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OK, nothing to do right now but make periodic dashes to the barn to see
if a war had commenced, so I'll tell ya'll my story. It's a good'un. :-)

My buddy Suzanne Solice called a couple of weeks back and she was on the
hunt for a second horse because she likes to compete so much she was
afraid she'd hurt the good one she's got going. She's like me, decided
that 50's are just legging up and we WANT do do 100's again! (Takes more
than just wanting to..you have to find the right horses!)  Suzanne really
likes the Samtyr lines and mentioned them. We were talking about possible
horses and then I said, "Hey, there was a guy here in town who used to
race Arabs and I heard he's in bad shape and has some stallions that are
just down in a field getting hungry, let me see what I can find out about
them."  Called up a woman who I knew did endurance very successfully on
some of his horses (Linda Norton) and she said she'd heard the same thing
and was getting ready to go check on them.  What we learned was that the
old fellow was near death and Hospice had been called in. 24 year old
late in life son isn't that interested in horses and just sort of figured
they could take care of themselves out in that 30 acre field. Turns out
Linda had taken them round bales last year to keep them from going
without.

I drove over and was shocked (I don't shock easy). The horses were
hungry, but not what you'd call *starved* yet, but there was a 6 year old
Samtyr grandson whose feet had grown out and hadn't chipped off until
they looked like a normal hoof, with 4 and 5" long "flower pedals" of
hoof out to the sides. If you could have entered that sucker in a
swimming race he'd have been something else. He was about 14.2, deep in
the heart, nice back, good low knees but couldn't watch him move since he
walked like a 2 year old kid wearing his daddy's army boots. In the same
field was his 12 year old sire, also a Samtyr grandson (which made the 6
year old double Samtyr since his dam was an own daughter to Samtyr). and
there was a heavier built dark bay with 3 socks that was a 7 year old
stallion. We were just calling them 6, 7 and 12 to keep them straight. I
was taking photos and describing them to Suzanne on the phone. The 7 year
old was following me around very friendly for petting. None were broke,
only the 12 year old had ever been off the place. They had been led from
the mare field a mile down the road when they got too old to run with
them. The five year old stallion was running with the mares. The owner's
son was just *sure* he was 3! 

I got someone to contact the fellow and make an offer...just for the sake
of the horses. However,  in his eyes these were *valuable* race horses
and were just fine where they were. Soon met a woman who had happened by
one day, noticed them hungry and had gotten involved. She had been buying
all the hay they were getting out of her own pocket, had paid vet bills
when the owner said he didn't have the money. She was at her wits end
since she'd gotten involved, wanted out, but felt sorry for the horses.
She had even tried to buy the 7 year old though she had no experience
with horses at all, but the owner said "he's way too valuable to geld"
and would only sell with breeding rights. Even when he agreed the others
could be gelded he insisted the 7 year old not be :-P 

That was what threw me. Why the 7 year old? I looked up his pedigree. His
name is JA Hallys Eclipse. His sire did not race and he was its only son.
His grandsire only won $9,000...no great shakes. He had no sign of the
Samtyr horses. Why this one? He looked kinda clunky for racing but I
really liked his heavy legs, big feet and *large* joints. This guy had 4
stallions. The 5 & 6 year olds were full brothers, sons of the 12 year
old stallion and sons of the guy's most valuable brood mare the Samtyr
daughter. Does this sound like a well thought out breeding operation?  I
wasn't really looking for another horse but felt sorry for these guys and
knew that as scarce as hay is now it will be *nonexistant* this winter
and these guys were going to starve.  Finally the guy agreed he should
sell the 6 & 12 year olds, but *never* the 7. WHY???? I wondered. Suzanne
had paid for the arabdatasource for the month and got so tired of me
asking her to look things up she let me use her account. Here's what a
bit of detective work yielded.

