His name means “one who makes merry” in Spanish, and at the $30,0000 Pin Oak II Grand Prix, the young horse Parrandero lived up to the moniker as he and JohnPerez topped a field of 26 at the Pin Oak Charity II in Katy, Texas, Mar. 30-Apr. 3.

The victory marked just the fourth grand prix start for Parrandero, an 8-year-old gelding by the Holsteiner Contender. “It was simply the right moment and the right horse,” said Perez, 30, a Colombian native who lives in Mexico City. “He was jumping incredibly and turning really well. The turns made the difference here, I think.”

Parrandero had the advantage of being the last of 10 to go in the jump-off. Perez knew he’d have to top the three double-clean trips that preceded him–Belynda Bond on Sea Cove, Angel Karolyi on Nouba, and Bjorn Ikast on Monte Cristo.

The 17-hand Parrandero answered the call with a dazzling display of agility and speed–clocking in almost a second faster than the leading time and rewarding the thunderously applauding fans who were on hand to help celebrate the 60th anniversary of the tradition-steeped Pin Oak shows. (More than $80,000 was raised at this year’s charity event, which benefited Texas Children’s Hospital and Ronald McDonald House.)

Perez, a 20-year veteran of the sport, has only been riding Parrandero for two months. The pair contested two of the Friday $30,000 grand prix classes at the HITS Desert Circuit (Calif.) this winter, claiming one seventh place. Then, in the $30,000 Pin Oak I Grand Prix on March 26, Parrandero collected eight faults in the first round.

“He’s becoming more careful each time out without giving up any of his enormous scope,” said Perez, who is eyeing the 2006 World Equestrian Games for Enrique Gonzalez’s horse. “He’s still pretty green, but he’s certainly got a lot of the scope to do it.”

After Pin Oak, Perez and Parrandero will return to Mexico for two months of well-earned rest, then it’s on to Spruce Meadows (Alta.) this summer to log more grand prix miles.

Stars Of Texas

Pin Oak triumphs were certainly not in short supply for hometown girl Emma Roberts, 11. She walked off with the best child rider on a pony award and the pony jumper tricolor.

Roberts’ pony jumper, Jumping Bean, is continuing the “bean streak” begun by her Cool Beans, who was the USEF small pony hunter national champion last year. Jumping Bean, a.k.a. “Taco,” was originally intended to be a medium pony hunter when Roberts’ mother and trainer, Patty, bought him last year. But it soon became clear that Taco was more suited for the less sedate side of the pony world.

“He likes being a jumper! And he’s not afraid to jump anything. He sometimes wants to take over because he’s so excited to jump. He has a great attitude,” said Roberts of the 7-year-old French import who came from Mindy Darst of Ohio.

Given her myriad duties as president of the Pin Oak Charity Horse Show, it’s remarkable that Lynn Walsh even found the time to win the amateur-owner hunter, 36 & over tricolor with her Ocean Park. “Parker” also earned the regular working championship with Walsh’s trainer, Peter Pletcher, in the irons.

Last fall, Parker collected an impressive string of tricolors and high-point awards. Because of her warmblood’s national reputation, “I feel extra pressure every time I enter the show ring!” Walsh admitted with a laugh.

“But Parker takes great care of me. He’s so straight and so solid, like riding a big sofa–and he rarely does anything silly. He’s just the best partner I could possibly have.” Walsh, who lives with her husband and 14-year-old son on 14 acres in an equestrian enclave an hour north of Houston, rewards her two show horses with frequent trail rides through the pines. “It’s so good for them to get out of the confines of a ring,” she said.

Bernadette Mulliken and her adult amateur hunter, 36-45 champion, First Monday, also enjoy getting away from the show ring. Mulliken and “Monday” live in Plainview, in the Texas Panhandle, “in the middle of nowhere,” as Mulliken describes it.

The enormous dairy farm ranch setting, where Monday lives with some 6,000 head of cattle, has the added bonus of helping the 14-year-old warmblood become virtually bombproof. “Not all horses take too well to my cows,” chuckled Mulliken. “But Monday does. That’s not to say that they’re his favorite, but they don’t send him into a spin, either!”

Mulliken’s riding experience began in a 4-H Club, which ran the gamut of both Western and English events. She switched to hunters during college, but “the horsemanship training that I got in 4-H was incredibly valuable,” said Mulliken. She now passes on those lifelong lessons to her 15-year-old daughter Alexandria, who recently moved up from ponies to horses and 8-year-old Meredith, who will start riding soon.

New Faces, Familiar Faces

Caroline Searcy is no newcomer to showing year-round at elite competitions from East to West. But this was the 17-year-old’s first time showing in Texas, and her trainer Kim Burnette-Mitchell said, with a laugh, “Caroline loves it here. I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to drag her away.”

Contributing to Searcy’s warm feelings toward the Lone Star state might be her Pin Oak coups on Dancing Tigress, the children’s hunter, 14-17 champion and children’s hunter classic winner, and Tab Hunter, the large junior hunter, 16-17, champion.

