Nana's Story.  

Carrollton Farm's passion for the Arabian horse began in 1990, when the family began taking riding lessons at Horseshoe Lake Arabians, home of Laddinns Fire.  Not long after lessons started, the family purchased their first horse, HC Shana-Na.  "Nana" was a once-in-a-lifetime mare, having been trained and shown by Gene Reichardt, once owned by Lasma Arabians Ltd., and bred to greats such as *Bask, *Padron, Amurath Bandolero+, *Hal Gazal, Wizjon, and Bey Shah+.  Although Nana was primarily a babysitter and ideal first show horse, she was also bred to Bey Shah+ while at Carrollton Farm, producing Bey Shanandra, a National Top Ten Mare who went on to produce regional and national winners in both halter and performance.  

Nana's first trainer, Gene Reichardt, tells the story of showing her at Scottsdale as a 3-year-old in Western Pleasure.  There were over 50 horses in the junior horse class, and the top three were called out of the lineup for a work-off.  They were at a hand-gallop when the announcer called for a halt.  Gene said WHOA, threw Nana the reins, and she stopped on a dime.  And won the class.

For us, Nana epitomized the bond between Arabian and human, and her patience, quietness, and gentleness will never be matched.  Carrollton Farm owned Nana from the age of 17 until she passed at age 27 due to complications of Cushing's disease.  She would grow a full winter coat in the middle of the summer, and stand patiently in the aisle (no halter or crossties needed) for hours while she was being body clipped.  During the last few years of her life, Nana slowed down significantly and became the low horse on the totem pole.  So, much to the frustration of her pasture-mates, Nana was let loose to  roam the farm outside the pastures in her slow, deliberate fashion, munching the best grass, walking in and out of the barn as she pleased, but never straying far from the rest of the herd.  Nana always had an open stall in the barn with bedding, hay, grain and water.  Each night, you could hear the clop, clop, clop of Nana moseying into her stall as the sun was setting.  Each morning, as the sun rose, sure enough there was the clop, clop, clop of Nana making her way out of the barn for a day of grazing.  We like to think it was as good a retirement as a horse could want.