The Family Horses
My barnyard includes four horses currently as well as dogs, cats, rabbits, and chickens, and no I don’t live on a farm. I lease land to board our horses. The story of us getting horses started in 1987, when I left for the Marine Corps and my wife (at that time, she was my girlfriend) whom I had been dating for the past three years followed me and we got married. She rode and showed horses for years and I felt bad about taking her away from all that, to follow me.
So when we finally got settled and stopped moving every three years to a new location. I got her back into horses as soon as I could.
In this case, it was a local horse rescue that we volunteered for. Our first horse was Maya, she is a draft/quarter horse mix and has she has what is known as Equine Wobblers Syndrome (Wobbles) no one wanted her, so we adopted her and a “lawn ornament” (a horse that can’t ever be ridden). This was the way for my wife to get somewhat back into horses. She quickly fell in love with a red roan at the rescue named “Quincy Sox”, so we adopted him as well, so Maya would have a friend and he was ridable so that would be the in for my wife to start riding again. Both Maya and Quincy Sox were 2004 babies that the rescue had rescued from the slaughterhouse.
Then my daughter (who was like 2 years old at the time) fell in love with a little colt whom we adopted and she named “Good-a-lot” after her love for Care Bears. Over time she shortened his name to “Goodie”. Goodie was a clown and he and our daughter got along famously she would spend hours reading to him in a stall. She soon learned to ride and the two of them were very tight.
Our son fell in love with a pregnant miniature mare named “Dixie” who came to the rescue pregnant and with the father of the baby, his name was Midnight. Dixie foaled Rebel in 2007 and we adopted the whole family.
Sadly Quincy Sox for sick in 2012 and passed away. Good-a-lot contracted Potomac Horse Fever in 2105 and passed away as well. Later that same year, Midnight passed away one winter night, from what best can be described as old age. That was a very rough time for our family.
Our son outgrew horses so our daughter took over caring for the miniature family. She was a natural at training and in a few short years had Rebel, pulling a cart and jumping nearly his own height.
In 2013 our daughter fell in love with a wild Mustang that had been brought to rescue along with her mother. My daughter started to gentle the Mustang and it wasn’t long until she was eating her lunch in the hay rounder with the Mustang. She adopted the Mustang “Justina” in 2014 and has since gentled her, trained her, and has her under saddle.
