My first horse sized horse.

At about age 15 Dad bought a horse from a close by neighbor who agreed to keep the horse for me at his place that was even closer than Daltons was. His name was Larry Biggs and he was a Marion county sheriff. His father was a life long horseman they just called "Honey" Larrys wife was named Sandy and I really liked them both. I got my first full sized horse from Larry and Sandy by buying a yearling that grew up to be 15 hands or so. He was a 1/2 Arabian, 1/2 Qh, and Larry had named him "The Judge" after a spoof by a TV comedian named Flip Wilson who did a skit called "here comes tha judge!"

The photo is of my dad on a hot summer day getting a "pony ride" with me leading him a lap or two around the back yard of our Dearborn St, home. Apparently colored socks and shorts were all the rage? As you can see I have had to borrow a saddle for my peeps to get a spin on my horse. Even so in another picture from this day my mother is mounting by standing on a wooden slatted lawn chair just to reach the stirrup. Do you remember those? Classy compared to today's plastic ones.

At any rate "The Judge" must have been about my 5th horse, and this time it was really a horse! The definition of horse being an equine over the wither height of 56 inches. 56 inches and under is classified as a pony. You see...my parents not being horse people were more afraid of me falling a long way to the ground than anything else associated with my obsession with having to have a horse. So they systematically bought me ponies that I was really too big for to begin with, and when my toes were dragging in the grass they would buy me one about a hand taller.

This time I foiled their plans. I bought "The Judge" as an untrained yearling, and I remember Dad saying, well...that one is a nice size. Just a little bigger than your pony is now. Not only did I train my first horse from start to finish with "The Judge" a year later I had about a 15 hand horse! I rode Judge everywhere. At 15 I was exploring past the confines of Dalton stables and its woods and trails. I started doing a lot of road riding. Judge got very well broke to all kinds of traffic.

I actually got to keep Judge a few years due to not out growing him. I cant remember why exactly but it seems Larry and Sandy were starting divorce proceedings, Honey had died, and Dalton stables was being bought by a developer, but something unexpected came down the pipe and I had to sell Judge. He was bought by a man who was on the mounted Patrol, and the fellow was tickled to get such a traffic savvy young horse.I liked the guy and that made having to let go a lot easier. I even gave him the leather bridle with the horses name carved in it I had made in a leather working class at school. He was even kind enough to call back months later to tell me that he was very pleased with the horse and "The Judge" was working out very well for him.

From then on though it was only full sized horses for me. I now had to find a new option to continue my crazed obsession with horses, but I knew I would fetter it out somehow. As you can imagine I was pretty used to having to let go of my horse only to end up with another by then.Even so I really missed "The Judge" he was pretty special to me for several reasons.