FOR THE LOVE OF HORSES

My first two horses, Jigsaw and Big Red,





Schiroc through the years and Blue





Peps the first day I saw her





Peps and me this winter.

Thouhgt I'd better fill in the blanks about my horses. A number of you have commented how nice Peps coloring is. She is different I'll say that. But her story starts many years ago. too many really but I will try and remember. Who I am begins with my mother as a girl. She grew up in the days of horses more than automobiles. She wasn't afraid of any horse. She would ride anything from the cantankerous shetland pony to the big draft work horses. She also challenged many of the boys at the Swift Current rodeo that she could ride the wild two year olds before they could. Well she did it many times. Well that's where I get my passion for horses, which I have passed on to my daughter Angela. As I said in FV's blog, my first horse was a screwed up pie bald track pony that I named Jigsaw. I think immaturity and no training on my part and his wild, cantankerous nature on his part, made for a bad match. After selling him, a year later I bought another track pony. Only this one was an outriders horse and they didn't get along and he threatened to send him to the glue factory so I again let my emotions win. My gut feeling was right. He was a great horse for me. Loved all women, all kids and only one man and that was my dad. He was a standardbred/arab cross whom I named BiG Red. I was heart broken when I had to sell him. The stable he was at raised the rent so much that I couldn't afford to keep him. I to this day wonder how his life was. He was a great great horse. I swore then that I would never buy another horse unless I could keep it forever. Years went by, forgot about horses, got married and moved to Alberta. I still have a picture of the perfect horse that I wanted when I was about 5 years old. It was a black and white appaloosa with a white blanker and large black spots. About a year after we were married, I found an add in the paper for a black and white appaloosa filly. Told my husband I wasn't going to buy her just wanted to look. Well saw her and my life changed forever. She was 16 mths old, barely halter broke, crazy thing but I had to have her. My wonderful husband not knowing how long horses can live, let me buy her. After the sale was done, he asked how long do horses live, thinking this was going to be a short lived affair. When I told him at least 20 yrs. he knew that horses would be in our lives forever. Schiroc turned out to be my friend, my teacher, my kids nanny and teacher and much more. I bred her to FV's stallion Chile Poivre and got my boy Blue who is affectionately known as the little prince around the farm although he is now close to 15 yrs old and 15.3 hands high. There have been many offers for him, but he will stay mine forever too. When I lost Schiroc after 24 years, a huge void was left. I looked at many sites, trying to find the right horse and my husband always saying no more horses. Well I can thank Sherry for filling that void. She found an add, no picure, just written add for a grey appaloosa filly. We took the trailer just in case, but I really didn't think this was the one. I even told my husband we were going to look at a horse for sherry. Well she walked around the corner and I almost fainted. It was my old girl reincarnated. As she has gotten older, the resemblance is disappearing but it is like the old girl is still with us as Peps does things sometimes that are so eery. It is exactly the old girl just in a different wrapper. Peps and I have had some difficulties, but I think now we are one. She is such a sweet girl and I love her very much and hope we can have the same relationship as my old girl Schiroc and I had. Peps is my last horse for me. I have blue and now her and if I do decide to breed her to either Cactus or Phoenix, I hope some really nice foals come of it and I can give the world what I have in both my ponies.