They're paint mares! Only one looks like the typical paint, but all are beautifully colored and marked and are registered with APHA. We just got them Friday and I can't believe that it's all really happened. Kenny and I have wanted horses for pleasure riding for a while ~ thought next year would be best to get them. But a series of events started happening that told us it was a meant to be thing, and we just rode right along with it. Man, I'm glad we did!
Here's the long story hopefully short...
A dear friend of mine's daughter, Kris, is in college in Arizona (just got accepted to UofA last week! YAY, Kris!). She has an APHA stallion who has deep sentimental value to her ~ her fiance who died in a car crash eighteen months ago gave him to her as an engagement gift. Sandy, my friend, was supposed to move onto a house with acreage so she could keep the horse with her. A weird chain of happenings have kept her from getting the property she was lined up to get, or any others, so I told them to keep him here with the mare also until a place is found for them. Kris had been trying and trying to find someplace to board him, but him being a stud horse it was a no-go for anything better than a 20'x20' box stall with NO interaction from anyone but Kris, not even feeding. She called her mother in tears, saying she couldn't do that to him and thinking she may have to get rid of him. She asked her mother if there was any way I would let her keep him here ~ she'd pay me, buy feed, let me use him for stud and I could keep the babies, whatever it took to keep him here (Kris calls my place "Horsey Heaven". ;). Sandy asked Kenny and me and I said of course! The very next day, I looked in the newspaper thinking we could afford one APHA registered mare or just a couple nice non-papered ones. I saw an ad for "AQHA & APHA mares. $700-$1500." My jaw dropped. Sadly, the woman who owned them had been in a car accident and could no longer care for her forty-some horses, hence the cheap prices ~ she couldn't afford feed anymore. We left out of here Friday noon and came back by 5pm, less than 48 hours after we first talked about this, with four of what I think are the most gorgeous mares I've ever seen. ;)
Only one of them is halter broke (the painted up paint mare), so we'll have to work with them a lot. But Kenny has a good bit of experience with that, so we should be riding soon! Kenny says a couple months, but with our ToDo list, I know better ~ it'll be this winter probably. ;)
We benefit from keeping the foals from a well-bred stud and having access to Kris's brain (she's in school to get an equine business degree and already has an impressive list of accomplishments related to the horse world). Kris benefits because not only can she concentrate on her studies knowing she can claim her horse when she's done, but he'll have a nice portfolio of babies to show off when she does! :)
And to think I would have kept him here for nothing except knowing I helped take some worry off her while she's in school. Kris is a GREAT kid. I LOVE win-win situations like these! :)
This message was edited Monday, Jul 14th 4:39 PM
