. When the stallion arrived at the lovely old Cedar Lodge Plantation, home of Live Oak Arabians, he stepped into a program 30 years deep in history.

It all began in 1972, when Phil Witter acquired his first Arabian mare. For the practical purposes of a breeding program, however, Live Oak Arabians was not so casually born. Like most, Witter didn’t start out to own a large horse operation, but whatever he owned, he wanted it to be good. The roots of Live Oak lay in trips to other farms ­ to Gleannloch, to see its Egyptians, to Lasma to see *Bask. His inspiration emerged from long, probing discussions with Dr. Eugene LaCroix, and from conversations with owner/breeder Mike Nichols, a friendship born on the rail one morning at Scottsdale. And in the patient help offered
by many others.
 
“I’ve always had a philosophy that you have to ask as many questions as humanly possible,” Phil Witter says, “and I don’t care whether somebody thinks they’re dumb or not. I was always amazed that so many of these people who were well known in the industry put up with what at that time might have appeared to be really dumb questions from this boy from south Louisiana ... Dr. LaCroix, Dr. Kale, Walter Mishek, Tom McNair, the Gleannloch group. I never hesitated to ask people, ‘Why are you doing that? What does that accomplish?’”
 
As might be expected, the equine population at the old plantation grew. “As we say in south Louisiana,” Phil grins, “‘one t’ing jus’ leads to another.’”
 
With a background in western and cattle horses, Witter naturally gravitated to performance horses, both English and western, and the general look of the Live Oak horses tended toward the *Bask line. As time went on, with the advice of Mike Nichols and Don DeLongpré, he became interested in crossing Arabians with Saddlebreds ­ partly because he liked the athletic action, and partly because the added height facilitated his six-four frame. A qualified attorney whose business interests required a great deal of his time, he nevertheless trained his own horses for many years. And all the time, he was developing the broodmare band, rigorously analyzing and breeding, knowing his bloodlines, learning his individuals and how they crossed, looking out to the generations to come.
 
He recalls times that they’ve had offers on particular individuals that were bred specifically for the program ­ mares he considered integral to its success. The offers were declined. “In every single case that we’ve done that,” he reports, “those mares had foals that have been not just good and not just quality, but truly exceptional.”
 
By the mid-1980s, Live Oak was supplying show horses to the industry in appreciable numbers. One year, the farm sold 65 horses, Witter recalls, and nearly every one ended up top ten or better in English or western. But by the early 1990s, the numbers ­ and his demanding business interests ­ were catching up with him. He had just shattered his collarbone and crushed his right shoulder when his new trainer arrived. He assessed her background and her abilities, and although he would coach from the sidelines and lend his knowledge of Arabian breeding, he basically nodded to the far-flung breeding operation and told her, “Go for it.” Phase two of Live Oak Arabians was under way.
 
Sandra Ledbetter represented the fourth generation in a line of American Saddlebred horsemen. She had grown up learning from her father, nationally-known trainer Everett Ledbetter, and won World’s Championship Saddle Seat awards before she was 10. Better yet, in a lifetime of training others to ride, she had often used Arabians, so the exotic horses of the desert were not foreign to her.
 
“Sandy’s strengths were the performance horses and knowing a good horse,” Phil says. “She’s been a judge, and she’s judged Arabians and trained kids on Arabians. She came with all of the credentials.”
 
Their marriage ­ in business and personally ­ accelerated Live Oak’s English performance program, particularly in the Half-Arabian division. Just as he knew Arabian pedigrees chapter and verse, Sandy knew Saddlebreds. She knew the mares, what they’d done, how they’d bred, how certain bloodlines carried on. She not only shared Phil’s vision of what the good Arabian or Half-Arabian performance horse should be, she fine-tuned it.
 
“I appreciate the Arabian breed just as much as I do the Saddlebred,” she says. “It’s something you can’t judge together ­ it’s like apples and oranges. You have to appreciate each horse for its own breed.”   And, she might have added, you have to combine them with care. “I believe that the look I have wanted and created are horses that are not only beautiful but also athletic, that can be shown and can be ridden,” she reflects. “I feel that a horse should be able to trot into the ring on a lead and not only be attractive, but demonstrate through its carriage and conformation, that it can be a sound and useful performance horse as well. For instance, a horse who can’t trot because his shoulder is so straight, or his legs are set too far underneath him, or his pasterns are so straight in his hind leg conformation that he can’t move ­ all of that, to me, is a fault. It’s all a question of what we call angulation. For a horse to be beautiful, its conformation needs to be correct. And you can have both beauty and athletic ability.” She never lost sight of the need to maintain beauty and type, both in the purebreds and the Half-Arabians.
 
