The Story of Stone Ridge Arabians

Stone Ridge Arabians … How Dan And Maureen Grossman Built Their Dream
by Theresa Cardamone for The Arabian Horse Times

Maureen and Dan Grossman are Indiana residents by choice and by heritage. Although they have deep family ties to the Midwest, life had taken the Grossmans to a variety of settings as young adults. After meeting during their college years, they married and relocated to Texas, where they stayed until Dan finished his surgical residency. In 1980, they decided to return to their roots in Indiana, where they would nurture their family and establish themselves.

Maureen Grossman says that she gets her “horse energy” from her father, who was always bringing home grade horses (such as the unforgettable King Leonardo and Biggie Rat) from local auctions to see if they would work out. She remembers idyllic days where she and her sister raced half-broke horses across the fields, oblivious to any lurking squirrel hole or other hidden danger. Maureen’s first Arabian—who she fondly describes as “a bit of a knucklehead”—came her way as a pre-teen.

It was during her ensuing teenage years that Maureen enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Desert Count, the beautiful, dappled-grey, Raffles-bred gelding who inspired her enduring love for Arabian horses. He fulfilled her dreams of excellence by becoming a champion at her local 4-H fair. Her memories of those days are of a tight-knit family, where everyone was happily involved in the show experience. “At those shows, we unloaded the horse and tied him onto the trailer until it was time for our class,” Maureen recalls. “Everyone had their jobs to do; it really was a family affair.”

Following she and Dan’s move to Bloomington, Ind., Maureen began to roam the more rural outskirts until she spotted a For Sale sign in front of an old farm. The place was overgrown with briars and came complete with an amazing, 100-year old barn. Maureen raced home, convinced Dan that it was worth leaving the televised football game at half-time, and took him out to the site. The next thing they knew, they owned a farm in November 1983. They quickly purchased their first Arabian mare, a Witez II granddaughter named Popn Fresh Cy, who was in foal to Aabanat. A month later, the mare produced the Grossman’s first filly, Aabatez, and Stone Ridge Arabians was born.

With the unbridled enthusiasm of the newly initiated, Dan and Maureen attended a major horse auction at Lasma East in L’Esprit, Ky., later that summer. In what Maureen gently describes as “a great learning process,” they purchased 1981 World Champion Stallion Abdullahhh for a whopping $3.2 million. Over the next two years, the Grossmans found out the hard way that in the horse business, every expectation is not necessarily met when spontaneous purchases are made. Enter David Boggs, who found an eager Brazilian buyer for the stallion, creating a happy ending for all involved and establishing a close relationship with Dan and Maureen that continues to this day.

Stone Ridge Arabians is not only famous as a producer of world class halter horses, the family has always shown horses under saddle as well, earning a ridiculous number of national titles along the way. From the earliest days, the Grossmans were both passionate participants in the world of the Arabian horse. Maureen showed her wonderful mare Bella Angelfix to top ten English pleasure honors, and Danny showed their stallion Exceptionn to the U.S. National Champion AOTH title. They were a formidable force in the amateur ranks, as their daughters would be in the years to come.

The Grossmans continued to participate in every aspect of their growing business, acquiring a wealth of knowledge in the process. In the fall of 1992, they were sitting in the arena at the U.S. Nationals with David Boggs when he mentioned that the legendary Bey Shah was for sale. Danny took a minute to absorb the news, turned to Boggs, and said, “Let’s go buy him!” Although they were aware of what his breeding challenges might be, the Grossmans did not hesitate to step through the door of opportunity that owning such a famous and influential stallion opened for them. The sale was consummated by the end of the evening. With the purchase of Bey Shah, Stone Ridge Arabians entered a whole new dimension of the Arabian business.

Maureen remembers the surreal morning that Bey Shah arrived in Minnesota. “We had put him on an enormous 747 to fly him from California to stand at Midwest with David Boggs,” Maureen relates. “He arrived very early in the morning before the sun rose, so it was cold. But my whole family was there. We watched as the plane landed, then the nose cap slowly opened, and out came Bey Shah’s stall. It zoomed along on a little conveyor belt, straight into the trailer. The sun was rising the whole time. It was quite a morning!” The horse trailer was driven clear into the indoor arena at Midwest, where the still-occupied stall was unloaded. After a few minutes, the transport stall door was finally opened, and Bey Shah emerged for the first time.

