Those Passed By

Through the years there have been many horses who I've look to buy. For every horse purchased there were probably a dozen who were passed over for various reasons. A few of these horses left lasting impressions.

I don't know that I ever heard her name, but that little, blue roan mare was one of the prettiest horses I'd ever seen. She was a registered Quarter Horse, newly arrived from Stephenville Tx. She was 5 or 6, supposedly broke to ride, & boy did she glistened in the sun. She was also heavily pregnant, bagged up & foaling was immanent. I really fell for that beautiful blue roan, but after just having a mare who foaled I didn't want another. I wanted to ride now, not months from now when the foal was weaned. Several times that day, as I walked among the horsetrader's horses, I went back to look at that mare again. The horsetrader finally told my mom that if I wanted the mare & not her foal, he'd foal her out for us & give the foal to the dog ladies. He said that most people didn't want foals so he usually waited to sell the mares until after they foaled & he'd given the foals away. He didn't have to explain what he meant by that. Even at my young age I knew what he meant. That beautiful mare's foal would become dog food. I didn't take that pretty mare home that day. While it sadden me to know she would lose her foal if I didn't get her, I also knew that I needed a horse to ride. That pretty, blue roan mare was the first time I had to make a decision based on logic & not on what my heart said. Because of her I learned what it meant to choose a horse based on what I wanted to do, & not just because it tugged at my heart. A profound lesson for a young girl.

I was looking for a jumping prospect & my search began in Hemet Ca. In the late 1960s Hemet was a haven of Thoroughbred farms. Black Shank was a registered Thoroughbred gelding off the track. I believe he was 6 & he was black as night. He was at a farm in Hemet & he'd come off the track with a bowed tendon. He didn't have the best disposition, pinning his ears as we looked in his stall. What I remember most about Black Shank is that one of his front cannons looked like someone had precisely painted it white all the way around. I can't remember now what the treatment was, but whatever they did to treat his bowed tendon had turned his leg white. It looked odd to see him with a permanent bandage mark. With his disposition & the loss of pigmentation on his leg, Black Shank wasn't the horse for me. Years later I was visiting a friend at her stable when I saw a black gelding standing in his stall. Imagine my surprise when I saw that leg. It was Black Shank & he belonged to a young girl who rode him on trail. I lived at least 100 miles from Hemet. Seeing Black Shank after all those years made me realize that the horse world is indeed very small.

Ricky's Sister was a pretty, 6 year old, bay, off the track, Thoroughbred mare for sale in Stanton Ca. My mom & I arrived about 45 minutes early for our appointment to see her. When we got there a groom was walking her around. It was quite obvious that she was lame. As we waited & watched, she began to come sound. There was no doubt in our mind that she'd been drugged in anticipation of our arrival. Ever since that day I have always arrived early when looking at horses. Never have I come across another drugged horse, but it never hurts to be early.

Culling Time was a 3 year, bay with a lot of white, Thoroughbred mare at a farm in Hemet Ca. She was, & still is, the tallest horse I've ever considered buying. At 3 years of age she stood 17.2. At the time I was 4'11" & had no idea how I would get on her. I could swing up on my mom's 16.2 hand mare bareback, but was quite sure I'd never get up to 17.2. She had never made it to the track because she was too tall to be coordinated at that young age. She was very short coupled & forged as she walked. As the groom led her out of her stall, I could only gape at her long legs. As sure as I was of not being able to get on her bareback, I was just as sure that I could quite literally walk underneath her because her legs were as long as I was tall. I'm too old & stiff now to want a horse over 15 hands, but I sometimes wonder what it would have felt like to ride Culling Time.

I named her Sunshine Company even though she wasn't yet mine. She was probably a Quarter Horse or cross, fairly young, & a very bright chestnut with flaxen mane. We were walking through the horsetrader's, window shopping. When I saw her she had her head tied back to the saddle so tight she couldn't move. I felt so sorry for her that I told my mom we had to buy her. We went looking for Leonard to tell him that Sunshine Company had just found a home. To his credit as a horsetrader, Leonard told us that mare wasn't the horse for us. She was a rank bucker, even bucking off his nephew Eddie. No horse threw Eddie so we knew she must have been quite the bucker. Still I wanted to "save" her from the cruelties of Eddie's handling. But try as I might, Leonard insisted she would hurt me & wouldn't sell her to us. It was such a shame because we knew where she would end up. I have to say that to this day I know that not all horsetrader's are slick & just out for money. Well, maybe they are & Leonard was just smart enough to know that if I got hurt we wouldn't be back for more horses.