Did you guess right?
A True Treasure, is what most people call her. Meet Sabino!
First on the Polocrosse scene with Krii (Hendricks) Black, in 1994 American Polocrosse Nationals, in Kerrville, TX!
Bred, raised and trained by Wendy Hendricks Pelton, former USA World Cup Playing Team Member.
Wendy was 13 when Sabino was born. Sabino is an POA/ Arab cross. Small but mighty and faster than any of the big Hendricks Polocrosse horses in the pastures of their Colorado based farm!
Sabino has been a huge contributor to the juniors who have been blessed to call her their own! She has played with 7, so far!
Judy Hendricks, Wendi’s mom, recalls that they always loaded her last one in the trailer and first one out! They would laugh at the way Sabino pushed her way into the trailer and “made a hole” to make sure she went to go play polocrosse!
In 1994, Krii attended a Graham Spackman & Graham Bennett clinic, where they taught her how to stop on Sabino. After that, the two of them were a pair to compete against! After Krii played Sabino, her brother Dylan Hendricks had a go on her, pictured below.
After Dylan, Sabino played with Ashely (Masters) Schmidt, pictured below.
Ashely, Krii, and Dylan would not only enjoy her on the field, but loved hanging out with Sabino off the field. The three of these kids rode Beaner, as she is fondly called, all the time. Judy Hendricks, recalled the thousands of miles that Beaner has put on with the three of those kids! She also recalls two stories that she shared with us:
One day the kids were out on the farm and Dylan came running into the house in a panic! ‘Juju, Ashley fell off and I think she’s dead’… Amazing I didn’t have a heart attack getting to the barn… he and Krii were trying to move a hay bale and they put Ash on Beaner and tied the hay bale to her breast collar… HUGE WRECK!
By the time I got to the barn, Ash was brushing herself off and mad as a hornet… I think that’s about the only thing Beaner ever did anything the kids didn’t like…
Well… Except for the time she ran off with Ashley (She did like to run!)… She headed to that barn and Jimmy couldn’t catch her on his big TB… Wendi, just yelled….’hang on, Ash’… She did… lots of fun memories with that little pony!
Judy also said: I couldn’t even say how many times Wendi turned down really big bucks for Sabino.. she got and offer on her at just about every tournament we went to. She elected not to ever sell Sabino so that she could bring her back home if she was ever not taken care of.
Ashley outgrew her, Wendi loaned her to Audrey Schmidt for Dominic to play on. Then Tallie Thompson started to ride and learn to play on her!
From Tallie, she went to the Shuttles kids- Aubrey and then onto Haydon.
Sabino brings smiles on Aubrey Shuttles- pictures above and Haydon Shuttles pictured below.
The Hendrick’s Family who introduced her into Polocrosse commented: We’re are all very happy to watch her bring young ones into the sport and we were especially happy at the way Renee Thompson and everyone has taken care of her. -Thank you
After all, polocrosse is a family sport and sometimes in more ways than thought of. Sabino is family, she even wishes sometimes that she had a bedroom inside the house!
She is loved by more people than are probably imaginable. Her feisty attitude, self preserving ways, kind, fun loving, and agreeable characteristics have made her special and a huge contributor to American Polocrosse.
Recently, Sabino has reported to the USA Polocrosse Team, that she is getting ready for the Polocrosse season to start and looks forward to more juniors to take under her wing!