"All The Best"

 2.5.22

One more for this evening... I was sort of looking for another horse to use for teaching riding lessons. That sounds as though the ones I had in the past had been all used up and sold. Not so.

I only would buy a horse when I absolutely saw a big need for it.   A pal of mine mentioned that she'd seen a nice smaller App mare for sale in a horse paper. I called and lo n' behold- the mare was located in Illinois! She was older, in foal, and had bloodlines like crazy.  Top, foundation lineage- almost regal in heritage. The owner was super- she sent me photos, and a short video of this mare, and wrote over and over again how marvelous this little mare was. She was great on trails, had been to the Appaloosa Worlds twice in youth classes- western pleasure, English pleasure- even some little 'jumps'. It seems they had purchased a stallion that was too close in genetics to this mare and she was for sale...

 I discussed it with the husband and as usual, he said that if I thought it was a good horse- go for it.  I put $500 down and we tried to figure out a good weekend to drive out to pick her up.

 We decided on the weekend in the middle of September that year, It turns out it was the first weekend after 9/11 hit... We decided it would be alright and headed out towards Illinois. I took my American Bulldog, Petey, along with us as I didn't want to put him in a kennel for the weekend and it was also a good way to get him used to riding in the truck.

We had an uneventful trip out, but it was a huge event! Every overpass we went under, there were American flags (from small ones being waved to HUGE ones hung or held so all could see). There were flags waving from the back of pick up trucks, out the windows of cars and motorcycles!  Oh- the bikes... Burly tattooed guys riding in large groups, lights flashing, and yes, American flags on each one. It was just wonderful to see it all! Most of the exits had flags hanging below each marker.  All of the interstates were all but covered w/ American Flags, signs of support, and caring for those that died when the Twin Towers were destroyed. Sadly, I had not thought to bring a camera- we were driving to pick up a horse and I'd already seen what she was like. It wasn't long before I wished I had.

We arrived pretty much on time and I realized that place was not as I'd been led to believe. Old buildings- trying their best to fall down. Very little in the way of manure pick up and pieces of binder twine used to hold wire fencing together. The horses all looked terrific though, which gave me hope. I saw a gorgeous colored colt in a sort of stall- and was told that it was " Alli's" foal from the year before. Omg- he was Beautiful!! She took me to see the stallion that Alli had been bred to- and I was not happy. He was pony-sized, black w/ a big blanket. I was told that he'd been starved as a youngster and had been stunted.  Nodding, I thought- okay, that makes sense. He was a sweetie - personality-wise.  :)  

I asked where the mare was and the owner pointed to a raggedy thin brown mare with one eye standing in the muck.  Oh lordy- what did I buy!!?? I walked over to her and realized her right eye was completely gone and had been stitched together properly. She wasn't shy around me at all, which was great. This little mare- even with the crud on her, shaggy winter coat leftovers, a badly trimmed set of hooves, and one eye would look much better once she was in Maryland. She was incredibly sweet too. I got horse snuggles, and 'kisses' on my shirt plus she began 'telling' me about who she was and had been at one time. I was falling in love with her even before she had a halter on. I told her 'Come on, old mare' and she followed right behind me. In fact, I imagine I'd not have needed a halter to load her. I put a fly mask on her so if something flew in our trailer, her eyes, um, eye... would be protected. We did the money thing, I got her papers signed over to me and the 'in foal' forms, and off we went.

 Petey had been wanting to get out to do his afternoon walk but I didn't feel comfortable letting him out until we were quite a distance away. Wow, was he ever grateful!! He was such a wonderful puppy the whole trip- ate his food, drank weird-tasting water, and did his bathroom things - I was very proud of him! 

We stopped a few times on the trip home and Alli was such a good traveler I wasn't concerned about her having problems.  When we'd take a break to let her rest, I'd get some water for her, and open the trailer door only to be greeted by a soft nicker... 

 I was in love, no doubt about it. For almost 20 years, I'd raised, trained, and shown Appaloosa horses and Alli once again had opened my heart up to those spotty-bodied horses.