COLIDA
Appaloosa Stallion
 

Registration:  ApHC #7681
Foaled:   April 15, 1957
Died:      July 8, 1982
Color:     Bay

"Colida Passes"

Colida, 7681, an Appaloosa great ever since winning grand champion stallion honors at the 1963 National Show, died July 8 at Bill Cass's Circle Lazy C Ranch, Welch, Oka. Colida had not been ill, according to Cass, but simply succumbed to old age. He was foaled in 1957. News of Colida's passing reached those attending the 35th National Show in Louisville, Ky., and the first to learn Colida was gone was Bill Cass. He said afterwards that before leaving for the show, he'd gone out to say farewell to Colida, and that Colida had rested his head on his owner's shoulder.

"I think he was trying to tell me goodbye," said Cass. On Friday evening, July 9, Colida was paid tribute by those at the National Show. The show audience was told of Colida's death, as Cass and his wife Ethelyn entered the arena. Mrs. Cass was given a dozen of red roses, and a Bill was presented with a plaque, "from his many friends in the Appaloosa breed." Meanwhile, exhibitors with horses of Colida breeding had assembled outside the arena. As each horse was called into the ring, it's name, relationship to Colida, and accomplishments were read. Such a living memorial made it difficult for even the most hardened observer not to be touched.

Colida was the son of two AQHA parents. His dam is recorded as Lady Chesty AQHA P-19,041, but his sire was never formally recorded. The stallion owner was too embarrassed about Colida's spotted hide to sign a proper breeding certificate. Had Bill Cass not discovered Colida and believed in him, the horse most likely would have remained an obscured outcrop. Cass bought him in 1962 and quickly made him into a grand champion halter horse. By 1963, he was a national grand champion, and well on his way toward establishing a reputation that never dimmed.

His son, Trusty's Colida, was national grand champion in 1972. Colida had many, many other champion foals; as son, Co-Echo Star, won the junior trail class in Louisville just minutes before Colida died.

Bill Cass and Colida were together for 20 years, and during that time, developed a legendary relationship, Colida learned to swim on command, carry his owner without a saddle or bridle, to cut specific mares from a herd, and come when his name was called.

Colida was a favorite attraction at shows. In 1976 Cass took him to London, Ontario, for the Canadian National Appaloosa Show. Each horse from the show's stallion avenue was introduced to the audience during a parade of stallions. The horses were all immaculately groomed and wore expensive halters. The handlers presented their charges in hand as each horse's accomplishments were told.

The last horse, however, entered the arena led by a man in a weathered hat and blue jeans. An old cotton rope was attached to the horse's halter. Suddenly the man played out the rope like a longe line and the horse Colida -- went into a series of antics which let everyone know that even at his age, 19, he was no member of the geriatic set.

While owner Bill Cass shouted and encouraged him, Colida bucked, reared, sidepassed and played at the end of the line while his fans went wild. By letting his horse do what every well-fed, feeling-good horse would like to do, Cass proved himself to be quite a showman.

Quite a showman, and quite a horse. Colida was buried in the Cass' front yard, where Bill Cass can look out the window at the old horse's tombstone, and shed private tears.

{This article, by Juli S. Thorson, was originally published in the Appaloosa News, September 1982, "Colida Passes" and is used here by permission.}

Copyright © 1982 Appaloosa Horse Club. All rights reserved.

{Note: Colida was inducted into the ApHC Hall of Fame in 1988.}