"She was just so willing. You could just back her up, you didn’t have to put any pressure on the shank or anything else. You’d just think, think her backward, and she would do it, and she wouldn’t stop until you gave the indication. She would lunge at all her gaits in perfect rhythm and never, ever, gave us reason to right with her."

"Yes, it was definitely the toughest thing that I’ve ever had to do, to turn loose of that mare, and it was only because I knew Sartain and the type of people he associated with could benefit the mare far more than I could. She’s been in the finest hands in the entire world. She deserves that. I did love her so. Boy, I loved her."

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. – George Orwell

Terry Sartain of Switz City, Ind., stood in the Washington arena in early 1981 waiting for the yearling fillies to finish their entrance. It was a big yearling futurity with many big-name trainers and between 30-40 horses. He remembered thinking they’d never stop coming through the door. But just as he finished the thought, in walked Joe Bard, a man Sartain had never seen before, leading a little black filly.

The judge could tell Joe didn’t have much experience showing, but then again, his eyes weren’t fixed on the handler. He saw the prettiest neck and head he’s looked at on any mare; the neck was set on just right. From a profile, he couldn’t pick the filly apart at any place. Her hocks were set up under her; she showed balance and strength over the loin, the top line, the hip. She was very level, very correct. All these details, Sartain noted in one glance.

"She just kind of showed herself; she found something to look at way down there at the other end of the arena, and she propped up like a model statue. I walked around her one time and knew I was going to win the class with her. I just knew she was the right one. So after I got through walking around the rest of them, I came back to her, and I told Joe, ‘Take this mare right there in front.’ To make a long story short, he won the class with her, and she won that futurity. Old Joe had a grin on his face as big as Dallas."

After he finished judging the show the next day, Sartain says he couldn’t get the little black filly off his mind. She asked the show secretary who owned the mare and how she was bred. She told him about the Bards and also dropped a bomb on Sartain.

"She said, ‘Terry, do you understand that that’s the first time that mare’s ever won a halter class in her life?’ And I look at her, and I said, ‘Well, Betty, let me tell you something else. It won’t be the last class she ever wins. If you ever talk to this old boy again and he decides to sell that mare, have him give me a call.’"

Sartain says about two months later, Joe gave him a call in Texas wanting to sell Sirpent. The judge asked him how much he wanted for the filly, Joe asked for $5,000 and Sartain agreed, all by phone.

After he acquired the filly, he started working with Sirpent, and the two attended their first show together in September 1981 at the Oklahoma State Fair. At that event, Blue Lanam and For Love of Tee, another yearling filly who had won junior reserve grand champion mare at the 1981 National Show in San Antonio, Texas, entered the yearling fillies class with Sartain and Sirpent. Incredibly, Sirpent won the class, and For Love Of Tee took second. On top of that, Sartain’s new filly also took junior grand. (What would have happened had Sirpent competed For Love of Te at the 1981 National?)

After that win, Sartain took Sirpent back to Texas. Since the filly didn’t qualify for the World that year, he left her at home until January 1982, not showing her at all until then. But during the hiatus, Sartain had a chance to put a saddle on Sirpent two or three times. What he saw pleased him.

"The first time I ever saddled her and got on her, she just dropped her little old head out there and trotted off, jigged off. So I told the girls who worked for me at that point in time, '‘his will be a fancy, fancy mare under saddle. You probably haven’t seen the best part of this mare yet.' I knew that she’d be a tremendous halter mare and a tremendous performance mare. In fact, I believed it so much I called Clint Haverty and told him about the mare, and I also call Wes Wetherell."

Unfortunately, Sartain wouldn’t have the filly when she proved his words true. In January, he took her to the Fort Worth Southern Exposition Stock Show to compete with 2-year-old fillies. Despite he absence from the show ring, Sirpent won the class. It was here that he was approached by Quarter Horse and Appaloosa handler Ted Turner; he wanted to buy the filly.

"Ted took her right after Fort Worth – I sold her for a lot of money; I sold her for $25,000. He either bought her for Crown Center Farms or bought her for himself and then later on, a month later, sold her to Crown Center."

"She was a tremendous mare. She was probably the easiest mare I ever showed in my life. You could take this mare, prop all four legs up under her, and she’d find something the farthest distance away to look at. And she’d never unlatch her ears. She was just great to show; I just loved the little mare. She was unreal. She was probably the only mare I ever had in my barn that just didn’t make any mistakes."

Bill Laurie and his wife, Nancy of Crown Center Farms, in Columbia, Mos., were in the market for a halter horse in March 1982. After observing Sirpent move, Laurie knew she could compete in much more than halter.

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