A Prince leaves this world for greener pastures.

   I have not be able to write about this until now and it is still harder than anyone can know. Prince  (pictured above) left us for the greener pastures on the other side very early in the morning on May 18th this year. This horse was so incredibly special to us, and was one of the truly great ones that leaves both a hoof print on, and a big hole in your heart in his absence.

  You see...Prince had become a rock solid corner stone for our horse drawn carriage service. He was brave with things that would have panicked any lesser of a horse. Balloons, sparklers, jump houses, dunking tanks, children running under him, even helicopters landing and taking off just a few parking spaces away. Nothing bothered him. He was that horse you took to any job where you felt there might be "surprises" that were not mentioned in the contract, and were not in the least bit horse friendly. Which unfortunately is way more often than you would imagine.

  Prince was that horse that no matter what you might encounter you could relax knowing that he was your partner that day. Not only unflappable but a true joy to drive. Fingertip light and always mannerly he was wonderful to deal with from the morning bath to the ride home in the trailer. One you could always count on to be 110%.

  Five years ago during one of his baths a friend of ours found a raw looking sore in his mane about the size of a quarter. We of course took him to the vet only to be told it was cancer. Upon removal and biopsy it was found to be a more aggressive kind than the kind that is most common to grey horses. We were given good odds provided he did not have any internally which the vet of course could not say. The life expectancy for metastasized cancer in horses is 3-5 years.

  I do not want to go into the details of his passing but only to say he was a true champion right until the end. It literally still breaks my heart in two to think about it. He was such a kind and gentle soul of a horse. Impossible to replace, impossible to forget, impossible to ever get over losing him. To be honest I have not had the zest to continue our carriage business since. It is now a going through the motions thing, a constant longing for what was, and not what is. Maybe that will change but I am not certain at all that it will. Don't get me wrong we have a small herd of exceptional horses, and hope has it that one of them, one day, will steal our hearts the way Prince did and restore the joy he once brought to it. Now just a few months down the road his loss is still very raw. Still leaving that sick knot in your gut when you are reminded of it.

  Long before we lost Prince a many years online friend of mine who also has been in the carriage trade had been asking me for a small swatch of his beautiful white tail hair for some braided jewelry she makes. I meant to get some to her but never got around to it. With tears flowing and choking back the pain that fateful morning before the back hoe got here to dig his grave I made sure to get some of Prince's tail hair for Lois. Last week I got a small package from her and in it was the most beautiful braided jewelry she had made with some of his hair. I wear a bracelet and a necklace with a heart on it every single day. It helps to know that something of him is always with me.

 There really are no words to express the heartache, pain, and sense of loss we feel from losing a great partner. The confidence he brought to every outing, the brave, brave, soul that was our "Prince". Never forgotten, never replaced. We can only hold on the the precious memories he gave us. To our detractors that think that those of us in the horse drawn carriage industry are motivated by self serving needs, you are so off base it stings. I can only shake my head and wonder if you have ever truly loved an animal as we do ours.

  Prince may you now romp for eternity in the most perfect of pastures. You certainly earned that ole boy, now that your work here is over. Don't forget to look for me old friend when we meet again one day.

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It's been awhile.

It has been a good while since I wrote anything here for my True Horse Tales blog. For that I apologize. My blog is only followed by a very few close friends ( so it's not like lots of people have missed it) and this is a project that I hope to one day leave to all of my kids when I am gone.

See...I really want them to have a feel for what their moms life was like before they were born, while they were growing up, and after they were adults themselves. What I would have given to have something like this from my parents to visit from time to time. A glimpse into their lives, their loves, and the way they thought about things would have been something I would have cherished.  

My life has been dominated by my love of horses. I'm not sure why that is and probably never will know. My parents shared with me that by the time I was three I was telling them I wanted a pony. They also told me that I was from then on relentless with that request. Every birthday, every Christmas came the same answer to "what do you want", and the answer was always "a pony".

On my sixth birthday my father took me by the hand and told me to come outside into the back yard where my gift was, and it was something I had wanted for a long time, I was so excited I could hardly breathe. I felt like I was floating out the back door of the house. My pony! They finally got me a pony! 

