Training and Showing
Luba Family:
Louisville is the home of the Luba family - Norm, Lorraine, Colin and Christopher. Their small farm is one of the only American Quarter Horse operations in the midst of many Saddlebred farms, and is just a stone throw from Floyds Fork in eastern Jefferson County. While modest, it has been the home of some of the best Quarter Horses competing across the state of Kentucky and for that matter anywhere in the country. The Lubas are American Quarter Horse enthusiasts and count themselves with some 13,000 other owners of Quarter Horses that are spread out over all 120 counties in Kentucky - part of the non-thoroughbred horse industry.
"We are small players in the horse industry, but we are in Kentucky because of the horse industry - we feel lucky to have raised our boys in Kentucky with horses as our passion," said Norm Luba. Employed by a small horse association headquartered in Kentucky, Norm has been very active in the Kentucky Quarter Horse Association helping to promote the state's most prevalent breed by numbers of registered horses.
Dr. Lorraine Luba is a veterinarian and accomplished horsewoman that grew up in Long Island, New York, showing hunters and jumpers. Since that time, she has been converted to the Quarter Horse breed and has become very successful showing Quarter Horses at Halter and in Showmanship classes. In 2009 alone, Lorraine was honored to be counted in the Top Ten at the AQHA Select World Championship Show and the largest Quarter Horse show in the world, the All American Quarter Horse Congress held in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Luba says, "Horses have been so good to our family and have provided so many real life experiences to our sons - how to work hard, care for animals, experience the competitive side of the industry as well as participate in activities designed to help others".
The Luba boys, Colin and Christopher, with their parents as club leader, started out in the Eastwood Equine 4-H Club associated with the Kentucky 4-H Horse Program, and worked their way up to leadership roles with the Kentucky Quarter Horse Youth Association. In addition, Colin was the 2007-2008 President of the 31,000+ member American Quarter Horse Youth Association (AQHYA), and Christopher is the current District 4 director of AQHYA. Colin, now 20, is a Distinguished Scholar at Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, Texas, studying economics and pre-medicine. Christopher, 18, is a four-year Principle's Honor Roll student at Trinity High School in Louisville, and plans to attend Indiana University in Bloomington in the fall of 2010. In addition to being successful in the show ring, both boys have worked in the horse industry to help contribute to their college fund.
Says Norm Luba, "Everywhere we go people ask us about life in Kentucky. Everyone associates Kentucky with horses and, frankly, it really doesn't matter the breed. Kentuckians tend to forget about the reputation Kentucky has for fine horses. So many people in our state rely on the horse industry for their livelihoods - and I think non-horse industry citizens increasingly recognize that without a vibrant horse industry our Commonwealth would lose what is truly unique about our state. Our family counts our blessings because of the horse industry in Kentucky and we would not want to think about how life would be anywhere else."