The seven year old's sire didn't race, but he's doing endurance now, as a
matter of fact he did the OD 50 this Spring.  His grandsire was the
$9,000 winner named MHF Eclipse...oops, wait, check the Cre Run website.
LOOK AT THE PHOTO OF THAT SUCKER! 
http://www.crerun.com/stallions/index.html (scroll to the bottom of the
page)  Says that he's the "foundation sire of Cre Run" Turned out he
sired 75 or so horses (he died young) and they won lots of money. As I
scanned the names of owners I saw Becky Hart. What?  So, looked up that
horse's record. "Aleclipse"...DUH! That's who Heather won the AERC
National Championship on a couple of years ago. 10  BCs, 8 100's,
finished Tevis, etc. etc. So...that's Seven's sire's 1/2 bro. Kept
looking...SS Yankee Clipper is another 1/2 bro. to his sire. 2,160 miles,
7 100 milers, 7th at OD! Then there was Shezuntouchable 755 miles, 5 BC's
almost all top 5. Now I'm feeling guilty since I thought I let Suzanne
get the better bred horse. Then I checked out Seven's dam. His dam,
Hallanys Countess produced 5 projeny. Seven's 1/2 bro. Jamag Hallany has
1050 endurance miles and has done one 100. Seven's 1/2 sister (ridden as
Comet in AERC) Jamag Comet has done 400 endurance miles and quite a few
LD's. On the LD's she tends to be 1st & BC.  She was 2nd & BC on her 2nd
50. Then she did the OD 100 for her first 100 and was 8th and had high
vet score. Comet has a son, (out of the same sire as the 6 year old which
Suzanne bought) named Jamag Golden Boy He's got 755 miles...has done the
OD 100 3 for 3 (one was the NC) and also 2 2 day 100's. OK, I still don't
know why this guy wants to breed Seven for race horses, but I'm thinking
he needs to do endurance!

More detective work told us he had already received 60 days notice,
(which had passed) for the mares to be taken off the mare's field. Then
even better, the Power Company needed to get to their lines in the
Stallion field and when they looked up the records to see who had the
field leased to get the gate opened they found that nobody had paid the
lease in 18 years and it was about $10,000 behind in rent. :-) Owner got
30 days notice, suddenly decides it's time to sell, Suzanne & I got new
horses. :-)) 

A while back people asked "do you get a horse vetted". Well, all I can
tell you is Suzanne bought her 6 year old Samtyr grandson without seeing
him in the flesh, just saw the photos I sent which included his "daisy
feet". I bought mine without ever seeing him break into a trot. I still
haven't seen him trot. I guess ya just gotta have *faith*. >g<  I was
thrilled that mine got in the trailer with minimal rump roping and made
it to the house and into the pen I had reinforced, but the soonest I can
get his "brain surgery" is Tues.:-( Suzanne is pretty sure her horse
isn't even broke to lead, so the vet's meeting her before they get him
off the trailer (he required maximal rump roping). He was awfully
tolerant of us though and never offered to kick even when ropes touched
his hind feet, etc. Scared, but not mean. 

I still LOVE Gunner. After buying a well broke horse I thought I'd sworn
off this kind of crap and hearing a 7 year old stallion out there
screaming at my good horses worries me to death till he meets the Dr.,
but this boy was way too promising to leave there and who the heck else
would want him right now? NOBODY BUT US, that's who. The best thing about
getting a 2nd horse is that it tends to make your first horse stay sound.
Right on target, when I said I'd buy this horse the vet pronounced Gunner
much better and told me to resume training. :-) Maybe I'll hit the
jackpot and be like Suzanne and have 2 up and going. :-D If Suzanne and I
both get 100 mile horses out of 2 that we never saw break into a trot
we're going to have to laugh. If they bomb...well heck, what did we
expect? >g<

Also, Linda Norton went to a ton of effort to help get these horses where
they won't go hungry. She negotiated with the owner and convinced him he
needed to do this. She took the 5 year old stallion to her own place and
is paying to geld him and get him going so he can be sold, along with
some other well bred mares. If anyone is interested in Samtyr bloodlines
this little (he's small) 5 year old is Samtyr grandson plus more Samtyr
on sire's side, 1/2 brother to Jamag Golden Boy (the 3 100's on the OD
trail horse) He didn't miss any meals and his feet were OK. He's friendly
for petting but hasn't done anything. I have photos if  you're
interested. There's also a 15 year old mare named Bandoll that is built
STRONG that Linda's neice broke to ride 3 years ago and came in 2nd & BC
and I believe won another LD. They said the Comet mare they have that's
done so well wasn't broke till she was 14.

P.S. As for the name "Seven" He is the 7th horse I've personally owned
for endurance. 7 was my softball number growing up. I was trying to close
the deal on 7/7/07, and he was "the 7 year old". I got him today, 7/13
(Friday). I like Friday 13 since my dad was born Friday 13 and was 13th
grandchild on both sides of his family, I was born on the 13, and Josie
was born Friday 13. So, I was glad to get him on 7/13/07 :-))

Off to see if things have settled down any out there.


Angie McGhee
http://www.lightersideofendurance.com


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