I wanted to start a new thread, a place to share our experience with an amazing horse, or four.  :)  We have all been around the block at least once in here, so I am sure there is, or was, at least one amazing horse in your life. 

For me that's a easy one her name was Nikki.She was a bay QH ,she died at age 30.She was given to me a little after the loss of my son and she was the best therapy I could have asked for. She was by far the best horse i've ever had the pleasure of being around. I believe she had 11 foals, none will I had her. I had her for around 8 years,she truly was a blessing!!

 All of my horses have been amazing in their own right, and all different.  But for me the queen of them all was the 12-yo green-broke broodmare I bought at a barn where I was boarded.  There was just something about her that said she'd be a great horse, and she was.  She went from being terrified of everything to helping me break young horses to the trail, ponying babies, showing English and running barrels, and doing anything and everything I could think of to do with a horse.  I had her for 9 years.  She had to be euthanized due to cancer in her gut.  I've had a lot of great horses, but none as willing and crazy-happy as that Three Bars QH mare.  

 OK, I started this, I may as well contribute a story about one of my amazing horses.  Normally I woud begin with my TB gelding, Owen, but this time I am going to talk a bit about my little Friesian mare, Bella.

I haven't really had Bella very long in the scheme of life, and yet she has demonstrated amazing trust in me.  I have placed this little girl in impossible situations and she handles it like a pro, like she's been doing this stuff all her life.  She is truly an amazing horse.

I had had her a little more than a year and put her in the first impossible situation.  ;)  I need to explain here that though we'd been together a year, we hadn't been together for the full year.  I travelled way too much and would be away from home for a month or more at a time.  When I was 'home' I was only able to see her for a couple hours a week, for our lesson time and grooming - yup just once a week.   So we'd had very little time together really.   Oh and riding her was only during lesson time and always only in an arena.  Ok, so it was a bit more than a year we'd been together (chronologically anyway) and I decided to take her on a 4 day Ranch Ride.  This is an annual all women ride that I 'do', and I just made up my mind that Bella was going with me.  Now, we hadn't even ridden outside an arena before together, and we'd never ridden with anyone else really, so here we were at the Ride with 49 other women on horseback!  What WAS I thinking?!?  haha

With so many in attendance the organizers decided to do a bit of "drill team" work together in their arena before we all head out on the trails together.  This was actually a great idea, as it gave all the horses a chance to be together in a bit more controlled environment.  Bella wasn't so sure about many of the new things... the flags at one end the arena, the banners hanging on the arena walls and of course going in and around all these other horses.  But she trusted me enough to try as I asked her to do.  She handled it all quite well, a bit alert at times only, but steady as she goes with her feet. 

The weekend progressed in much the same way, out we went on the trail rides daily, some days twice!   At first she was super alert but after a while she settled down and we both enjoyed the entire weekend.  The third day we had a very scary thing happen and it could have been disastrous.

This is what I mean by an amazing girl.  We were in an open area, there were long horn cattle (very scary!) not far from us.  Did I mention Bella had never seen cows before this weekend?  And now here are these really scary looking ones.  So I am buddied with another girl, the next group of riders is about 40 yards in front of us and my buddy decides to peel off from me to go investigate something, leaving us alone! (eeeeks)  Just as she got about 10 yards away and while I was urging Bella to move a bit faster so I could catch up to the group in front of me, a horse exploded into a bucking fit and ran up a hill, riderless, about 70 yards ahead and to our right.  Bella's head came way up and she of course looked in that direction, I continued to ask her to walk on, still trying to catch up to the other riders in front of us.  We got within about 20 yards of them and the riderless horse came galloping-bucking back downhill to our right (saddle was underneath the poor girl and around her rear legs!)....  horses began to explode all around us...  Bella began to dance in place (almost a lovely piaffe).  Her ears were flicking furiously to me then to the running horse and back to me.  It took me about 25 minutes to get her attention fully back on solely me, but she never did anything more than dance in place, and as I asked her to focus on me she tried to, she did really try, but with so many horses all upset... still she did listen well enough for me to circle her and work her until no matter what was going on her focus never left me.