From the height of joy and excitement to the throws of a little kid so disappointed I was crying my guts out. See... what was on our back patio was one of those ride on spring horses that little kids play on. My poor father must have felt awful as I cried over and over to him, "No daddy, No!, I mean a real one! a real one!" to which my flustered father kept saying " This one is real, if you can touch it, it IS real" to which I replied "No daddy I want one that has fur on it" I remember this as if it happened yesterday and the fact of the matter that was over 50 years ago. 

By the time I was ten my father broke down and bought me my first pony. He was an all white pony named Spirit. 45 years later I still remember vividly a number of our rides together and the accidents I had on him learning to ride by the seat of my pants. (literally as I had no saddle) and the truly amazing thing is I have not been without a horse, or truth be told many, since. 

This obsession ( and yes I think its fair to call it that) has been with me growing up, through grade school, junior high, high school. young adulthood, a couple of failed marriages, a struggling single mother for 5 years, and 20 years of marriage to my now husband and soul mate. Ron who has not only supported my obsession, but has jumped in head first to share it with me. See he understood that I came with some baggage. Lots of 1,200-2,000lb baggage that eats, poops, runs and bucks, and he figured out faster than my father did that it had to have "fur on it". Only now I properly call it a "haircoat".    

A real life Fairy Godmother

This years Cinderella Ball fundraiser for "Safe Places" a safe house for abused women and their children was extra special for us this year. Not only did more ball goers than ever take advantage of our horse and Cinderella carriage for photo's and rides, we were treated to a real life fairy Godmother. That's right a real fairy Godmother complete with a lighted and glowing dress and a magic wand too! Now how cool is that?

Grandma's surprise

I take care of my elderly mother who is eighty six. In the last year mom has become bed ridden, and helpless. She has dementia as well and possibly Alzheimer's. As you can imagine other than her family and the day to day routine just being alive she has very little that brings her joy these days. Well...ice cream. She loves ice cream.

She no longer will eat a regular meal and has to get her nutrition via a formula I have to administer through a stomach tube. She has several wonderful home health nurses that come to the house and watch over her, and requests the tests needed to keep her doing as well as can be expected. The whole family does what we can to make things as pleasant as we can for her.

In this photo my daughter Shelby walked our mini horse into the house and into grandma's room. She talked for a minute or so before mom noticed there was a horse in the room! The wide eyed look of surprise when she did was priceless. The joy on her face getting to pet the pony's nose was worth sharing.

All I can say is WOW

Last night 9-10-11 I took the girls to a local horse show. Its county fair time here and some of the saddle clubs are having extra shows to fund raise for next year. The young lady in the photo is my 18 yr old daughter Cody. She is riding her new horse Fonzie in a speed event called Dash For Cash. Its a one barrel turn at the end of the arena and the fastest time wins.I bought this horse only 4 days earlier and she had only had a chance to ride him twice before this event. So in all honesty and knowing very little about how Fonz would act  at a horse show, she was for all practical purposes as they say "winging it"

Most times when you take a new horse into a new environment and the two of you are not yet a "team" you are more than happy to just get through the day and learn a little more about your new mount. Many times you might find the horse is nervous away from home and you spend most of your time just getting them comfortable. As it was Cody felt Fonz was ok with his surroundings so she had me enter her in several events so she could get a feel for how he is inside the arena. 

The amazing part of this story is how well they did. She ran a very passable barrel race for her first time in the arena with this horse with a 24 second run. 21 seconds were winning. I was impressed! but not as impressed as I was going to be. Her next class was a dash for cash where one barrel is set up that you must run around with the fastest time winning. This is where the horses can and do really open up and go. Cody with a new horse ( who had lost a back shoe) with only 2 previous hours in the saddle on this horse, and their first time together at a horse show ran a blazing fast time in the race and finished 4th out of 34 entries! 

To say the least that was certainly nothing we expected when we left out from home for our evening out with the horses. Our minds were geared up just to acclimate the new horse to the show grounds, and have a bit of fun. Which we did indeed do, but never in a million years did I expect Cody to place in a large speed event against riders that have been running all year. Wow. 

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.