Dancing Tigress, or “Emily,” 9, is a 16.1-hand, warmblood mare owned by a client of Burnette-Mitchell at her Kimberden Farm, while “Tab” is an aged, 16.3-hand warmblood who originated as a sale horse but so endeared himself to the Kimberden crew that they decided to keep him. Tab has reciprocated, winning a tricolor at every show the pair has entered.

“Tab is one of my favorite horses of all time,” said the exuberant Searcy, who’s ridden the horse for a year. “He does the same job every day, the same way. We’ve really bonded.”

Searcy hasn’t had the ride on Emily quite as long, but she’s figured the mare out quickly. “She’s honest, brave and 100 percent all the time. She’s so easygoing–we go around with a loop in the reins and a rubber snaffle,” said Searcy, who also rode junior jumpers Husky and Woodlands High Voltage at the show.

Originally from Alabama, Searcy is so devoted to riding that in 2000 she took up permanent residency with her trainers, Burnette-Mitchell and Dennis Mitchell, who became like her adopted parents. Home-schooled from then until her recent graduation, Searcy’s eschewed college plans in favor of learning the business well enough that she might someday take the helm at Kimberden or a show stable of her own.

Olivia Herbert, who was the children’s hunter, 13 & under champion with her horse All About Alfie, has more short-term goals. She wants “to come out of the ring with a smile every time,” she said.

The 13-year-old Herbert has had plenty to smile about since acquiring “Alfie,” a 10-year-old, Holsteiner gelding, at the end of 2004. Herbert, who trains with Kate Lambert-Boone at Irish Day Farm near Houston, said she’s learning to sit still on Alfie and to deal with the challenge that “he tends to change speeds a lot. But he’s really friendly, cute and fun to ride. I knew I wanted him when I was trying him out and I asked him to take a fence from a really bad spot, without meaning to. But he took it anyway.”

Susie Foster didn’t have long to figure out Posh–she’d only ridden the horse a few times before piloting him to the adult amateur hunter, 18-35 tricolor. The 18-year-old from Spring, Texas, had sold her amateur-owner horse, Cartier, in preparation for entering Baylor University (Texas) in the fall (where she’ll ride on the school’s newly-sanctioned NCAA equestrian team).

So Pletcher offered Foster the ride on Mary Sances’ Posh at Pin Oak. Foster rose to the occasion, squeezing in a few practice sessions on the 9-year-old, warmblood gelding before showing.

“Posh is mostly pushbutton, although he needs a little reassurance over the fences. He’ll pretty much do any distance, long or short. I’m thrilled and honored that Peter trusted me enough to show a horse for him, because I think the world of Peter,” said Foster.

Keeping Winning In The Family

Winning both the championship and reserve in the adult amateur hunter, 46 & over division–on Nicholas and Harvest, respectively–was an unexpected delight for Laura Beckworth of Houston, Texas. The former attorney grew up in the devoted riding and showing Hobby family but had put aside equestrian pursuits during law school and while working and raising her three non-riding sons (now ages 16, 18 and 20) with husband John.

Beckworth credits her sister, Kate Gibson, for urging her back to the sport a few years ago–and credits both Gibson and trainer Pletcher for giving her the confidence to stick with it. “Both Nicholas and Harvest were Kate’s amateur horses at various times before they came to me,” Beckworth explained. “I’m very fortunate. By the time any horse has gone through both the ‘Kate filter’ and the ‘Peter filter,’ they’re just about perfect!”

Nicholas, an 11-year-old warmblood, “jumps the same no matter where he leaves the ground,” said Beckworth. “He’s very consistent and very careful; he doesn’t like to hit the jumps. And Harvest is my Steady Eddie! He might be a little frisky on the first day out, but he’s generally a point-and-kick.”

Beckworth’s niece, Carson Gibson, 10, is one of several youngsters representing the family’s third generation of riders. At Pin Oak, Gibson’s Me & My Shadow claimed the large pony hunter championship and won the pony hunter classic. Gibson bought “Shadow,” a 13-year-old Welsh-Thoroughbred cross, last summer from Don Stewart and Bibby Farmer Hill.

Since then, Gibson said, “I’ve kind of figured out most of what Shadow does. But she can be different every day, which you have to adjust to. Really, though, she’s just about perfect. And at this show, she did everything I told her to.”

Family ties abounded at Pin Oak, including the brother-sister pair of Chris and Erin Nelson of Flower Mound, Texas, who train with Mike McCormick and Tracey Fenney. Chris, 14, took the large junior hunter, 15 & under championship on Barbara Allen’s Final Entry, while Erin, 13, rode to the small junior hunter tricolor on her own Everything Carolina.

An eighth-grader who only started riding in 2002, Chris–who has aspirations of some day becoming a professional rider/trainer–likes having his sister with him at the shows (along with parents Debbie and Mike Nelson). “You always have someone to talk to who can relate to what you’re going through,” he said.

Of her 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, “Lux,” Erin said, “I love Lux because of his everchanging personality. I never know what kind of mood he will be in when I ride him, but I can always count on the fact that he will be glad to see me. From the moment I first got on Lux, I knew it would be a challenge, but it was a nice challenge. We just have this special bond that I don’t have with all the other horses I get on.”