Just for fun ...

[TrueColours]

Who are the well known people / trainers / riders / owners that have come to see your horses and/or bought them? :) And were these homebreds that were near and dear to your hearts as well?

It should be a fun trip down Memory Lane for most of us Im sure ... :)

Years ago I bought this little Anglo Arabian yearling gelding from a friend of ours. He probably only matured to 15.2-15.3hh at most ... He was little but man was he ever mighty! He was as tough as nails, quick as greased lightning and jumped everything in sight.

I loaned him to the Junior International Team and Markus Fuchs (now of the Swiss Team) got the ride on him and he jumped his heart out and put in several clear rounds on him. Afterwards he was sold to Mario Deslaurier and he was Mario's first Open Jumper and Mario got some fabulous wins on him in the Open Speed classes before he was retired :)

Another Rhinelander gelding I owned could jump anything. I mean you could not build a jump too high for him or too wide either. I got the brilliant idea to contact Nick Skelton while he was in town for the Royal Winter Fair to come and see him which he did. There is Nick in the middle of the arena setting up these HUGE honking jumps and me going "Oh S#!# he is actually expecting ME to jump THAT?!" and bless Callahan's heart - he jumped everything with room to spare despite the crappy spots I am sure I gave him to jump from! :)
But - how could I say "Uh ... no ... sorry .. that jump is a LITTLE too high for me ... can you please lower it 5 holes?! "

Jonathan Millar also came to see him but he had a wonky angled front leg and both fellows thought with the landing over big jumps time and time again, he would not be able to stay sound over the long haul. It was such a shame - he had all the talent in the world, the desire and the scope - if his breeder had had the foresight to do some corrective work on that leg from the time he was born, he might well have been a "good one" ... :)

So - those were my "10 minutes of fame". Who else has some neat tales to share with their homebreds or horses they have owned?

[Molly Malone]

I had a very well known South Western artist (pieces in museums etc) come to look at a horse I had for sale. Both she and her husband were artists, she's a sculptor and he is a jeweler. They quite liked the horse they came to see, but fell totally and unashamedly in love with my palomino tobiano colt (by Guaranteed Gold) and were devastated he was already sold.

They even contacted his current owner to try and buy him again this year! Needless to say, his current owner would rather remove his eyes with a spoon.....

So, a brush with fame rather than an actual name dropping experience :)

[Sportpony]

The only person with a name that I would consider famous ... in the respect that the name is probably recognizable in a number of places ... that ever bought a horse from me was when I was still located "out west" and had first started breeding warmbloods.

I'd bought a TB that wasn't quite what I'd hoped for, advertised him locally and Buck Branaman came, looked at him and bought him. He lived not too terribly far from me at the time ... in "western" terms, anyone within 75 miles was practically a neighbor.

But that has been my only "brush" with anyone that had any kind of a national recognition. Now I have traded stud fees ... both ways, outside stallions for my artwork and mine for someone else's artwork ... with professional artists, but regional, not really any of the "major" names who have shows in the big Phoenix galleries, unfortunately!

[MoonWitch]

Years & years ago Rodney Jenkins came to our barn to look at a sale horse and walked past my boy's stall. He stopped took a look at him & asked if he was for sale (which of course he wasn't) & I almost peed myself...:cool:

[time fault]

Richard Spooner and Susie Hutchinson were regulars when we had young hunter talent to sell. My trainer was of the old school connections and if she had anything that was going to be able to show the As she called them. She was a good diamond in the rough finder.

[TWF]

George Williams visited my home after DAD. He took one look at my little weannie Grande Celeste and told me she was a "Champagne Mover" !!! GULP :eek: really??? Saber's first warmblood foal!!! Of course having FlemmingH's full older sister as a dam didn't hurt!!:yes: Celeste took a DAD 2nd as a weanling. At 2 she was the Filly Champ at DAD. She was undefeated as a 3 yr old under saddle and made a run for the PanAM games in dressage with her owner.
I guess he was right.:winkgrin:

Scott Stewart showed two of my homebreds...:cool:;):lol: Eleventh Hour and Jazzman. Eleventh Hour had been given his new name and his KWPN name lost...Scott remembered my program and asked if he and his full Brother Jazzman were my kids!! YEP!!!

Scott loved my "Absent Art" little when he came to see him. Likewise my wonderful GQ took a little trip to NY for Scott to play with him...shame he was just a long two year old .... wayyyyy too young to take to Florida that year!