“Do you know Bey Shah?” Maureen asks. “When we took him out, immediately the tail goes over his back, he’s snorting everywhere, it was just awesome. Danny took the lead and walked him all around, it really was great fun. Promoting him was exciting and was also a lot of hard work. He required special handling because he was 16 and only had one testicle when we bought him. But it was worth it because he produced amazing babies for us and even more so for other breeders.” The Grossman’s came up with the very successful idea of selling out the stallion’s breedings in packages, allowing buyers the option of using or reselling them as they wished.

After Bey Shah died, there wasn’t a lot of breeding activity at Stone Ridge. Instead, they concentrated on performance horses when both of their daughters began to ride and show. In the interim, they had acquired a couple of horses for Mo to ride including Taras Tribulation, who carried her to the Canadian National Championship in Half-Arabian English Pleasure. She had also purchased a talented horse for her 13 year old daughter Ashley (Anne Grossman Fox) to ride, then realized at the first show they attended that she was underhorsed. There were five past-national champions in that age group! Maureen decided to offer Ashley the opportunity to ride Mom’s A-string horses if she was willing to put in the hard work. They struck a bargain and from then on, the wins just kept on coming. Taras Tribulation added five more national championships and two reserves in the youth and amateur divisions. The Bey Shah son Stealth WCA contributed the U.S. Youth National Champion Gelding and top ten performance titles, and HL Justa Sparkle brought home multiple national champion English pleasure crowns, just to name a few.

Bella Angelfix was transformed into a country English pleasure horse and carried the Grossman’s other daughter Amy (Grossman Bostic) to a unanimous win as the U.S. Youth National Champion Country English Pleasure JOTR. It was a huge class, with some 70-80 horses competing in four sections for a chance to go to the finals. Maureen described watching the class as, “a perfect moment in time. The mare never put an ear back and was so happy. She liked to travel off the rail, which kept her out of the traffic and moving along with her four white socks flashing, cute as could be.”

When the girls went off to college, Maureen and Dan turned their focus to their son Rex Daniel Grossman III, who had developed an interest in football. It turned out that he had the talent and dedication to match. Rex was an exceptional player at the University of Florida—he was the Southeast Conference Player of the Year, A.P. National Player of the Year, and the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears, and got to start in the Super Bowl. Dan and Maureen had fun following him for the next decade, never missing a single game that Rex played in during his 11-year NFL career.

In the summer of 2004, something happened that would once again skyrocket Stone Ridge Arabians to the pinnacle of the business. “David Boggs has been monumental in helping us coordinate, plan, breed, purchase, sell, and all of the other things that you have to do in the horse business,” Maureen relates. “He’s been truly amazing and a very good friend. Even so, when he sent us a VHS tape of a yearling colt that summer, it sat on the kitchen counter for a few days before I looked at it.” Once she turned on the tape player, Maureen could hardly believe what she was seeing. “I was so excited, I called Danny at work, to tell him to hurry home so I could show him. We bought the colt within the week, sight unseen, from the videotape, knowing that David had already gone to see him.” No wonder the Grossmans were so impressed. The colt in the video was DA Valentino.

There were several interested parties looking at the colt, whose owner/breeder, Dolorosa Arabians, wanted to retain a half-interest. Maureen and Dan were willing to play by those rules, if they also had the ability to manage his career. While planning the next steps, the Grossmans jumped at the chance to buy out the other half, and DA Valentino was all theirs. “We took him to the U.S. Nationals in Louisville that October and David showed him to National Champion Yearling Colt over 42 other entries,” Maureen recalls. “That was the start of an amazing period with Valentino, who turned out to be one of the most important stallions in the industry.” DA Valentino was the Canadian National Champion Stallion as a three-year old in addition to being named U.S. National Champion Junior Stallion and U.S. National Champion Futurity Colt. He earned additional U.S. National Champion Stallion titles in 2007 and 2008.

Far from resting on his laurels as a show horse, DA Valentino has outdone himself as a sire. “In 2016, he had been gone for about five years and he was the U.S. Leading Halter Sire and he was the leading sire in Europe and the Middle East,” Maureen shares. “He is still going on and on with his babies.” DA Valentino has sired numerous national champions who have gone on to produce champions of their own, not only in the U.S., but also in Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. Maureen has a special place in her heart for one of Stone Ridge Arabians’ most decorated homebred champions. “Right before DA Valentino died, we bought an embryo right to the mare RD Fabreanna at a live auction. All the proceeds were going to support St. Jude Children’s Hospital, which was awesome because it was a win for everybody and we felt great about it. We collected Valentino to use for that breeding, which as it turned out, was his final one.”