It was around this time that Live Oak added the two stallions who characterized that era of its history, and whose offspring really put the farm’s name up in lights as a resource for qualified show horses. (As time went on, however, they were forced to specialize more in show prospects as trainers were buying so fast that fewer and fewer horses got to the ring under the Live Oak banner.)
 
The first was the Arabian stud Toi Soldier, from the famous *Bask x Toi “golden” cross that produced such national winners of the 1970s and ‘80s as Mi Toska, Fire Devil, Mi Tosk and others.
 
“I thought he was probably one of the most underrated stallions in America because he produced really, really good quality horses,” Phil Witter says. “People would look at him and say, ‘oh, he’s got a club foot.’ Well, I knew the story of when he had been with Bill and Susan Pereira, and his leg became entrapped in the stall door when he was a 2-year-old. He was the only one of that *Bask-Toi cross that I know of that was never shown, and was never a top ten or better.”
 
Toi Soldier, now 26 and living the life of a country gentleman, did his part for Live Oak, offering such contenders as Toi Primero, Toi Celebrity, Peaches-N-Cream, Love Toi, Martinique LOA, JLP Toi Sensation, Christmas Toi, Mi Toi LOA, The Toi Maker and others, a high percentage of them national winners. “Crossing him with these Saddlebred mares was just a golden cross,” Phil says. “They complemented each other so much. They’re good-thinking, ambitious, well-balanced horses.”
 
Another addition at the time was the Saddlebred stallion Standing Room Only, by Stonewall’s Magnificent Genius, out of the Supreme Sultan mare Georgia Supreme. Phil had tried to buy him for nine years, and finally, traveling the Kentucky horse farms with a friend of Sandy’s, they got the job done.
 
A glimpse of the impact of these two stallions can be read in a list of customer Vicki Humphrey’s favorites. “Mambo, by Toi Soldier ­ the greatest Country horse that ever lived,” she smiles. “He won Scottsdale last year and was reserve at Nationals with his junior exhibitor rider. Truckin Toi ­ I’ve sold him a couple of times in the barn. And Standing Room Only ­ oh, God, I love those horses! We have about four of those in the barn. We had Stage Door Jonni, that was sold to Cathy Vincent. He was national champion about four times last year in halter. We trained him as a park horse, and showed him one time at Region XII and he won.
And three-time National Champion, Double Down, our hunter that we just sold.” And then there is Front Row Jo, who won at Scottsdale in Country this year, and is a full brother to Stage Door Jonni. Another full brother, Jonni Rocket, is a new arrival in the barn. “I don’t even wait for a client,” Vicki says. “I just fly down on my own dollar to see what’s going on, because they sell them so fast.”
 
This year at Scottsdale, nine horses by “Toi” or “Stanley” placed top ten or better, with many earning a champion or reserve. Although both stallions are senior citizens, their influence remains strong. In particular, Toi Soldier also enjoys an enviable reputation as a broodmare sire. On the list of his grandget, among others, are the stallions Matoi (out of Toi Ellenai) and JDM Rain Dance (out of JDM Pentoia).
 
Another contributor to the gene pool has been the black stallion Krewe, U.S. and Canadian National Champion in Amateur Park with Sherry. By Huckleberry Bey, out of the *Bask daughter Masquerade, he has offered halter winners such as Krewella and National Champion Krewe La La, and performance standouts such as Scottsdale Reserve Champion Half-Arabian Mare Halle Berry LOA.
 
“They’ve got pastures full of great mares and they breed specifically for English horses,” trainer Jim Lowe says appreciatively. “Undoubtedly, it’s one of the strongest programs out there. They have an industry full of horse trainers calling them and going to them to buy and train Live Oak-bred horses. I don’t think that the general public knows what kind of hotbed of English-bred horses that place is.”
 
He knows from personal experience. “I’ve purchased a couple of horses there; they both did very well, and we sold them on and made money. We had a great experience with Live Oak. I didn’t really know what they had until I went there for the full Live Oak experience. With so many people wanting English horses, it’s one of the best places to start ­ and often finish ­ your hunt for that special horse.”
 
“One of the things that attracted me to Live Oak was that statistically, over the last 10 years, its breeding program has produced more national winners in the English division than any other commercial breeder,” Mitch Sperte says succinctly. “I truly believe that Sandy Witter’s contribution to the Arabian industry as a supplier of great English horses has been greatly underappreciated.”
 
Strawberry Banks trainer Brian Murch agrees. “For years and years, the number of horses with the initials LOA that have won in the show ring has been extraordinary,” he says. “They’ve had a major impact with horses who have done incredible things in the show horse world. It’s beyond me that Sandy Witter has not been nominated as Breeder of the Year more often.”
 
