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Re: [RC] [RC] Horse Slaughter - Barbara McCraryThis reminds me of another $60 horse that ended up in our family. He was a "catch colt" by a Morgan stallion out of an unnamed, unbroke Percheron mare (the lighter variety.) He was foaled on a ranch in NE California and was eventually sent down the road in a truck and bought by another rancher. I have to fill in some assumed history, as I don't really know all of it. At some time the colt was gelded and broke to ride. The rancher who bought him tried using him for a roping horse, but he wasn't good at that. In time, the gelding was borrowed by a couple of young men who wanted to do Ride & Tie. The gelding was REALLY good at that! We first saw him when he was about 9 years old, thundering toward the finish line of the 1975 Levi's R&T. The runner had already crossed the finish line, the rider and the gelding were hot on their heels. The horse was going to be hard to stop and the rider was yelling, "Get out of the way!!!" to several spectators who had strolled across the finish line area. The great, grey freight train overran the finish line by about 1/8 mile before the rider could stop him. We saw something there in that horse. He went on to take BC and we were hooked. I found out who the owner was and called him. He said he would sell us the horse for $1250, and we are sure he was laughing all the way to the bank. This turned out to be one of those on-in-a-million horses for us. He was 16 hands, beautiful conformation and legs, and one of the best endurance horses we ever had. He worked cows, he was a consummate actor (he participated in several cavalcades) and he took my husband to a 4th in Tevis one year. I rode him on an early XP ride and discovered he was somewhat gaited, because the next step up from his fastest trot was a rack. What a horse...miss him to this day. He lived to be 32 or 33 and is buried on a spot on our ranch, along the Castle Rock trail, with a headstone that reads, "Dignity Without Arrogance..." That was the horse we called The Great Grey.Barbara ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jennifer Adam" <jatatahoe1@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 5:29 PM Subject: RE: [RC] [RC] Horse Slaughter I was referring to a certain variety of backyard breeder who thinks they can make a quick fortune by breeding their old mare to the neighbor's grumpy stud. They raise a foal that no one is all that interested in buying, but for some reason decide that maybe next time they'll produce a foal worth big bucks...and so on. I happen to know several like this... Nice people, don't get me wrong, but they don't bat an eyelash when that baby they raised ends up sold for $60 to the man with the long stock trailer... =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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