First, a white horse. Look at this beauty to wish upon.
Horse at the Pomona Horse 2012 Expo last Saturday.
In the year 2000, on my birthday, I found my Arabian mare Duchess. She was twenty-four at the time of purchase, and lived for another 5 years, a wonderful horse who eased me back into riding after a 40 year hiatus, and raised my two fillies. I bet she could out-walk any horse in the Willamette Valley, and coming down the steep incline above our house, with its Oregon rain slippy-slide, she would dance on nimble feet, head up, a smile on her face, and together, avoiding the tree branches, we would sail down that path as though on a roller coaster.
I rode Duchess until she became arthritic, and then she played with the other two horses and served as the great grand dame until she moved on to the great pastures in the sky.
Today for my birthday Daughter Darling gave me a FICTIONAL $20,000 and told me to buy something spectacular. So I am buying a FICTIONAL Gypsy Vanner horse. (See why I am into horses today.) Gypsy Vanners were bred to pull Gypsy wagons, they are sturdy, gorgeous horses known for their gentle disposition and beauty with white feathers on their ankles and manes that flow past their shoulders. Often they are a paint, and most commonly black and white, but they come in virtually all colors, I found a gorgeous buckskin on line. (Did you notice I said FICTIONAL?)
http://lakeridgegypsy.com/
Gypsy Vanner Cherakee Princess--shown with her foal.) A Dream Horse.
The Horse Expo this past Saturday spurred me into horse-nostalgia. It took me back to the first time I saw a demonstration in Salem Oregon by Pat and Linda Parelli that knocked my socks off, plus my cowboy boots, and my jacket as well. Horses by the droves raced into the arena, jumping picnic tables, running, and trailer loading themselves complete with a rider. There were horses circling, lying down for their rider to mount, and being ridden with no bridles. I signed up for the Parelli method, and used it in gentling my two fillies Velvet and Sierra.
For my non-horsey friends, forgive me my trip into nostalgia. For my horsey friends—Life’s a ride, come on…but first, a horse of a different color...
A blue Gypsy Vanner.
The blue color on the horse is its natural born color, the only blue Gypse Vanner in the US. The blur behind the girl is her wings.
P.S. Horse Husbands
My own Husband Dear was one of the best, supportive, encouraging, going to events with me, feeding horses when I was gone, and even driving the 5 hour drive to Burns Oregon, first to view mustangs, then to pick up 12 x 20 foot run-in barn kit I lusted after. On top of that with his partner, they smoothed the ground and assembled that barn from the ground up. Two physicists, lifting steel supports, screwing in metal siding, cutting boards for the interior. I would often hear such phrases as, "We have cumulative error. It's a parallelogram now."
Velvet and Sierra in the run-in barn that physicists built. The goats, Orville and Wilbur, can be seen behind the horses
by Jolene McDowell on January 25, 2012
Have you noticed most of the people on Parelli Connect are women? So where are all the men?
Jamie: My husband is not a rider. I started to say “not a horse lover,” but that is not quite true. While he is not comfortable around them himself, he totally supports my horse addiction, even enabling it. Read more...
http://parelli.com/