With the need for good English horses in the industry today, Murch values the resource. “They’ve had some tremendous horses, and bred so many of them. With the addition of their new stallion, Millennium, that’s going to continue. What impresses me so much about Millennium is the quality that his babies have. They’re built to be English horses, but they have so much quality.”
 
“In my mind’s eye, I knew where we wanted to be,” Sandy Witter says of the explosion of Live Oak talent in the 1990s. “I know what I want to come out of this farm. With Toi Soldier, Standing Room Only and Krewe, we were able to do a good job of doing that. However, with Millennium coming on the scene, and seeing what his foals look like, I’m so excited! You know in your mind that that’s where you wanted to go, but then, when you actually see it on the ground, you’re just really motivated.”
 
She emphasizes that there’s a third component to Millennium’s exciting potential. “I guess I’m a perfectionist in a lot of areas,” she says. “I’ve just been looking for the ultimate horse, the ultimate cross. Then to have the attitude along with it is just the icing on the cake. The  Millennium foals are put together so well; they’re so pretty, high headed and they move well. And then to have such great attitudes, to be such trainable horses! He himself is like that as he’s moving into his training now, preparing for performance.” “The emphasis here is pretty evenly balanced between breeding purebreds and Half-Arabians, and halter and performance,” Phil observes. “Although our stallions and our mares have led us more into the English discipline, I think that all of that is positive and it gets us on into the fourth decade of our operation.”
 
The ultimate challenge:  The Future
 
The future sets easily on Live Oak Arabians. Ironically, its setting ­ Cedar Lodge Plantation ­ reflects all the grace and elegance of the past. The old tract of land is an unexplained green spot on maps of Baton Rouge, astoundingly near the center of town and surrounded by development that spreads in all directions. It has been in Phil Witter’s family since the mid-nineteenth century, a quiet oasis of pastureland and live oak trees, their Spanish moss a haze in the afternoon sun. It is almost like an anchor, a symbolic link with all the history that grounds a program geared to be innovative and up-to-date.
 
Change is in the wind, and it concerns more than just the broadening of their breeding program with the addition of Millennium. After years of day-in, day-out involvement, Sandy plans to reduce her responsibilities. She had been showing and training others to the World’s Championship and National level in Saddlebreds and Arabians, right up until last year. Since then, she has acquired her amateur status. She and Phil envision taking it easier ­ on the theory that while Live Oak has always been run like a business, it also always has been an avocation. Enjoyment is one reason they do it. Plans call for her to remain involved in the breeding, but turn most of the management responsibilities over to Sherry. Nationally-known performance trainer Mitch Sperte has signed on to guide the careers of the young Live Oak show stock entering the ring.

“Mitch brings a great deal of experience to the table, which I have found like a breath of fresh air,” Phil comments. A lifelong horseman who cut his teeth in the famous Lasma training program and at Varian Arabians, Mitch Sperte was named APAHA Horseman of the Year in 1996. Over the years, although he has made his name in Arabians, he’s also enjoyed extensive Saddlebred experience, so that he is uniquely qualified in the English ranks. He has been associated with such national standouts as Genuine, Aploz, Firelite DGL, Sharper Image, RW Candy Kisses, Allfired Upp, and many more.
 
“At this stage of my career,” he relates, “I wanted first to be with a farm which understands the ups and downs of breeding and training, and will allow me the opportunity to have the time to properly school and prepare a horse, so we can get back to some old-world, honest horsemanship. And number two, I wanted to be with a breeding program that can get you to the highest level. Live Oak’s breeding program prior to Millennium was highly-regarded and world-renowned, and now he’s here to take them to the next level.”
 
He is also very in tune with the concept of beauty and athletic ability. “I’m one of those people who would almost rather compete on a horse of true vertical carriage and exceptional quality, even more than talent,” he laughs. “But when they all come together, that’s when it’s really special. I don’t want to ride and show ugly horses, and Millennium won’t allow me to do that.”   Sherry is equally dedicated. Although she’s shown Live Oak horses for years, and has herself been nominated as APAHA Female Amateur Showman of the Year (1997), she is particularly excited this year, and there’s a reason: Millennium. When he enters the show ring again, she will be his partner.
 
“Why should the family not be enjoying the horse?” she asks, bucking the tradition of treating a national champion like a rarefied being. “If not me, why shouldn’t Phil be driving the horse, or Mom? We love him. We’re not going to sell him ­ we’ll love him forever and have him as a breeding stallion, so why not show him ourselves?”
 
Mitch Sperte agrees, recalling when he pursued the colt as an English prospect for a client. Six years later, he now has occasion to put his saddle on the handsome bay stallion. “I can honestly say that he’s one of the kindest and most trainable, manageable stallions I’ve ever been involved with,” he says. “The conformation has all the angulation that enables him to have self-carriage, and add his extreme quality ­ the package will be extremely beautiful. He’s also the epitome of a lady’s horse.”
 