 We not only survived the weekend quite well, it helped our relationship even more.  And no one believed it was our first time ever outside an arena together.

I have since taken her to some pretty scary places for a young horse, and she has proven to be the solid, thinking girl I have come to love and respect.   And she loves small children.  I took her to the Horse Expo that same year, just a couple months after the ranch ride.  While walking her around the grounds to help promote the breed, she would get surrounded by children.  If they were very small she would lower her head so her face was even with theirs.  She would let them pull and poke her face, eyes, ears and she would just stand there and sigh.  If she had to move her feet she would look around first and then very carefully move her feet, being so careful to not jar a small child or step on anyone.  Yup it brought tears to my eyes to watch her that entire weekend.  I walked her through the crowds and we would stop and talk with people, it was noisy and scary, she stayed right by my shoulder with just the lead rope draped there (over my shoulder as usual), no matter what was going on.  During our riding demonstrations even though she was very frightened, she listened and instantly did everything I asked of her. She is a real ambassador for her breed, because she truly shows all the qualities of temperament they usually will have. Yet I think she is super special.

That was just a bit more than a year ago.  And again this year we did the ranch ride and the horse expo.  Once again she was incredible, even better than the year prior.  And at home, I can put anyone on her.  She matches their ability; if they lose their balance she tries to stay underneath them and then she stops.  Even if I get on her bareback cause my balance on her jello-y feeling back isn't the greatest, she walks very slowly and if I wobble she stops.  Course she'll turn and look at me (like I must be daft or something) and waits until I get settled again then she sighs and walks on very slowly. She will only pick up speed as my balance gets better.

Simply an amazing girl.  I still pinch myself every day, and am sure I will for many years to come.

 WOW!!

How old is she?  You mention that Bella's "young", but how old is that? 

And can I have her?  LOLOL

I had a wonderful thoroughbred gelding I got when he was 4 and I was pretty much a beginner.  I went with my trainer to look at horses and went up and down the main barn and not one horse spoke to me and then the owner of the farm took me down to her lower barn and there he was....big, bay and beautiful (16' 2"). So we tacked him up and tried him out and he took care of me.  We jumped and all I had to do was hang on.  What a wonderful horse.  We went on to do many hunter shows together here in New England and won many ribbons. 

 I then had 2 children and had little time to ride and had 1/2 leased him to a young girl at the barn.  Her lack of knowledge ended up being his downfall.  There was a show at the barn where we boarded and there was new footing put in on the hunt course and it was deep.  She took him and schooled him in this deep footing and pulled a rear suspensory.  That was it for my beautiful hunter.  I put him on stall rest for 1 year tried everything my vet could think of to make him sound enough to be a trail horse but more importantly to make him comfortable.  After more than a year I finally had property to bring him home to.  I pampered him to death but he was in constant pain.  I had Tufts University come down and block him and he was completely lame.  I was left with no other choice than to put him down.  He was 11 years old.  It was the hardest thing I have ever done.  He was the best horse I have ever owned.  My children learned to ride with him.  My BIG BEAUTIFUL BOY!  He has been gone now 8 years (Sept 17) and he is very much missed.  MY WISEGUY! 

 He has been tatooed on my left hip....so he is always with me!

