Welcome to BYC! I woulld love to see more pictures of your horses.I am so happy I found this thread. Chickens are great but horses are even greater. I have a registered AQHA gelding, a registered APHA gelding, and a grade stock-type mare. I love them all so much.
Ever since I was little, I wanted a cow SO bad. Cows were my favorite animal. I didn't read story books in school, I read about cows until about 5th grade. My parents wouldn't let me get a cow because I obviously wanted a PET cow and PET cows do not do anything but eat- even more than horses. I even saved up about $500 in "donations" from family members at the age of 9 to buy a cow... no luck. At around 5th grade, my love of cows switched to horses. I began to read about horses nonstop. I read the classics, like Black Beauty, The Eighty Dollar Champion, Seabiscuit, etc. and then transitioned into horse training books. I LOVED HORSES. Thankfully, my dad had been a farrier, growing up with horses as well. Eventually he had deemed them as "too much work" and inherited his dad's farming business. Eventually after tons of begging almost every day for an entire summer, he got annoyed enough to find a mare that his old friend was selling, named Sophie. Sophie is a bay mare that was about 7 years old at the time with about 90 days of riding in her entire life MAX. Looking back on it, it was a horrible first buy horse for a 6th-grade-me. But I fell in love immediately. At the time we also had a 40 year old Shetland pony named Edgar. He was unrideable but he'd been in the family since my dad was 15 years old. He died 2 weeks after we got Sophie... So, Sophie was lonely. Before I knew it, my dad was calling my uncle, who was still a farrier, and asked if he knew any horses for sale. My grandpa's horse was getting old and he stayed at my uncle's house just to lounge. He was 20 years old at the time, but still pretty fit since he had been in a huge pasture and also had a previous career of roping. He was still in decent shape. My dad decided to take him, and my uncle let us have him for free since he was getting rid of the burden that my grandpa would not let him sell. Thus, Jack was Sophie's new best friend. A year later, I found a paint horse on the internet that I LOVED. He not only looked so handsome with his blue eyes and overo coat but he was also a little more upbeat than my lazy Sophie and Jack. Somehow, my dad whittled that lady's price down from $3,000 to $1,000 and Cowboy was mine. It was definitely a steal. Cowboy is an amazing horse. He is 13, younger than Jack, and a LOT better conformation-wise than Sophie. (She gets tender footed a lot, so I mainly just do little tricks and groundwork with her) Regardless, I love them all so much and I am so lucky to have spent this portion of my life with them.
Sorry for the huge post, I just love horses. Once I got started I just could hardly stop. * - *
Here is a picture of Jack from this winter. I can get more if anyone would like to see the other two.
-Kathy