The oldest memories

This is the oldest photo I have of myself at a horse show. The pony I'm riding was the second one I had owned and his name was Nightmare. A Nightmare he wasn't. He was a really good, well trained pony and the first one that taught me the value of a broke horse. You see the first pony I owned was named Spirit and quite frankly I'm pretty sure he earned it. He was all white, hyper, and a handful. Not only was he my first pony and I had to learn to ride on him, my father flat refused to by me a saddle because back then the price tag on a used saddle was 2x the cost of the pony. Board was $25 a month. Lucky for me the stables was within walking distance of my suburban neighborhood on the south side of Indianapolis near Beech Grove, In.

The place was called Dalton Stables and the man in charge of it for many years was known as Pic Dalton. His common law wife Betty Day lived there with him for many years in the little old white run down farm house on the hill. Dalton stables had several hundred acres, pasture, woods, and an adjoining unused property with several hundred more acres that you could slip through the ancient barb wire in places and ride on even more land. As you can imagine it was a 10 yr old child's paradise. Back then kids my age could disappear from after breakfast until dark without a parent's frantic worry.

I leaned much about horses and people at that stables even as a child. There were a couple of roping horses Speedy and Razor and their cowboy owners were a header, and heeler team. They used to practice team roping in the old run down arena at the base of the hill to the left of the huge many stall boarding barn. I used to enjoy watching them "doing their thing".

 I also became aware of owner neglect even way back then when a pathetic Tennessee Walking horse that never got out of his filthy stall went from healthy, to thin, to starved over a period of just a few months. I remember feeling so sorry for that horse I cleaned his stall consisting of a foot of urine soaked and packed feces. Being I was just a kid with no form of income of my own that was all I could do at the time. Even so I imagine the poor horse appreciated it.

The happier times were spent riding bareback through the hundreds of acres of woods on my pony. I spent about five years boarding at that place, riding those woods, and enjoying every minute of it. Learning to ride or die trying on Spirit, and later enjoying the pleasures of a well mannered pony named Nightmare that really wasn't. I even got my start in horse showing on Nightmare and the picture is of he and I on a barrel pattern. I'm sure I did not have a saddle and that hand you see is gripping nothing more than a handful of mane. 

A "loaner"

This is my hubby Ron at a QH show in Pine Bluff, Ar. a few years ago. I had hauled my Weiscamp gelding down there to show in a few western pleasure classes. With the over 2 hour drive down there, and the few classes offered for me, I decided that Ron and Homer my horse ( named after Homer Simpson) were going to give it a go in the men’s western pleasure as well. Why not, right?

Well…..except for the fact that Ron had hardly ever rode the horse before much less shown him. You see I do this once in awhile to my good natured hubby and he is always a sport about it. You see this wasn’t the first time. Ever since the one time threw him on cold turkey like that, and he won a BIG class he’s has been a real trooper about it. That time I was on “a loaner” all day. I used to show a horse named Scooter for a dear friend who used to board him at our farm in Shirley, In.

As it was that day with Scooter I had already won several big WP classes in a row. Ron just happened to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time right near the exit gate. I stepped down off the horse and told him to “get on!” He looked at me puzzled, and I repeated myself, “get on! The judge really likes this horse!” You see Ron was supposed to ride his own horse in the men’s WP, but we pulled a switch at the last minute. Ron’s looked changed from puzzled to startled and then he exclaimed “but…but…I’ve never even rode this horse” To that I answered “ “He’s broke isn’t he? GET ON!”

So he did. Much to all of our delight, (me, owner Linda who was watching, and our kids) Ronzo as we affectionately call him, threw his leg over, put his feet in stirrups that weren’t adjusted for him, promptly went in and WON the big men’s WP class! He won a fair amount of prize money as well which he informed Linda he was keeping for the dirty deed we had just pulled on him. (Normally I gave her all the winnings to Linda help offset the cost of showing her horse) Linda laughed, Ron beamed, and from that point on he never again gave me that “are you CRAZY?” look when I slapped him unexpectedly on a "loaner”

Half the class

Three of the horses in this picture were mine, with three of my daughters competing not only against the rest of the class but each other. On the palomino gelding is my bonus daughter (my preferable word to step) Heidi riding Whiskey her dads horse. On the paint next to her is Cody riding Honey. and right behind her is Shelby riding her liver chestnut Morgan gelding Otis in English attire. (Shelby and Otis are kind of hard to see, see the dark brown ears, and hunt cap behind Honey)

This was the line up to call out the winners so considering I had three riders out of the six in the class we were pretty well guaranteed some ribbons. I don't remember now who won, and placed, but I think it's safe to say my clan got something. The really neat thing about this day it was just having all the girls at a show together having a great time with their horses.

