Page 41 - 17 February 2012

The PerfecT
CoMbInATIon
Texas veterinarian Gene White unites his three greatest passions: horses, family and friends.
by Diane Rice
It’s a blessed and happy person who can take everything that’s important to them, roll them up into one big ball and create their
ideal life. Gene White, DVM, of Diamond
W Equine in Roanoke, Texas, is one of those people. He has combined his love of horses
and horse racing, his close family ties, and his ability to make and keep close friends. And in the process, he has formed bonds and partner- ships that have brought him a joy-filled life and stood the test of time.
“I guess it started way back when I was a little boy and all I wanted was a horse and a BB gun,” Dr. White said. He got that horse—and as most kids do, found fun and excitement in racing against his friends.
He showed successfully in western pleasure, reining, trail and halter for nearly a dozen years. His interest in racing blossomed while he was a student at Texas A&M and thought that his show mare, a Paint named On And On, could become a successful race mare. “That’s how young and dumb I was,” he said.
He drove to Hilltop Downs near Normangee, Texas, and stopped at the first barn he came to: Ed Dodwell’s. “I didn’t have any money to pay for training a horse,” said Dr. White. “He took her for practically nothing. We won four races with her around 1965 or 1966.
“Then we bought a horse or two for cheap, and won at Bandera and other tracks, such as
Dr. Gene and Glenna White the day before Lethal Volt ran fifth in the All American
Futurity-G1.
Ross Downs and Clear Fork
Downs, that aren’t there any-
more,” he said. Through the years,
Dr. White slowly upgraded to pros- pects with better and better bloodlines.
Hands-off only
When Dr. White was a junior in high school, he met his wife to be, Glenna, a freshman. They dated for five years and got married while he was in veterinary school at Texas A&M.
He was riding all the time and she wasn’t a horse person, so he thought he’d buy her a bar- rel horse so they could share the love. “She got bucked off, stepped on and run off with,” he said. “I tried every way to make her a cowgirl, but I couldn’t get it done.”
But even though Glenna didn’t share her young husband’s interest in hands-on horse- manship, she developed a love for horses—at
a distance. “She’s involved; she knows racing and enjoys the people and friendships, and lots of times when I get home late at night, she’ll
be watching the races at Los Alamitos on TV,” Dr. White said. “We bought a home at Ruidoso and she loves to go out there, too.
“Here at home, she knows when one’s sick and needs attention,” he added. “You’d think someone with that much interest and knowledge would be more active hands-on, but I probably ruined her by getting her that barrel horse!”
friends and Partners
When Dr. White was about 30, his client and friend David Godfrey suggested they learn to bulldog. So they rodeoed for the next 11 or 12 years, and that friendship led to many good times and experiences, and a few broken bones.
Rodeoing led to a friendship and partner- ship with Russ Heydenreich, a mill work company owner from Prosper, Texas, whose crippled rodeo horse Dr. White treated. “Russ and I have had horses together most every year,” said Dr. White.
Their first joint venture was in 1983, in the buckskin yearling A Cinch Or Better (Pie In The Sky-Bam’s Jaguar, by Jaguar Rocket), who earned $216,404. “He was probably the fastest race horse I ever owned,” said Dr. White. “He set the fastest times in the Kansas Futurity trials, and most people thought that he was the fastest two-year-old at Ruidoso that year.”
Dr. White and Heydenreich also partnered in the 1986 gelding Heart Of Darkness (Pie In The Sky-Penny Arcadia, by Shecky Greene),
SPEEDHORSE, February 17, 2012 39
Janey Stoody