High Point Horse at the Ninth Annual ERAHC Show

"He’s cute!" my friend Gloria Stansberry said about the 14 month old Andalusian colt that I was considering for 14 month old Andalusian colt that I was considering for Rey, a descendent of Capital XIII. It seemed proper to have a knowledgeable person look at this colt. Gloria Stansberry was a good choice to view this horse, as she was a rider, a scholar, and a good judge of horseflesh.  Her riding background, however, was dressage and fox hunting in the Cleveland area and the Andalusian conformation seemed entirely new to her. Her comments were quite reserved. My background was in art, and so I looked at Rey for his lines, his eyes, his head, and his kind disposition.

Over the next few months we made repeated visits to see Rey canter about the indoor arena where he was stabled.  Finally, my husband Jack suggested that the colt would make a fine Christmas present. We contacted the colt’s owner, Lucy Cress, who had bred Banbury Luther to Banbury Gitana and had named the offspring Gitano Rey.  -- the Gypsy King.

At Christmas, Gitano Rey became the first Andalusian in Northwestern Pennsylvania. Nancy Roch would be Rey’s trainer. Nancy had ridden horses for years, trained horses for the track, majored in equine studies in college and had ridden on the first Women’s Indoor Polo Team at Cornell University. Andalusians were to become a new part of her life. She later purchased Banbury Evita for a brood mare and Evita’s second foal by Rey is due in 2002.

Rey grew to be slightly more than 15-1 H and his looks changed several times before he was seven years old.  His adult life includes breeding as well as training. He now has thirteen foals on the ground with four more due next summer. Rey’s confirmation is that of the bullfighter’s horse; he has good bone, is short-coupled and has an alert eye. He enjoys doing the extended trot and is a comfortable ride. On trails, Rey likes a nice lope as well as an extended gallop.

Lucy Cress phoned me a year after I bought Rey and said that a mahogany bay mare owned by Sally Cleaver was at Lucy’s farm and was for sale. I bought Banbury Piruetta and she and Rey produced three gray foals. Each of these gray geldings is nearing a point in their training that makes all three candidates for future Eastern Region shows. Sincerrey Diego was the first of these geldings and he is owned by Gloria Stansberry, who is riding Diego on trails and in dressage. Diego was in several Miguel Tavora clinics this summer. (Gloria, who was hesitant to voice an opinion on Rey in 1991, now owns three of Rey’s offspring.) The second gelding by Rey and Piruetta is Sincerrey Eason, owned by Terri Vittorini of Billings, New York. Terri is working this year with Bettina Drummond. Eason recently received High point Horse Award for Intro Tests in dressage at Tymor Equestrian Center. Terri e-mails often to report on Eason’s escapades in the pasture, where he plays the clown. The youngest of the three geldings is owned by Suzanne Edwards, who served as a very busy aide-de-camp to Gale Hinton at the ERAHC show at Lexington.

Rey was High Point Horse at Lexington in 1999. This year he was High Point Spanish Horse and won the Overall High Point Horse Award and the Linda and Joaquin Rodriquez Trophy. He was trained by Nancy and her thirteen-year old daughter, Melanie Roch.

An eight hour ride northwest from Lexington brought Rey home to Sincerrey Stables  near Grove City, Pennsylvania. His post-show activities include a September 19 photo session where he will don his Spanish saddle for a video to be presented at Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. Rey will be shown in this video with Dr. Sandra Olsen, Carnegie Department of Anthropology, whose current research is about the horses and culture of Kazakhstan. Sandi’s interests, however, include horses from many time periods and countries and she will add Rey to her list of equine friends.  Following a quiet winter at Sincerrey Stables, Rey will return to work next spring in preparation for the Lexington 2002 show. It has been a pleasure to own this versatile Andalusian stallion these past ten years.

Certificate of Registration 
Purebred Andalusian Horse 
American Andalusian and Lusitano 
Horse Association Registry for Gitano Rey

Cresswood Gitano Rey ridden
by Melanie Roch