Being little girls as they are, they were about as thrilled with the concession stand as they were with the horse show. Only little kids know why it is an over priced hot dog at an event tastes so much better than the ones you have at home. Fun times, fond memories, and great kids!

The story of Ruby

Sometimes people wonder why I become so rabid about people who don't feed their horses well, and even more rabid than rabid about the ones that don't feed them at all. Maybe Ruby's story here will shed a little bit of light on that.

I bought this mare at a low end sale that was frequented by what is known as "kill" buyers. She was owned by one of them. He approached me about this little mare and another he had bought from the same place that was in the same condition. They were horribly starved. Almost to death's very door. The kill buyer said they seemed really gentle and he did not have the heart to leave them with the owners that had done this to them. So he bought them ( being skin and bones they had no value to him) so he brought them to the sale in hopes that someone might want to take them on as a project horse.

Knowing my reputation around the sale it wasn't surprising that I was personally hunted down to be asked if I might be interested. One look and I was taking them both home.With in a couple of days we were at the vets office and we got the low down. Ruby ( the bay in the picture) was around 28 yrs old, needed what teeth she had left worked on, and wormed. Other than that she had been starved, and badly needed groceries. The other mare a palomino Saddlebred had a suspicious blood drip coming from one nipple, but was only 17 yrs old. "Music" as the kids named her needed another vets opinion. She too had been very badly starved.

While the Palomino mare dug in and ate like there was no tomorrow, Ruby the little bay did not. I don't know how to explain this to you, but the little mare had completely given up. You could see it in her eyes. She was just waiting to die. My daughter Cody was only six years old at the time and she for whatever reason latched onto this old mare as "hers" right away. Cody spent countless hours with the old horse, talking to her, brushing her, picking out her hooves, all while Cody's long waist length hair drug on the barn floor. Cody gave her shampoo baths, standing on a lawn chair she braided her mane, and brushed out her tail. She even started using up our expensive show grooming products on Ruby on a regular basis. Until you have seen it you wont know how odd it is to see a rack of bones horse with a braided mane and tail, coat covered in show sheen, and hoof black polished hooves.

Now under normal circumstances Cody would have gotten in trouble for wasting expensive show products we needed for the show horses, but the thing was the little mare was perking up from all the attention. You may not believe me and those that know me well know I'm normally on the pessimistic side so this may come as a bit of a shock to hear coming from me, but you could literally see the will to live coming back into the old mares eyes. I kid not. More than all the hay we could keep in front of her, more than the grain she was now receiving on a regular basis, the trips to the vet, or anything else we did for her, the love from that little girl is what gave that old mare back the desire to be alive and her will to live.

Even so, it was a slow recovery. One thing about Cody is once she decides she is going to do something she sinks her teeth into it and like a Pit Bull just doesn't let go. She spent countless hours with the old mare, and for months on end. Keep in mind she was only six years old. She had a regular habit of leading Ruby around the yard and letting her graze. When we asked her about it, she explained to us that yard grass was better than pasture grass and so she was making sure Ruby got plenty of it. Ok...I didn't know that. You learn something new every day.

About five months into this Ruby was looking a whole lot better. She had went from skeletal to just ribby. She still had a ways to go but the old mare was clearly making a come back. Cody for all her efforts was really starting to get vocal about wanting to take "Ruby" to the horse show. ( the rest of us already had horses to show) We had to keep telling her "not yet" as the mare was not yet looking good enough for a public outing. Cody was disappointed, but she understood. That however did not keep her from asking each time there was a show that coming weekend. "Can I take Ruby? pleeeeese mommy."

The "not yet" answer was the same for nine months. After those nine months though the horse looked downright healthy! To be honest nobody would have ever guessed what she had been through. It was late Sept that year and the local club was having their very last show of the season. Cody got to take Ruby. The old horses mane was banded, her body bathed from her nose to her brushed out tail, and of course her hooves polished a shiny black. Cody entered her in the child's walk and trot class, and well... the picture tells the rest of the story. Twelve years later at eighteen years old Cody still has that tiny first place trophy on her shelf. * now at nineteen it resides with her in her dorm room at college.

