In memory of War Valiant

["Karen Vining" <viningkk@hotmail.com>]

	WAR VALIANT
	2/27/80 - 3/11/98

My valiant little gelding, "Val", went on to greener pastures this 
spring after a freak accident on a lovely flat hay field caused him to 
suffer a badly fractured right front leg.  Val and I were an endurance 
team from 1984-1995, during which time he achieved 3005 lifetime AERC 
miles.

Janet Crawford rescued Val as a scrawny 4-yr-old from a pasture full of 
boarders in which Val was evidently the lowest on the pecking order.  
She thought he was "such a cute little horse", but when she got him home 
and got to studying his crooked legs and diminutive size, she decided to 
try to unload him on me.  I looked at him and thought he might make a 
good 4-H horse for my daughter Velma, and he did have such a cute 
head......  After riding him out a few times with the girls on training 
rides on the ranch, it became clear that he was not going to make 
anybody a 4-H horse.  He was so very competitive!  He wanted to be up 
front at all times and he continually told me that he could beat whoever 
was up there; " Just let me go!"

I worked very hard trying to condition him slowly and keep him traveling 
slowly enough that I could keep him sound.  He learned to flip his head 
just in a certain way so that he could grab the shank of the hackamore 
bit in his mouth and go like heck.  After he nearly ran us into a tree 
at Sun River doing that, I switched him to a Quick bit with a curb mouth 
and that foiled him somewhat.

When I rode by myself, he would spend the whole ride looking ahead 
looking for the next grey horse.  My son Cliff rode my grey mare, B.B., 
and later Velma rode the grey gelding, Rishad.  When we would catch up 
to a grey, he would stick out his nose for a quick sniff to see who it 
was--rats!  Wrong horse!  So off he'd go again, pulling on me to let him 
go his own speed.

I only allowed him to do his own thing on two rides.  On one Chief 
Paulina ride I was cantering along about halfway through the fifty, and 
a male rider looked over at me and asked in astonishment, "Do you always 
ride this fast?"  Val and I were passed by three riders in the last 
mile, and he didn't care.... We finished 5th ; he was tired but in good 
shape.  The other was the ‘88 Windsong Breeze which we finished in 3 
hours, 42 minutes.  I would never believe that we did it that fast 
except it's engraved on my keyring!

After retirement from endurance, Val was leased to the Boy Scouts of 
America for use at Camp Fife, near Naches, WA.  He served with honor, 
carrying boys of all sizes and riding experience in the summers for four 
years with never a disgraceful episode.  This past winter the Boy Scout 
herd was disbanded, and Val and his fellow retirees, Rishad and Ben,  
were leased to a fellow in Selah with a lot of teenage grandchildren  
who wanted horses to ride.  They were getting ridden 2-3 times a week 
and were being greatly enjoyed.  I'm so sorry he had to suffer the pain 
of the accident, but there are no regrets or blame–he had good hay, good 
company, and a beautiful ranch to live on with people who were truly 
enjoying him.  But it's hard to say goodbye forever to such a good 
friend.
Karen Vining

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