Cherie All Around Vonada

Her nickname was All Around. Cherie All Around Vonada. As with most nicknames, they give us some insight to the person with the name.

Cherie lost her battle to brain cancer on December 26^th 2022. Until her diagnosis on September 29^th2022, she was going full steam ahead just being all around. As business partner at Hanson Quarter Horses she trained and coached a full training barn. She was head of the HQH maintenance crew; working arenas, fixing all the things horses love to break and painting trail poles. Cherie learned how to shoe horses and for a few years she was the HQH farrier. She loved to do wood working and her fun cut outs can be found all over CA at trainers barns on their trail courses. Cherie was a talented trail course designer and she ran the trail pens for some of the largest shows in CA. Cherie was a judge, a clinician and was an online equine instructor for Horsecoursesonline. Cherie was a lifetime AQHA member, a Professional Horseman member, and a NSBA member. Cherie was a PCQHA Director for many years and served on the Executive Committee, Hall of Fame Committee and Youth Committee.

Cherie was a quiet person by nature and was not one to be super talkative, but when she did speak on a serious matter, we all listened up because when she had something to say, it was truth. During casual conversations we tuned in because it was likely she was going to have a funny zinger to throw out and you didn’t want to miss it.

Cherie had many friends because she was a good friend. Someone going through a difficult time would receive a call from Cherie. She was checking in to see how they were doing and she was a good listener. She loved to surprise her senior friends with a delivery of flowers for their birthday or just because. What she really loved the most were her animals. Horses, dogs, cats, donkeys, goats, and pigs all had her attention and she enjoyed interacting with them and caring for them. The horse’s well -being always came first for Cherie.

As a young girl, Cherie was horse crazy and was taking riding lessons. The lesson horse she was riding was sold and Cherie was broken hearted, so her non-horse parents bought her a Standardbred off the race track. His name was Lance and Cherie never looked back. She trained him for gymkhana events and started to compete. Cherie was very interested in anything medical and her interests took her to school to get her license to be an X-ray technician. It was during this time she rode a horse named Keepin Tabs on Lee and went from the gymkhana pen to the hunter pen. She trained him to jump and started showing at Quarter Horse Shows. She went on to top ten placings at the AQHA world show in Working Hunters and Eq over Fences. She was working as an X-ray tech, but it was becoming evident her time and passion was with the horses. She gave up her amateur status and started working for Hanson Quarter Horses. Cherie rode the hunters and enjoyed jumping, but the trail class was becoming very fun for her and before she knew it she was the AQHA Reserve World Champion in the Jr. Trail on First Rate Mos in 2001. Cherie has since made many good trail horses and riders that went on to have success at the top shows.