Outside the arena, Laurie says Sirpent was nice to look at, but not exceptional. Perhaps it was because she was so quiet and relaxed. But get her into the ring, and she turned the shine on.

"She had the attitude when she went into the show pen that she would show her expression, show everyone that she was the best mare in there. She was very, very good at showing presence in the show arena, whether it be riding or halter. She would seem to almost swell up, look bigger and stronger, go beyond what she really was. Any good performance horse or good halter horse has that capability of being able to rise to the occasion, and she did."

Sirpent met their expectations and then some. Under Crown Center Farms’ ownership, Sirpent earned the national and world championships in 1982 in 2-year-old fillies. Laurie says he knew it was well within Sirpent’s abilities to win the bronze medallion. She had the right ingredients. Her best quality was her kindness and her ability to forgive anything. She also carried enthusiasm into anything asked of her, along with an easy disposition.

"We though the mare had a lot of quality, and at that time she was a very pretty mare. Under the right circumstances, we felt like she could win a medallion in halter, and as it turned out, she did."

The mare didn’t stop there; the Lauries pointed her in the direction of riding after her smashing success I halter. The first step was introducing Sirpent to Clint and Liz Haverty. It was because of their training that the mare matched her riding potential as well, Laurie says.

"She was a mare that would do whatever you wanted to do with her. She was an easy keeper, as far as feeding habits go. If you wanted to bit her up and put her in a halter class, you could feed her and sweat her neck a little, and she would go out and lunge and just enjoy that. If you wanted to put a saddle o her and go out and ride her, she enjoyed that also. She was a lot of fun to be around because she was a mare’s mare; she just had the right kind of attitude."

Crown Center Farms didn’t plan to sell Sirpent to Joe and Julie Powell, but Laurie says the couple made an offer that was in keeping with the mare’s abilities.

"We had showed her in halter; she was a medallion winner. We just really got cranked up and geared toward the riding aspect of it with her, and it was going pretty nice. At that time, we weren’t looking to see her, but we put a price tag on her that we felt like if somebody wanted to own her, they could. As it turned out, the Powells paid the money that we asked, and we sold her. It was $50,000 or $60,000, which was a considerable amount in those days."

"Probably, if we look back on it, I still wish we owned her because she did very well as a show horse, and her potential as a broodmare has been basically untouched. She’s produced nice babies out of everything she’s been bred to, and she’s capable of raising world champion riding horses or world champion halter horses as well. She was such a quiet riding horse that took very little riding to prepare her to show in a show ring. She would have been an ideal walk-trot horse for my daughter because she was such a well-mannered mare that allowed anybody to ride her. Sirpent has a very big heart."

The big heart is apparent in her loving manner with people, Laurie says. And her love rubs off on her owners; he believes that anything Sirpent has achieved or will achieve, she deserves. "There’s never been a horse, I don’t think, that we’ve ever owned that deserves any good thing more so than Sirpent. Anybody that cares one thing about a horse could not help but care for Sirpent. She just fits in, whatever, the circumstances might be. She has her own way of doing things that allows her to blend in and be very good."

The night Clint Haverty of Krum, Texas, won the silver medallion for junior western pleasure on Sirpent at the 1984 World, he was sore. He had just gotten his foot out of a cast the week before and couldn’t wait to get off the mare so he could get his leg up. But he was also extremely excited; he knew he could win the championship with her. He and his wife, Liz, had ridden the mare about two years before this World Show, and in Haverty’s mind, she was ready. The time was just plain ripe for getting the silver.

"I had every confidence in the world that I’d win it on the mare; it was just a matter of when. There’s so many factors when you show at the World or Nationals. You’ve got to have a good set of judges, everything has to come down to where you have a really nice trip."

"This mare that night gave me an outstanding trip. In fact, she gave me outstanding trips up there both times in the eliminations and the finals. If I remember right, this mare was first under all the cards, al the way across the board in the eliminations and the finals. I’m pretty sure that’s right, because that’s only happened to me on e other time, and that was with Sun Down Q (in 1983)."

Bill Laurie of Crown Center Farms sent Sirpent to the Havertys to ride in 1983, then Joe and Julie Powell bought the mare while she was still in their barn. Haverty’s first impression of Sirpent was extremely favorable – he saw a beautiful mare.

"She was a big-eyed mare, black in color, spots over the hips, just a big, elegant, graceful lady. She looked like a big ballerina. Just one of the few great mares I’ve had an opportunity to be around in my lifetime, and I’ve been riding horses for 25 years now. I’ve got less than a handful of horses that stick out in my mind, and this mare is certainly one of them. And soft, gosh you could walk up to her and push her over with a feather."

Haverty said Sirpent was easy to train and extremely willing as well as one of the smartest animals he’d come in contact with. The mare won every major show across the country in junior western pleasure and also did quite well in English pleasure classes, and that was back when 20 or 30 top-quality junior pleasure horses per class was common.

"She’s a great mare, you bet she was," he says. "She’s a nice mare to ride, an easy mare to ride. She’s a lady. So many of these mares aren’t ladies. This mare was truly a lady. I don’t believe I know of a person that’s come in contact with this mare that didn’t have a lot of nice things to say."

Sirpent has seen quite a bit of campaign trail in her time, Steiner says. Sirpent was 2 when she earned her first bronze medallion. At 4, she entered the performance arena and picked up her silver medallion in the process. At 7, she came back stronger than ever as a national broodmare champion. And last year, at 10, she extended her talents to trail. These achievements speak volumes about the mare’s form.

"Not a lot of horses hold their figures that well," she says, laughing.

Steiner’s future plans will involve letting Sirpent continue to be a broodmare, perhaps to pursue a bronze production plaque with her, something she thinks won’t be hard, considering the potential her foals have. Sirpent can also help Steiner’s goddaughter learn how to show. But other than that, Steiner says the mare has shown the world what she can accomplish. "What else is there left to prove?" she asks.

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