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My favorite horse is my first horse. She was a surprise Christmas gift when I was 10, and we still have her. She’s the sweetest horse (especially for being a chestnut mare lol) and her name (Honey) reflects that. I outgrew her (she’s 14.1hh and I ended up being 5’8”) so now she’s being free leased to a trainer that has her teaching the littles to trot and canter.

My favorite horse was a mustang bought from the BLM in Wyoming by my grandma and giving to my cousin as a 6 month old foal.The first standing guild I saw was on him when I was about 10 years old.I grew up with him. I remember skipping school to go ride. I was young and fit enough to swing up on him at the time. All you needed to ride him was a piece of twine. We both grew and got older. I was 24 I received a call from my aunt. He had foundered :(. I was asked to come ride him daily. I did and he improved quickly. He did not trust many people at that time. Myself and my cousin were the only ones he never put on the ground. Man I miss that big bonded red man.

I have so many favorites, but my first lease horse has a special place in my heart. Santana was a standard bred gelding that didn't do too well on the tracks. So his owner and I used him for hikes, western, dressage, jumping and endurance. He loved going fast on hikes, so the first couple of years I could only gallop him up long steep hills because he was going crazy fast, and he wasn't slowing down until he was tired. :P

My favorite was a Quarter Horse/Percheron mare I used to lease, Bella. She was a major diva, and she made you work to catch her, but she was a super hard worker, you could trust her with anyone, and she loved running on the beach!

This is so hard because I have been blessed with many great horses in my life… but I can narrow it down to three.

The horse who trained me - When I was six years old my parents decided I’d outgrown my pony and got me a little 9yo line bred Poco Bueno bred sorrel quarter horse mare. Poco Misty Lady (Misty) was the kind of horse that an experienced rider could hop on and win money at ranch roping, sorting or team penning, but would shift into slow gear babysitter mode if you put a kid on her. She was excellent at rating her rider and being just perfect for whatever role she needed to be in. She knew a heck of a lot more than I did and was the kindest most patient teacher a child could have ever hoped to have. She carried me through peewee, then high school, and on into college rodeo. She retired at 27 and I was blessed to have her in my life until she was 37 years old. She is the reason that I have a soft spot for little red quarter horse mares to this day.

The first horse I trained - when I was 15 years old I had grown confident enough in my training skills that I was ready for a challenge. After much begging and pleading my parents finally relented and let me adopt my first mustang. Belle Starr was a beautiful little 6yo silver buckskin mare. She was only 13.3 hands, but looked just like a tiny andalusian and had more heart than any horse I have had the privilege to ride. After all the initial trial and error, she shaped into the most amazing little equine ATV I have ever had the joy to ride! You could take that little horse places that well trained mules would refuse to go! You could hunt deer from her back and haul them home. You could ride her hard all day over rough terrain and she’d hardly break a sweat. She had cow sense and would keep the meanest mama cows off of you while you were doctoring a calf. She would jump anything you asked her to, with scope! She could leave my friends quarter horses and thoroughbreds in the dust on our little quarter mile grass track and earned me lots of extra pocket money. I competed in and won my first endurance ride with her when she was 13, and we kept competing together until she was 22. I literally put thousands of miles on that little mare and every one of those miles was fun! I lost Belle to a lightning strike when she was 24.

The horse who restored my confidence - fast forward to four years ago… I had taken a retired rodeo broc on as a training project. He’d been coming along great, but then I accidentally rode him through a Yellowjacket nest and found out just how suitable he had been for his prior career! I came out of it with four broken ribs, a busted sternum, a punctured lung, a broken wrist, and severely shaken confidence… I didn’t bounce as good as I did when I was younger! After almost a year of not training, my mentor practically made me get back on when he volunteered me to train a horse for an elderly client of ours that we shoe horses for. Slim Pickens (Slim) was a 10yo, 16.3hh Tennessee Walking Horse who had 60 days of training as a three year old but then had been turned out to pasture and hadn’t been touched since. He’d forgotten everything he knew, but he picked it back up super fast eagerly went on to higher learning. He had the most comical personality I had ever met, his sense of humor was hilarious. He was the smartest, quickest learning horse I’d ever worked with, and the most eager to please… if you showed him once he remembered, and he would do anything you asked of him just for a neck scratch and an “atta boy”. He is so responsive it’s almost like he can read your mind. Two years ago, the gentleman that I finished Slim out for had a stroke, and he gave Slim to me. This horse amazes me every day with his willingness, intelligence, and goofy personality! He just keeps getting better and better! We are currently preparing for our first year of Extreme Cowboy Race competitions. I look forward to the years to come with my amazing big goofy boy! I had alway preferred short, sassy, red stockhorse mares; I never would have pictured myself having a tall, black, gaited, goofball gelding… but I wouldn’t trade him in for nothin’!


Bonus: Favorite horse in the game - when I first started playing I was gifted a custom stallion to get me stated. I was so now to the game that at the time I don’t think I truly realized what an amazing gift he was. He is the foundation cornerstone stallion of my herd on this server.


*1G DressedToTheNines B

15k have been sent to everyone. Please let me know if I missed anyone :)

Thanks for participating, RG1234

That's so generous!

Thank you! I enjoyed this event; reading everyone's stories was fun!