ISR-Oldenburg Registry NA inspectors granted Arabian stallion OKW Entrigue+++// lifetime breeding approval, concurring that his breeder’s goals to create both a beautiful and an extremely athletic horse had been achieved.
At the June inspection at Starr Vaughn Equestrian Center in Elk Grove, the 15.1 hand gray stallion scored 215.5 points, which placed him third among 10 stallions and made him only the second Arabian to receive lifetime approval.

OKW Entrigue+++//, nicknamed “Ricky,” was exempt from the breed organization’s required 100-day testing because of his scores at Prix St. Georges and Intermediaire I. Instead he was inspected in-hand and in a riding test.
Trainer Patience Prine-Carr of Castroville recalls the experience: “When he first was trotted out on the triangle, he was shaking his head because he didn’t like the bridle I had on him. The inspectors were showing no expression. They asked that he go again. Then Ricky got his act together and when he trotted you could see their expressions change, as if they were thinking ‘Wow.’”
When he was turned loose to trot at liberty, a friend overheard an inspector comment, “Now, that’s eye candy.”
In the riding test, Patience was concerned about the inspectors’ reactions. “They said I did very well, but I didn’t know if they just liked his training. Then when they announced the designations, the inspector said he had never seen an Arabian trot like that,” she relates. “He said he also liked his topline and the slope of his hip. He was built uphill and his croup isn’t flat or uphill like some Arabians.”
Ricky found his way to the inspection in response to several Warmblood mare owners who had watched him compete successfully at Intermediaire I in open shows and expressed interest in breeding to him, but only if he was approved by a Warmblood registry.
“He has a lot to offer the Warmblood breeds, especially refinement and his wonderful motion. He has a great mind and a good work ethic. Now with approval, his foals will be recognized in other breeds and be registered as a Half Arabian,” explains breeder/owner Mary Jo Wertheimer of Oakwerth Arabians in Woodinville, WA.
“The whole package makes Ricky special,” Mary Jo describes. “He is a beautiful Arabian and he is doing extraordinarily athletic things in a very difficult discipline.”
Patience adds, “He loves his job and he is built so well that it comes so easy. When you tell him he is good, he gets all puffed up. He loves going in the arena by himself. When he does an exhibition or his freestyle, like at the Arabian Sport Horse Nationals, and the people applaud, he puffs up.”
Ricky’s owner Mary Jo sees him as a goodwill ambassador for the Arabian breed. “He is making contributions to how people perceive Arabians. He’s a stallion and yet anyone can walk up to him and pet him. He loves people.”
Today Ricky competes at Arabian and open dressage shows at Intermediaire I. Working with FEI rider and ‘r’ dressage judge Heidi Gaian of Hollister, Ricky and Patience are schooling Grand Prix movements.
“He can do 15 one-tempi changes if I can concentrate. We are learning together,” says Patience, who is an “R” Arabian judge. “He is so smart that he has things before I do.”
For Sale? Not!
The ISR registry is not the only Warmblood organization that has recognized the stallion’s potential contributions. At the Arabian show in Scottsdale, AZ, this year, a group of spectators from Denmark followed Ricky back to the barn after a class and asked if he was for sale. Patience said “No.”
“When I got home I had an e-mail from the Blue Hors Stud in Denmark. They felt they had to explain who they were: that they had a horse (Blue Hors Matine) that was second at the World Equestrian Games. Of course I knew that and almost fell off my chair that they e-mailed,” Patience laughs.
Blue Hors offered $120,000 for Ricky. “Mary Jo said the offer didn’t excite her,” Patience recalls. “If they offered five times as much, she might talk.”
The match Mary Jo made to produce Ricky had a slightly different intention. A pure Polish breeding, Ricky’s father, Allience, is a national champion park horse. “He has a lot of motion and his breeding goes back to the greats Aladdin and *Bask, both park horses. The dam (*Ekspresja) line is beauty and great solid Polish bloodlines. The Polish horses are noted for sensible minds and for extreme athleticism. And I think that all comes through with Ricky,” Mary Jo says.
In keeping with his breeding, Ricky began life under saddle with an eye on a career as an English Pleasure horse. “But he was too loose with too much extension for an English horse,” describes Patience, who began her career as a competitor in the main ring of Arabian shows. “When I got him he had shoeing to get him to snap his knees up instead of throwing his feet out.”
Mary Jo confirms Patience’s initial assessment. “He didn’t have the up-down motion that an Arabian english horse needs. He had the more extended, floating action. So we wanted to see if his niche was dressage and sent him to Patience.”
When Patience got Ricky in training, he was for sale and not a very happy horse. She showed him Training Level. “He was okay. He didn’t excite me. He didn’t want to be in a low and round Training Level frame and he needed more to do. So after a couple of months, I was doing more upper level work with him. He learned flying changes in one day. The more he learned, the more his temperament changed. He liked to think about things and liked what he was doing. Having him less than a year, I showed him at Scottsdale Second and Third level. At that point I was now thinking I should buy him.”
Ricky has since won many championships. Among his accomplishments he is the 2006 Arabian Sport Horse National Champion at Intermediaire I with a score of 67.5 percent, Pebble Beach Dressage Show Intermediaire I Perpetual Trophy winner and Arabian Region 1, 2 and Pacific Slopes Champion in Prix St. Georges and I-1.
And he is no longer up for sale.