I've finally decided to start a blog though I have no clue what the hay I’m doing. What the heck, if I flop I can stop (ooou). My husband says I should have no problem because I always have a story to tell, and am never at a loss for words. When it comes to horses I go on, and on, and on, far beyond where any sane person should go. How to begin is the question. Perhaps I should start with the name of my blog, A Pale Horse.
As a child I read everything I could find on horses taking out 6 books a week (that’s all you were allowed at the library), and returned them the following week only to have the librarian say “You know you don’t have to read them all in one week.” My reply was always the same, “I know,” and back I would be the next week returning, and taking out six more.
Saturday mornings were the best. I’d get up quietly and tip toe down the hall to my parent’s room and closing their door as gently as I could. Back to my room I’d go, pick up my book and read until my parents awoke and kicked me out of bed. I’d quickly get dressed and next was the TV. I watched every horse program regardless of how many times I’d seen that episode. Remember Sky King, Fury, Flicka and of course Roy Rodgers & Dale Evens. Now you know how old I must be.
My favorite horse was buttermilk. She was so beautiful with her pale crème color and her black mane & tail with black points on her legs. Now I know she was a double dilute buckskin. Then she was just my favorite horse.
Meeting my husband was a fairy tale dream come true, not only because it was love at first sight and as I always tell him, the perfect man for me, but he was also a horse trainer and totally understood my addiction to horses, though I hadn’t ridden in over 25 years and I’d never had lessons, or owned a horse. It was he who introduced me to Arabians. He likes them because they are always challenging. They keep you on your toes. They are great tricksters, remember everything, and are very lovey dovey. Basically they are oversized puppy dogs. It was also my husband who informed me that Arabians don’t come in Buckskin. I was devastated. I finally find the love of my life and he says if I want an Arabian it can’t be a Buckskin. How could he?
Well it’s nigh unto 18 years later, and I have my Buckskin. Ok, so he’s a half-Arabian stud colt, but I got my Arabian Buckskin. In comes Aur Sierra Magic AKA Little Big Man.
It took six months after our marriage to get our first horse. Two years later we bought two two year olds so he could have a horse of his own to start at the beginning, and of course I had to have a baby too. A number of years later we bred his mare since he had never started with a young’un, and that was that. Whether we new it or not we were on the roller coaster ride of being Arabian horse breeders. Mind you this was all for him by my suggestion and to my great delight. Seriously, we are both to blame. He brought home the flier for the stallion we first bred to, and he brought home the video of our first stallion so I can’t say it’s all my fault.
Breeding half-Arabians took some talking, however. In the back of my brain I still wanted my Buckskin. I would spend hours looking at horses at night after he went to bed, or early in the morning before I went to work. Lightning was the horse that broke the ice. We sold a filly to a now friend, and she just happened to have bred her mare to a Cremello QH racing stud. The filly had both a crème and dun gene with a base color of black, a Gruella. When they moved to Florida, they boarded their horses with us until they found a place. I of course fell in love with her filly and we made a deal.
I couldn’t get a Buckskin with her but I could get a Palomino or Dun crossed with our chestnut stallions. Besides she was a little sweetheart and still is today. A few years later I managed to convince my husband that we should breed half-Arabians as well. We acquired a beautiful Bay Saddlebred-Arabian cross mare and then I found the stallion that would give me everything I had dreamed of as a child. He’s a sable crème champagne dun, or a triple dilute Buckskin. My husband agreed and last year we bred Angel (100%CMK) to Sierra Hesa Chief from Flying Fox Ranch.
Eleven months I had to wait to see if I got any, or all of the dilute colors, if it were a stud colt, or filly, and most important, if it were a colt, he had to have the conformation, disposition, and intelligence to keep as a stud colt. You have no idea how agonizing those eleven months were. Finally about 10:00 at night Angel dropped her foal. It was a boy, it was a buckskin, and he was soooo big. No wonder Angel moved as though she was carrying a freight train, she was. He was as big, if not bigger, than our two-week-old filly. I call all the babies little girl, or little boy until they let us know what their name is. This was no little boy, this was a Little Big Man. Though we’ve not had him DNA tested, he very well may have gotten all three dilute genes and he possibly is a Sable Buckskin.
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