The tragic loss of DA Valentino due to an embolism (blockage of a blood vessel) following an emergency hernia surgery had been a huge blow. Therefore, a lot of emotion was riding on the outcome of the mating. With great anticipation, the Stone Ridge team awaited the birth of RD Fabreanna’s foal. “Out popped this gorgeous filly that we named after my sister,” Maureen remembers. “The filly was tall and lanky, almost spider-like. The very first day, I was in love with her. I don’t know if anyone else does this, but whenever I name one of the babies, I think about what it will sound like when the announcer calls them out: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, here is your National Champion, Donna Molta Bella!’ It’s even more fun because it means, hot woman in Italian!”

Donna Molta Bella SRA made her first trip to the U.S. Nationals the next year. She won the yearling filly championship and was also named the U.S. National Champion Junior Mare. Once again, the horses of Stone Ridge Arabians were the catalyst for family fun. Maureen’s sister, Donna, started coming to the shows, which she hadn’t done before, and posing for the win pictures with her gorgeous namesake. The filly gave Donna more opportunities to enjoy the thrill of victory when she repeated her U.S. National Champion Junior Mare win and added the National Champion Two-Year-Old Filly award as well. Under the ownership of Al Saqran Stud of Sharjah, UAE, Donna Molta Bella SRA has lit up the show rings of Europe and the Middle East, including being named 2014 World Gold Champion Junior Mare in Paris.

“It has all been fun for us,” Maureen declares. “We have been super lucky and fortunate to have acquired these horses, and to have David to help us manage and promote them all. But we’ve worked hard at it and it’s been a lot of thought process, a lot of looking at horses and trying them on. We’ve certainly made mistakes along the way, too, but we’ve been lucky to have had some really great success.”

The Grossmans had to revamp and figure what to do after Valentino died. Their main objective was to breed only Valentino daughters. While they had several of their own, they also selected three others that they bought embryo rights to. The Valentino daughters were bred to five different stallions with equally stunning results, including the 2016 U.S. National Champion Yearling Filly, Pink Rose SRA. A daughter of Baahir El Marwan and DA Valencea, she was wonderfully shown by Alicides Rodrigues. Pink’s name also has a story behind it. She was born about five in the morning and the Grossmans were all standing around in their pajamas, all excited that she was a filly. Maureen’s suggestion to name her Pink Pajamas didn’t quite make it to the registration application, but the filly is still fondly known as Pink PJs. Her paternal half-sister Valaqatara SRA, by Abha Qatar, was top ten in the 2016 U.S. National Champion Futurity Filly finals, placing 3rd on the judge’s cards. Pazzazz SRA, by Stival, was recently named the 2017 Scottsdale Signature Champion Auction Yearling Colt, earning a $28,000 paycheck.

Things have not slowed down a bit for the Grossmans. Decades after establishing their family farm, their love affair with the Arabian horse is continuing full force. There is a special filly, SRA Susanne, named after Maureen’s mother. They anticipate great things when the QR Marc daughter from the Valentino mare, Valori TRF, makes her show debut at the Arabian Breeders World Cup in Las Vegas this April. They also have a beautiful, black, double-Afire Bey V performance mare, Dheir to Dream WA, who is sired by Afires Heir. The plan is for her to carry not only the Grossman’s daughter, but also their 5-year-old granddaughter to future victories. Meanwhile, a surrogate mare will be carrying Dheir to Dream’s foal by the Saddlebred champion, Nutcracker’s Nirvana.

With the eternal optimism of true breeders, Dan and Maureen Grossman will continue to move forward, availing themselves of the advice of their mentors and taking advantage of opportunities that come their way. They appreciate the wisdom they have received along the way, and pay tribute to their dedicated farm manager, Christina Rhoads, who has raised their foals with such tender care and love. But it is clear to all that it is the special bond and partnership that Dan and Maureen have forged in developing Stone Ridge Arabians over the years that is the true key to their success in the past, the present, and the future.