Ruby has long since passed on to greener pastures, but if I were a betting person I would not be afraid to put a big one down that there is an old horse somewhere over the rainbow bridge that is willing to wait a very long time to see a certain little girl again.

Why? and.. from Wrangler to Rambler.

Guess who? yeah...the dare devil one. This is Shelby enjoying her POA pony Wrangler on a hot summer day.  Ok so you guessed who, now the question is....drum roll....why? That I can't answer you. I have no idea why anyone would want to ride their horse this way, but she did and seemed to be enjoying it. Oddly enough from the horses posture it looks like he thinks it's pretty "ok" too.

Wrangler and Shelby made a great team as you can see. Besides putting up with her oddball antics, they were quite the team in the show ring as well. Wrangler and Shelby competed in just about everything. From judged events like western pleasure, trail class, and hunter under saddle, and even hunter hack, to speed events like barrels, poles, flags, and down and back. Fist's full of ribbons, a big smile, and a snug knowing look on a pony's face.That was Shelby and Wrangler.

Shelby finally out grew Wrangler, not in mind, or soul, or in her heart, but in body. She literally got too big for the pony and had to graduate to a horse. She apprehensively gave Wrangler to a friend of ours for her little boy. Tina's boy was a little too young at the time, so she loaned him to some friends of hers with the understanding she would get him back when her son was ready for him.

Shelby eventually found and fell in love with a new horse. She named him "Rambler" in part because it sounded a bit like "Wrangler" and in part because "Rambler" was her schools mascot. Shelby still has Rambler. They too have a successful relationship, and an equally impressive number of wins in the show ring. As this tale unfolds you will get to see pictures of Shelby and Rambler's history together. To all our horse friends, past, present, and future.

She grew up with horses, too.

This is a photo of my daughter Shelby at about 9 yrs old. The horse in her lap is not dead I assure you though it may indeed appear that way. The filly in the photo is one we raised from one of my Weiscamp mares who was a half sister to my 100% Weiscamp Skipper W gelding who's parents were right off of old Hanks farm. For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about don't worry about it, its famous QH pedigree blubber.

What anyone should find interesting about this picture is just that a nine year old child has enough of "a way" with horse's about them that a new foal would be so happy to be sleeping in her lap. For you parents out there you know its a tad unusual for the typical nine year old child to enjoy sitting there long enough for a horse to get its beauty rest. As you have probably guessed this one grew up with horses too. Shelby is almost 17 now.

Shelby is and always has been the dare devil kid. That is just her nature. If I was going to catch a kid doing something silly, or risky, it would always be Shelby. None of her three brothers ever caused near the number of skipped heart beats that Shelby has. Besides being a "let it all hang out" kinda kid with the horses, she carried that tendency over into other aspects of her life. She even played just about every position on the boys football team at her local public school for about five years.Yeah...I have even seen her on the bottom of a huge "dog pile" from diving on a fumbled football during a game. 

Anyway...along this journey you will see a number of photos of Shelby, well..... being Shelby. Since it is the theme of the blog it will be with a horse. So... let me offer up the standard warning early on "don't try this at home" Leave the stunts to the professionals. Do also know that I have as mom tried my level best to curb this tendency in my sweet little girl if for nothing else her safety. I have finally accepted the fact that some of them are just frogs, and snails, and puppy dog tails. 

She grew up with horses.

My daughter Cody is 12 yrs old in this photo. She is 18 now. This horse is a ApHA filly she raised out of her ApHA mare that became chronically lame. Cody wanted to have part of Honey for her riding horse so we bred Honey to our AQHA, PHBA, NFQHA stallion and Rain here is the result.

The interesting thing about all this is mostly that the horse in the photo is two, and the girl is only twelve. This was the first horse Cody trained to ride all by herself. Now do understand that this is not something I would suggest to anyone to do ( green horse + green rider = black and blue) as the old saying goes. Cody by twelve had not only grown up with horses, by this time she had quite a bit of successful horse showing under her belt, and was a truly amazing rider. She could also ride a horse that was bucking like a bronco and never loose her cool, or.. her balance.

