Welcome to truehorsetales, and an intro

First off: A BIG welcome to truehorsetales!

I would like to give you a bit of info about me. I've been a professional in the horse industry since the age of 18 when I started judging horse shows. I'm 55 now and have been "horsing around" in one way or another non stop ever since. I have boarded, given lessons, judged, bought, sold, and owned my own horse and carriage wedding service on two separate occasions one of which I still operate. I've owned many numbers of every type of stock breed, plenty of grade horses, and as of late drafts. I started showing at the age of 10 when I acquired my first pony. I was hooked! I was naturally good at it, did more than my share of winning and it wasn't long before I was being asked to judge the shows too.

I decided to become accredited and got my judging license from the Indiana Saddle Horse Association which at the time was a top notch organization. Having a judges card with them offered instant approval with a number of breed associations. Through ISHA I was blessed every year to get to attend judges seminars with world renowned speakers like Dr. Robert Miller, Don Burt, Tom Chown, and many others, along with speakers from organizations like NSBA, AQHA, PHBA, PtHA, The American Miniature Horse Association, Pony of the Americas (POA), IBHA, and many more.

In short that experience was something that few have had the pleasure to participate in, and was also extremely educational. It allowed broad glimpses into styles of riding and breeds of horses I would never have otherwise been exposed to. To this day I have a deep appreciation of all types of horses, and ISHA is a big reason why.

This blog is going to be about truehorsetales covering some of the vivid memories I have covering over four and a half decades of my life with horses. It will cover the good, the bad, and the ugly. The happy, and the sad. The format I am going to use for this blog is to to tell a true horse tale from long ago back when I was a young horse lover, then the next blog entry will be a true tale about something recent. So...saddle up, and swing on, we are going for a ride!