“I’m really excited about it,” Sherry says. “I know there will be a lot of people ready to criticize, but I think he’s good enough. I’m not scared. He may win and he may not, but I’m going to show my beautiful stud and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.”
 
Just as important to Sherry is her role in running the farm ­ and it’s no small job. Their roster of horses is down to 204, with approximately 20 foals expected each year. That includes one aspect of the Live Oak scene that is not well known in the Arabian world. “Sandy should be credited for initiating Live Oak’s acclaimed Saddlebred program, which is  autonomous from the Arabian and Half-Arabian program,” Mitch Sperte reports. “Presently several exciting Live Oak Saddlebred prospects are being readied for competition for Sandy and Sherry by renowned horsewoman Melissa Moore in Lexington. Some of the seasoned World’s Champions associated with Live Oak include Tigerlee, Caramar, My Lucky Day and Haute Chocolate.”
 
One goal in the farm’s reorganization is to decrease the number of horses on the property, and with that in mind, a reduction sale is under consideration. “That will allow us to intensify the quality of our preparation and the presentation of our product,” Mitch explains.
 
Just as the breeding program, with its long and proven history, is a mainstay in itself, the staff at Live Oak has been equally dependable over the years. Breeding manager Jan Longman has been superintending the Live Oak broodmares for 22 years, and now sees very few that she didn’t foal out way-back-when.
 
“It’s been an honor breeding and befriending these fabulous horses,” she says. “The quality of horses and people I’ve associated with has only improved with each passing year.” Her voice turns soft. “I really love these horses. It would be kind of weird working somewhere else, because I wouldn’t know them. Here I can tell who they are from a half mile away. They’re all individuals.” Over in the training barn, Al Garcia has been the assistant trainer for 12 years. He started most of the Live Oak graduates now making the farm’s name, but in the Live Oak tradition, there’s more to his presence there than just his ability with a horse.
 
“Al Garcia lived with Sandy and me for 18 months when there was no house available on the farm,” Phil relates, “and he became our surrogate son, a member of our family. He cooks with us on Thanksgiving day as one of the Five Chefs.” And as for Al’s role on the farm? “No one can more gently, or with greater talent, break horses to drive or go under saddle,” Phil says. “He’s certainly much more than an assistant trainer,” Mitch agrees. “I’m very fortunate to have someone of his talent and dedication. He’s a very gifted trainer with a very soft and pleasant way with the horses. I leave town on my judging and horse show responsibilities, and I know that Al is there to keep it up. He wants to stay at home and maintain the young horses; there should be no interruption in their progress.”
 
And so the team is set for the future. For Sherry, the continued success of Live Oak is a matter of heritage ­ hers and the farm’s. “My commitment is so strong, not only to the valuable horsemanship learned from my mother, but to this operation,” she says. “It’s not about what I can show personally, or that I can sell breedings … I want something that I never had. My grandfather was a great horse trainer; he passed away when I was 4 years old, so I was never able to experience the horses with him. To me, he represents a legacy of horsemanship that I want to be a part of. What I’m looking forward to now is being a hands-on part of something that my mom and Phil built. That might sound trite, but it’s how I feel.
 
“I want a great show string,” she admits, “and I want to win amateur classes. But more than that, I want to go to bed every night knowing that I have these beautiful broodmares that are out there, happy and taken care of. When I wake up in the morning and go to bed at night, I think about this farm. And that says to me that it’s my calling and my place. I want to make it my life.”
 
If indeed this is the third phase of Live Oak’s extraordinary incarnation in the Arabian business, it is opening with promise, given the national triumphs of Millennium’s early foals. It’s important, Sherry notes, that Millennium make his mark both in the show ring and the breeding ranks. He may be a gentleman, but he’s not afraid to prove himself in competition ­ his own or his foals.
 
“Millennium’s been there,” she says proudly. “He’s been scrutinized. He’s been to the ring to let everyone pick him apart if they could, and he won the title. And then to sire purebreds and Half-Arabians that have the win records already, when his oldest baby is only 4 ­ that’s pretty amazing.”
 
As its story continues to grow, Phil Witter points out that there are more ways than one to look to the future. Sherry’s young daughter Perry, represents the next generation in the story of Live Oak Arabians. “She wants only to be in the stable,” he says affectionately. “She cannot say ‘horse,’ but she clucks to them, and points at them in photos and clucks. A cluck is her language for ‘horse.’ So Live Oak’s Tradition of Excellence shall be carried on.”

Article Complements of
The Arabian Horse Times