Saturday, October 04, 2025
| My dad, bless his heart, still alive and thriving BTW. Found us some amazing horses. He would often go to any seen horse in a pasture and assumed it would make a great barrel horse. In rural Michigan, there are a lot of horses sitting in pastures- just for the sake of context here. He would take these horses, and myself being the oldest daughter, would always have to give these horses a trial run. We had most noteably, Joy. Joy was my father's one and only horse that he truly claimed as his own. Joy was a thoroughbred appy mix- very pretty. However, Joy was trained by 2 18 and 19 year old boys who only wanted to run her. To mount Joy you had not only to be mindful of her kicking out but also to be able to mount while turning in circles as Joy really, really did not want to be ridden. So the header would have to hold Joy while the mounter would have to run in circles while trying not to be caught by the kicking leg by the girth. Also, Joy did not respond to bits. There were no brakes. Her mouth was completely dead. No fealing whatsoever. Joy however was a wonderful mom and had beautful foals. There was one colt born who was slow to stand upon birth and she would thump it so harshly we thought she'd kill it. Spoiler, she did indeed save that foal's life. There was one black bay mare up the street that we passed by on the daily. After 3 days of trying out this mare, she decided she was having none of it and kicked at us when we went to catch here. the first 2 days were great though. |