Not only that she undeniably has an amazing gift with animals that is hard to explain without seeing it in first hand. She has a calming effect on them that just boggles the mind. She has tamed animals other people could not even get near. Anyway...just know reader that this is/was not the typical kid training a young horse all by herself. Mom was always present and watchful, and there was never once a single sign that any trouble was brewing.

As it turned out Cody got Rain well started under saddle without any fan fare whatsoever.They went together like peanut butter and jelly. Cody in the end decided to sell Rain since she preferred riding a finished horse and spent the next few years enjoying Toby instead. Now as an older young lady she still has a soft spot in her heart for Rain and still talks about finding her and trying to buy her back. I know where the mare is and its not far from us, so mums the word, ok? These days between being a HS senior, learning to drive, her boyfriend, and her trade school hours she's putting in, she doesn't ride the horse's we have here these days. Who knows maybe one day they will be reunited, and she will then have the time to finish what she started.

A long, long, time ago.

This photo was taken between 23 and 27 years ago. I'm not sure which because the two year old little boy on the horse is either Shawn my now 29 yr old son, or Dan who is his younger brother who is now 25. They are both tow heads to this day and the old picture is fuzzy. The man walking his "joined up" ( you see none of this re-packaged "natural horsemanship" stuff as they call it these days is new) quarter horse gelding is Darrin Hornberger these days of Knightstown, Indiana. He and his wife Kris have been life long horse buddies of mine. Darrin is now one of the top barrel racers in the US. Kris is a journeyman farrier, and a very talented horse woman in her own right.

Anyway...back to the picture. This was taken at a horse "camp out" we all did twice a year on Memorial Day and Labor day weekends at the Double YY Saddle Club in Edinburgh, In, not far from the Hoosier Horse Park. It lasted four days.We went for all four for years. There were hay rides, a live band, a horse show, a fun show, both guided and unguided trail rides, and lots and lots of good times to be had. Sleeping in my 2 room tent, riding my horse day after day. I can not think of any time in my life that was more enjoyable than those lazy, sometimes crazy, days and nights, we all had horsin around at the Double YY.

Now a little about the horse in the photo. Darrin would have been in his early to mid twentys in this picture, and Dude ( the horse) had been his horse since he was a teen showing with me at the Tumbleweeds Saddle Club in Wanamaker, In. The horse was 4 when he got him, so he must have been close to 14 in the picture. he was a great horse. You cant tell from the picture but ole Dude could have been a poster child for conformation defects. He was over in the knees, ewe necked, long backed, and well....we will leave it at that. He did have a pretty head.

 Funny thing about the ole horse though was that he apparently had never read all those books about how a horse must have splendid and perfect conformation to be a top athlete. I guess nobody must have ever told him either. You see...Dude's performance in the speed events ( barrels, poles & flags) was legendary. Plain and simple the horse was hard to beat. When Darrin and Dude showed up to an event people that knew they were in the same class with them let out a "dag nabbit!" Like I said, the horse was hard to beat. The other really cool thing about Dude was anybody could ride him. He was calm and cool on the trails, gentle like he was carrying eggs with a baby on his back, and still a fire ball in the arena. What a neat horse! One I will remember for all the days I'm above ground and not yet taking the big dirt nap.

 Speaking of dirt naps ole Dude has since passed over to greener pastures. He lived out his life with Darrin and Kris on their beautiful 80 acre farm in east central In. Dude spent his retirement years doing much of nothing more than the occasional job of toting a tow headed two yr old around for a few laps of "pony ride" just like he is doing here. Always lots of little kids in the Hornberger's massive extended family, so the ole horse was never short of love and attention. It's funny how you can have such a soft spot in your heart for a horse that wasn't even yours. Dude...he was one of the great ones.

