Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 20, 1990 TAG: 9006200084
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"If his legs give out, we can always show him for his tongue talent," said Gwen Schaefer, who owns the chestnut stallion with her husband, William.
Some humans can't roll their tongues as well as Supreme Odyssey. He was just goofing around Tuesday evening at the Salem Civic Center, his stout tongue hanging from his mouth as Gwen Schaefer flipped it back and forth with one of her fingers.
Supreme Odyssey might be called the Michael Jordan of show horses, what with his prominent tongue. But even that title might be too pedestrian for the four-time world champion.
"He owns the world, and he's not going to give it up," Gwen Schaefer said. "At least not easily. He's definitely an attitude man."
She will show Supreme Odyssey tonight at the Roanoke Valley Horse Show in the Amateur Fine Harness class. In that event, Gwen said, the rider and horse are judged on quality, performance and manners, in that order. The horse, pulling the rider in a buggy, is expected to perform fancy show trots, a prancing walk and a slow, controlled trot, then get in line and stand quietly.
That's where Supreme Odyssey becomes Dennis the Menace.
"My horse has not learned how to stand quietly," Gwen Schaefer said, mildly annoyed but smiling. "He has to play."
So far, though, Supreme Odyssey's devilish behavior hasn't soured many judges. He and Gwen Schaefer are the reigning world champions in the Amateur Fine Harness class, which they also won in 1988. That year, they won the Ladies' Fine Harness title for the second straight year.
But the odyssey has not always been as enjoyable as this horse's name might indicate. In 1987, when Gwen Schaefer first saw him, Supreme Odyssey didn't have the attitude he shows today.
"Nobody had any faith in him. He was just a nothing, no titles," she said. "I saw him off-balance on a turn [during a show], and there was something I liked about him.
"When he was out of the stall, he just stood there not realizing he was even a horse. But when he got in the ring, he felt better about himself."
Now, Supreme Odyssey is just short of arrogant, stomping for more attention when already the object of affection of his owners and the scrutiny of a photographer. But it's precisely that spirit, Gwen Schaefer said, that keeps her in the sport.
The Schaefers have shown horses as a hobby for about 21 years - after their children, Joy C. Schaefer Teal and William Schaefer Jr. got their parents hooked. Three years after they started showing horses, William Schaefer sold the family business, which produced Schaefer beer. The Stroh's brewery makes Schaefer beer now, but 18 years doesn't necessarily sever all ties. William Schaefer works in real estate and financial management now, but the pen and pencil stuck in his shirt pocket bear the red and gold Schaefer Beer logo on the clips.
"It's in my blood. It'll always be there," he said.
The Schaefers showed 13 horses 10 years ago. They have just two at the Roanoke show out of Misty Hill Farm in Troy, N.Y. - Supreme Odyssey and Cocoamotion, who recently won his class at the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair in Devon, Pa. Another Schaefer-owned horse, Simply Marvelous, rides out of a Kentucky stable. The Schaefers bought him from actor William Shatner.
The horses don't come cheaply.
"Same church, different pew," William Schaefer said when asked how the prices of show horses compared to the millions sometimes spent on thoroughbreds. "You can buy a tame little backyard horse for $500 and have a lot of fun . . . at one-day shows. Then you can go to the ridiculous, upwards of $250,000-$350,000."
The Schaefers first brought their horses to Roanoke in 1987 and returned in 1988. But they did not come back in 1989 because, Gwen said, they were showing just one horse at the time and didn't feel the 10-hour drive was worth it. But that doesn't mean the Schaefers brush off the Roanoke event.
"We fell absolutely, immediately in love with it [in '87]," William Schaefer said. "It's fun to show here."
It's probably more fun to win, as the Schaefers will try to do with Supreme Odyssey and Cocoamotion. For a clue to how the Schaefers feel about their horses, take Gwen's answer when she was asked if Cocoamotion was competing tonight, as is his stablemate.
"No, Thursday," she said, grinning. "One star at a time."
by CNB