Trail Rides...2010

Life at the MRR (and Little Dew visit)

A New riding buddy....Shrek

On June 29, a new baby....Kachina

She is SUCH a good mom!

Pick Up....Jan 30, 2010

We took some grand kids to see the curlies...

And cuddle them...

And yay....no allergic reactions!

Wildbound tried out a nice little mare for sale....Peaches...If I hadn't been already buying Spirit...I would have bought this horse...even if she was a perlino!

New Home at last after a 6 hour trailer ride...into the wintry grip of the North Country.

The First Visit to Zion's Gait

We arranged to visit (I think on Dec. 21).  It was cold and windy.  The horses were all in their winter coats.  We tried Spirit out and it was a done deal.  Down payment and arrangements to complete the deal and pick her up within 2 months.

After that, as I looked at her pedigree and colors, etc. I suddenly remembered to back when I was about 12 or 13.  I lived in a horse fantasy world.  I made up horse names, had make believe horse races and made up my dream horse, a buckskin mare named SunTan.  I made up her pedigree.  She was sired by a gorgeous golden Palomino stallion named SunDial and her dam was a dark bay named Sultana.  I would have put her as black, but I didn't think a buckskin could be produced from a palomino/black combination.  I had no idea of the complexity of horse genetics.
As I looked at Spirit's pedigree, I discovered she was sired by a Palomino stallion out of a Black mare!...which is of course possible, but the percentages are much lower of getting a buckskin out of that combination.

The Enticing Ad --December 2009

A series of events occurred that revealed Wayfarer was due for retirement.  He had given us a season of wonderful rides--Antelope Island, North Fork, Snow Basin, Uintas, Bunchgrass, Blind Hollow as well as countless Canal road rides.  We had been looking casually throughout the summer, visiting horse farms in Montana and Wyoming.  I wasn't looking particularly for a gaited horse, but did enjoy their comfortable rides.  I wanted comfort and disposition first in a trail horse.  Didn't really care if it was registered, or what color or breed.  We looked seriously at Rocky Mountain horses and found one here in Utah, but after trying him out, he just didn't have the training or the gait we wanted.  The horse in Wyoming only paced, which was more uncomfortable than a trot.  The magnificent horses in Montana were were not trained to canter, in spite of their high price tags.  Around the middle of December, I got a mysterious, sudden, pain in my shoulder.  It finally subsided and disappeared after various energy and emotional work.  (Later, After seeing the ad for Spirit, it occurred to me that my mysterious pain was in the same shoulder that Wayfarer had serious arthritic pain in.  I took it as a sign that he was done. He has given us 13 or so years of services and so, at the age of 22 1/2 he deserves retirement.)

I had been watching a horse farm in Hurricane, Utah for a couple of years, just out of curiosity after seeing articles on them in "Trail Rider" magazine. At the end of May when we were in So. Utah,  I seriously was going to visit them about a Missouri Fox trotter they had for sale named "Morgan" who was expecting a foal by a "curly" stallion named Vegas.  That never worked out. That horse was sold and eventually gave birth to a bay straight haired foal.

Setting: A visit to St. George was planned to help Bethany move.  Just for "fun" I looked to see if Zion's gait curlies has any horses for placement at this time.  I saw this web page, viewed the videos....

http://zgcurlies.com/menu/spirit/index.html


and the rest, they say is history.  I immediately e-mailed Wildbound and said "I think I'm in Love"....take a look.