The Four Legged "stock market"

This was my Appaloosa stallion. ApHC "Essence of Intrigue" When I bought this horse less than 5 years ago the horse market was just in the initial stages of decline. I was the newly elected president of the North Central Arkansas Appaloosa Horse Club that was a regional club that had been inactive for that many years. I got involved and took it from defunct to an operational club that was starting out putting on some local all breed shows with the intention of raising enough money doing that to be able to afford to have an all Appaloosa Breed Show ( which are quite expensive to put on)

So....I bought this horse, and 4 broodmares to have my small quality Appaloosa program going. The Stallion already had an award where he had over 50 halter points with ACCAP, and I took him in two shows half way to his ApHC ROM. He was a really good horse. World show quality from what I saw in DFW in 05. I was able to purchase this horse for $2,500 whereas 10 years before that I could not have touched one his quality for less than $20,000! It's true, so as gamblers in the stock market would say it was "time to get in"

As it turned out just like the other stock market these days it was time to leave it alone. After hanging on for four years, raising a few good quality foals that sold easily, things in the horse industry went from bad to worse. Not to mention being the president of the regional App club turned out to be a royal PITA. I found out  first hand that humans like to sit on their hands and bitch, what its like to do just about everything yourself ( if it was the hard stuff that wasn't fun) and that no matter how much you do, someone will always find fault with it. Hubby and I had, had our fill. Enough was enough. I ended up not caring if I ever looked at another App horse, and I had always really liked them. A sour taste in your mouth I think is what people call that.

I ended up selling the stallion, selling the broodmares, all of which spare one were open ( not bred) and got out while the getting was good. I can honestly say I'm better off without the horse or the headaches. Sometimes you just have to learn things the hard way. From now on, I'm staying away from the stock market. Both wall streets, AND the four legged variety.

You couldn't help but laugh

Here we are this May waiting in front of a house for a group of gorgeously dressed young ladies to get in the carriage for their grand entrance at their school to arrive in style to their high school prom. It took awhile as it always does when pretty young women are trying to get everything about their look just perfect.

Which turned out to be a huge hit for the rest of the kids in the neighborhood.They actually got the chance to interact with our carriage horse Duke. At first they were timid, but as you can see they got more and more comfortable as one watched another pet the horse.

That is...until my husband who was heading for me pulled Dukes lips back and showed the kids Dukes teeth. Horses teeth are pretty disgusting to look at and he assured each and every one of them that, that, was what their teeth would look like if they didn't brush them regularly. While they were chanting "yuck" and "gross" my husband with his warped sense of humor makes a quick squat towards them and at the same time makes a loud snorting noise that sounds quite like a rabid wild hog in attack mode.

They scattered like roaches in the kitchen lights. Kids squealing, bikes were flung, and I'm convinced that Scotty from Star Trek beamed a couple of them up. Quickly they realized that Mr. Ron was the culprit and not sweet as apple pie Duke the horse, so soon they gave him that "Oh it was YOU!" look.

Before that though, the looks on their faces was, well... Priceless! You couldn't help but laugh.

It wasn't his fault, and the People that should be ashamed of themselves.

This is my daughter Cody riding a cute little 2 yr old QH gelding we bought for her named "Champ" Champ was so named because he had won a huge halter class at a big regional horse show against even mature horses as a mere yearling. A friend told us about Champ and how nice of a horse he was for the price the owners were asking for him.

If only any one of us had wondered why.

As it tuned out the owner was selling Champ minus his QH papers and for good reason. Champ had HYPP. A double dose of it. The worst kind. For those of you that don't know what it is, its a genetically passed down disease where the muscles cant properly channel potassium ions. What it causes is tremors, seizures, and in the worst cases death. You see these horses lose control of their muscles and fall down if its just the hindquarters affected, and die when the heart stops beating if its the muscle that's affected.

Sounds horrific and rare doesn't it? Horrific it is, rare it is not. You see these horses were winners in the halter (conformation) ring because the fluid that built up in their muscles gave them, well.... an Arnold Schwarzenegger look. Judges loved it, those that will stoop to anything to win embraced it. AQHA did their best for way too long to ignore it. Horses like Champ suffered from it.

Poor Champ, he was such a sweetheart. He really tried to please his rider, and Cody was fast falling in love with him. It all came to a screeching halt when she came in the house complaining that he kept "going down" on her while she was riding him. She thought he was just young and clumsy. Upon witnessing what was happening I pretty well knew what the deal was. Nevertheless I told her to stay off of him until I could send his blood sample off for testing. It came back H/H. A double dose of the disease.

One of the worst things about this story is the fact that this is incredibly easy to avoid. You see you have to breed an affected horse to even get it. You have to breed two affected horses to get one like Champ. To avoid it all you have to do is not breed affected horses and its really, really, easy to know if its a concern because every single incidence of this disease the horses pedigree traces back to the AQHA horse Impressive. Not all of his offspring were affected, and as long as your Impressive bred horse is N/N or.. negative/negative for the gene they don't have it, and can't pass it on. I'm sure even you non horse people can figure this one out. Only breed N/N horses! DUH!

