NRHA million dollar rider Dell Hendricks of Tioga, Texas never thought his trip to Russia would change his live forever.
When Hendricks served as the NRHA national president in 2006, he took a trip to Russia to introduce Reining to some equine professionals who wanted to know more about this western discipline.
“I wasn’t too thrilled about going to Russia. Honestly, I went kicking and screaming,” Hendricks told GoHorseShow.com. “I grew up thinking they were our enemy, and I was a bit scared. While we were on the trip, I realized that they felt the same way about us. But, when we removed our past politics, we were all just people that loved horses. It was a great experience, so, when Russia was one of our options for a country to adopt a child from–it was a slam dunk.”
For those of you that don’t know the background of Dell Hendricks, he has quite a list of accomplishments. Dell is a NRHA Futurity Champion, 5-Time NRBC Champion; Multiple AQHA World Champion, World Equestrian Games (WEG) Team USA Gold Medalist; USET/CRIO Team USA Gold Medalist; All-American Quarter Horse Congress Futurity Champion; NRHA Million Dollar Rider, and he is also ranked by NRHA as one of the all time leading money earners with winnings in excess of $1,428,000.00.
The Hendricks, Dell and his wife Terri of 18 years, had been working on adopting a child for almost two years when they decided to adopt internationally.
“We first tried to adopt a child in the US, but it was a hard proposition because we were in our 40s, and the birth mother in the United States is able to choose the adoptive parents. The adoption agency told us that it would be unlikely for a young teenage girl to choose us because we would seem ancient to them. That is when they suggested that we try an international adoption.”
In October of 2010, on the way home from a Reining Futurity in Las Vegas, they received a phone call that there may be a child available. “I remember the call very clearly. We were at a truck stop in New Mexico–we had just picked up our truck that had just been fixed after it had just blown up,” Dell said. “My parents were with us so it was very special. They told us that we had less than two weeks to be in Russia.”
The Hendrick’s said that they were given very little information about the little boy–just one picture, his measurements. birth weight, and that he was 10 months old. Dell and Terri flew to Moscow and met the adoption official who drove them two hours west to the orphanage located in the city of Kaluga.
“It was October, and it was snowing–so it took a little longer than normal to get there,” Dell remembers. “They took us to the baby house, and within five seconds of seeing him–I knew we would be taking him home. He was the cutest little thing I had ever seen.”
The couple decided to name the little boy, James, after his two grandfathers, and they kept his Russian name as his middle name which was Victor—so his complete name is James Victor Hendricks–better known as “Jimmy V.” And no–he was not named after the guitarist Jimi Hendrix or former basketball coach, Jim Valvano.
Dell and Terri ended up having to fly back and forth from Russia a few times before they were able to finally take this adorable blonde haired blue eyed 15-month little boy home. The last time they flew to Russia, they stayed in an apartment for two weeks to finalize the paperwork and to bond with the new member of their family.
“I’m a country boy from Idaho. I’m definitely not a city boy. By the end of the two weeks, I was getting very claustrophobic,” Dell said.
At the end of the mandatory two week stay, they were finally able to board the plane back to America. From the time they left Russia to when they reached the driveway of their home in Texas–it was a total travel time of approximately 24 hours.
“He slept most of the time on the plane, and the trip back was way better than we expected. It was definitely a roller coaster ride. Children should come with an owner’s manual,” Dell says and laughs. “I had to leave to go show two days after we got home–that was definitely hard. I finally feel like I’m finally catching up. The hardest thing so far is having to schedule our routine around him when we used to just go spend all day out at the barn.”
After being in Texas for two weeks, we asked the Hendricks how Jimmy V is adapting to his new home. “He is the happiest little boy. The first few days he went room to room giggling. I guess he wasn’t used to so much space,” Dell says.
Terri also adds, “I am so excited that he is finally here. It seemed to have taken forever–but he is here now and that is all that matters,” she said. “He is just a very good natured little boy that seems fascinated with animals–especially the cats and dogs. He is a little cautious around the horses because they are so big.”
According to Dell, Jimmy took his first ride on a horse last Friday. Since then, he has been on a horse three more times. “He likes being on top of them and petting them,” Dell says.
GoHorseShow congratulates the Hendricks on adopting their new son and look forward to seeing him grow up around horses. It’s probably just a matter of time before we see him in the show ring!
