I was always one of those kids that wanted a horse and never got one. My family lived in town so I really didn't have a way to own a horse. But, I always found a way to catch a ride.
Each summer I would look forward to going to Pioneers Park, Indian Cave State Park, or any park that had trail rides. My mom put up with getting me boots and a cowgirl hat for all of these rides. I don't remember her ever acting like it was a nuisance to do any of this and I'm assuming she just went along with it. I need to remember that with my kids when they want to do something that I really would rather not.
When I was probably around 4th-5th grade, we had a high schooler clean our house on Saturday mornings. One day she brought a friend, Jennifer Schutz. She had a couple horses and we quickly formed a bond. She invited me out to ride a few times. I always rode a beautiful palomino named Tony. She rode her sisters paint horse. I even went to a few rodeos with her!!! Remember when Otoe had rodeos? I did barrels, poles, and keyhole. I don't remember going very fast, but always having a great time. Loved it!
I had a few friends that had horses too. Thanks, Jacque, for always letting me ride your pony Willie when I came to stay. I know it was probably the last thing you wanted to do.
From junior high to my early high school years, my dad dated a lady that had a horse. She gave me some great lessons and also the freedom to ride her horse whenever. Audum was a bay Arabian. I remember having no fear when riding that horse. It was great!
There was a lull in my riding throughout college and my early mom years. The busy years :-)
Through church I got hooked up with someone that is now a great friend, Judy. I always admired her and her horses growing up. I had a good friend that was Judy's niece and took lessons from Judy on Looney Bell to ride in the fair. I bought a horse trail ride for my girls and one for me with her on a silent auction at church. My girls rode her pony Nellie. I think I was more excited that they got to ride than they were. My ride was Monty. A gorgeous paint Paso Fino. I had never ridden a gaited horse before and I was hooked.
I continued to ride horses with Judy. We would ride around her place and also go to some state parks in the area. I started to get the urge to have my own horse. I checked the classifieds on horsetrailriders.com often just to see what could be. One day I stumbled across an ad for Camp Carol Joy Holling. Each year they "adopted" their horses out while camp was closed. I gave them a call and lined up a time to go check them out.
So, how do I tell the husband? Nick was a lot more open about having a horse than I thought he would be. He really does like to care for animals. We discussed keeping it at the farm and being able to use the big white barn for shelter.
I met Sunny at Camp and she came home with me a couple weeks later. All of her tack was included. We just got to feed her all winter :-) Sunny is a smaller dun colored horse. I finally had my own horse. Worked great with my schedule. She went to camp from May - August; my busiest time with work and kids.
I adopted Sunny for three years. The second year we added a beautiful white flea bitten horse named Reno. She was a great horse too. The following year, Reno went lame at camp and they had to put her down. Year three we adopted Sunny and George. George was a smaller buckskin horse. Nice horse, but just a little jumpy. Bad pasture accident with George, which maybe I'll blog about some other time, and we had to put him down. Since horses are herd animals, I wanted to get another horse for Sunny to spend the winter with. She really was a lot happier with another horse there. We went back to camp and picked up Sugar. Sugar and I never really bonded.
That winter I started looking for my own gaited horse. Judy, her husband Mike, and I went after a horse on craiglist southeast of Kansas City on a cold December day. Wasn't the right horse, but we new of another on craigslist. If we went straight west into Kansas, we could check him out. That's how we found Jaxon (formerly Nugget and Yankee). He was green and needed to be worked, but a beautiful Palomino Foxtrotter. Thought I was up for the challenge so I bought him. Well, didn't work out.... talk about that some other time.
Judy put the word out that I was looking for a Foxtrotter. A friend of hers gave us information on Cassie, another beautiful palomino. In early April, we loaded up the trailer again to head southeast of Kansas City. This time we rode for over an hour to check her out. I was very used to Judy's smaller horses that are all way under 15 hh. Cassie is a big 15 hh, but her disposition made up for it.
Introducing my beautiful palomino Missouri Foxtrotter, Willie's Shadow Caster AKA Cassie...