The very worst thing about this story is the long line of people that really, really, ought to be ashamed of themselves. The breeder for breeding such misery for the horse, and danger to future owners, AQHA for not putting a stop to allowing these horses to reproduce without a N/N test result when they first became aware of the condition, and an extra big helping of shame to the heartless jerk who sold this horse with a dangerous condition. Cody was with us when we went to check Champ out so the owner not only knew who the horse was for he had nary a single concern for my sweet daughter being exposed to the danger of  it ( if they fall on you while you are on, or near them, it can easily kill you) all for a whopping $600 in his pocket. I hope he laughed all the way to the bank and rots in hell for doing so.

I gave Champ to a very experienced horse woman who worked at our local feed elevator at the time. Of course with FULL disclosure about the HYPP status, and the blood test results proving it. She said she just wanted something to show in halter and thought she could work around it. I sternly warned her to keep her toddler away from the horse. That was actually unnecessary because Tina was if anything an overly protective mother. The mother in me had to voice it anyway. Since we lost every bit of the money we spent on buying Champ for my daughter it was a long time before she got another horse to call her own. As it turned out Cody  opted for a very well trained and finished Team roping horse. A little Tobiano paint horse we called Toby. She rode Toby for the next several years.

Hank the cow horse gets a horse hello from Ron

Hank the cow horse

This is a photo of hubby Ron and a big bay roan gelding we bought at a sale that had come from a Ranch in Montana where he was being used to sort cattle. Hank was big, muscular, missing the refined look of a show horse but nevertheless a handsome horse. A riding horse deluxe with fast tight turns, and quick roll backs, blinding spurts of speed when you asked for it, and screeching stops. "Handy" is the word the cowboys use.

As you can imagine Ron wanted to keep him. As you can imagine I thought he was too much horse for us. This was approximately 11 years ago, the kids were small, and Ron had only been a "horseman" for a little over 5 years and it was not my kind of riding. This horse was the kind that would have been a prospect to turn into a barrel or pole horse since there were no cattle ranches to speak of in Indiana. Rural life there is corn and bean fields.

That and the other thing that was "odd" about Hank ( at least to me) were the holes in his training. While he was trained to ride out of this world, he was terrified of getting a bath, fly spray, having his ears clipped, or any other "pampering" our horses were used to. I actually was so stunned by the oddity of him being so well trained and yet not comfortable at all with what I considered "routine" things that I called Dale Haley the man who owned the sale barn about it. Dale laughed at me and asked me what did I expect from a bonafide "ranch" hoss?  He said "That horse has never seen a bottle of fly spray, and the only time he ever got a bath was when it rained!"

Fair enough.

We spent enough time bonding with Hank that he got over his fears of things we thought were part of every horses life. We have since ran into a number of our Amish trained draft horses with the same type of problems. No doubt from the same lack of exposure to them. They too have learned to enjoy the finer things in life. Ultimately Hank was sold to a guy that wanted him for exactly what he was. Which is, as it should be.

Albert riding Albert

This is Ronald Albert my husband, riding Albert the horse. Albert is a Percheron gelding about 8 years old. Albert had been part of a fellows team of horses that he had sold some months earlier at a local auction. I learned all this from the info and phone numbers on Albert's coggins papers. Somewhere along the line Albert and his team mate were separated. A gal that lived not far from us had Albert listed for sale. We went to look and decided to take a chance on him. He was thin when we got him and that is almost a "shoe in" for us to drag one home whether we think they will work for us or not. Gotta feed em ya know! Poor horse!

At any rate, Albert was a fun and dependable riding horse but like Zoro, Albert was going to take a lot of work to drive single. Even during ground driving Albert would turn his head around while trying to walk forward looking for his missing team mate. We met a man at an outdoor flea market that knew a guy wanting a draft to ride so we sold him Albert. We did not own Albert for more than a half a year, but we got him fat and healthy, wormed, vetted, and his feet done regularly while he was here. He went to his new home in a lot better shape than he came to ours in. He was a nice horse, we wish him all the best!