I was given an amazing horse last year. At barley 14 hands and a mustang / arab gelding- what was I thinking? At the pleading of his owner I returned 6 times to look at him and said no give him to someone eles. I and my daughter have taken some difficult cases to re-train but he was something eles. At 4 yrs old and 3 prior owners he could not be caught, groomed ( he was a tangled mess) trailered- only by running thru a cattle chute, had never had his feet done and his owner had to drug his feed to put on a halter. I decided against my better judgement to give him a chance - and I was looking for a endurance prospect- he was the right breed and had a lovely trot. In an hour I convinced him to walk into the trailer where he stood quietly and ate his hay to the amazment of his caretakers. The first time I took grain to him in his pasture of 20 acreas he pulled the pan half way across the field before eating any. Each day he pulled it a few feet less until he stood at my feet and ate. Everyone was afraid of him and he trusted no one. He is still at liitle distrustful of men- his caretakers were men which I suspect abused him- but is now the first one to the gate,comes when he's called, lounges, jumps, loves to be groomed, puts his nose in the halter and ask what would you like me to do today? He trailers very well and lifts his feet and places in your hand when you say the word foot. He has a funny way of meeting new objects- when we approach something new I tell him to touch it with his nose- he then looks at me as if to ask are you sure? I say yes it wont bite. He then streches out his neck and taps it with his nose. It is very comical.  He never questions the object again. We have riden him 3 times now with no incident. My farrier and vet are men and have no trouble with him- he has never reared up , bucked or tried to hurt anyone and has become quiet friendly. He loves to show off and is pastured with our 4 mares.I look foward to many rides on the trails with him . The little plain brown horse I once doubted has won a special place in my heart. 

My amazing horse was an old schoolmaster, bay gelding, former hunter-jumper,  toted kids around patiently class after class, day after day. Never groused about it, never bucked, nothing. Just suited up and showed up.

crystald1957:

He has been tatooed on my left hip....so he is always with me!

What is the tatoo, a picture or his name???????

 Horse in general Amaze me.  They are so willing to be our partners if we just teach them with patience and in ways they understand.  My first horse was a three in one package.  An older brood mare with a big tumm and a nice comfy back.  We rode her in a small pasture for a year before we owned a halter.  I actually never remember falling off her or getting dumped.  She worked very hard to stay under us as we galloped around the edge of the pasture and through a 4 ft opening between the fence a tree and a building. Seh gave us three pretty foals and I as a teenager with no help saddle broke two of them.  Then my parents moved into twon and she was sold along with her last foal.  I had gotten her first foal then two and riding well in my name and refused to sell her.  So she lived in various backyards and small paddocks.  I rode her on the road mostly and we had some exciting times.  I also day worked cattle on her, used her to pull calves.  I would stay by the cow and hoof the chain around the calves feet and then to a rope and back to the saddle horn and as the cow pushed I would hiss at my mare and she would pull back.  We waved a lot of calves that way. She also jumped strainght up the side of a bluff whe a cow path disintegrated with us on it.  I was grabbing the scrutrees around us and was thrown a rope by the boss at the top of the bluff I refused to leave her and hooked it to the horn not to me.  She was able to jump up a 10 ft vertical slope with me on er to save us both.  I remember the boss sitting on his big grey gelding with tears in his eyes rubbing that little mares head after that. I was too young and dumb to realize just what she had done at the time. She also jumped clean over a car when some men boxed me in on the road about 3 miles from our house. They were acting all friendly but she would have none of it.  Those guys were later convicted of raping and killing a girl and burying her about a quater mile from our house.  They had done that the weekend before my little mare went over their car to get me out of there.  Pretty Amazing. That was 40 plus years ago.  My current amazing partner is a big pretty Tobiano Gelding.  I don't require him to do quite so much to keep us safe but he is real good at standing by a fence, rock car smaller horse,  while I get on, or stretching out to be shorter, or going down on one knee  because I cannot get on in the convertional way anymore.  He does everything from cattle sorting to dressage and is now having to learn to drive.   He has  gotten between me and a loose charging stallion in a halter class. He carries my granddaughter as she learns to ride.  As a two year old he loped on quitely after my husband stirred up a fire right next to the pen by dousing it with diesel fuel..KABOOM. Pretty Amazing  He was a little sunburned weanling headed for an auction not broke to lead or handled much when I waved $300.00 cash infront of his owner and brought him home.  The next year he received thrid at the world in halter and has won three year end titles. This year our first to try dressage he qualified for the state championships, but wer were unable to go because of my health.  I am really proud of him,

I have aWONDERFUL paso mare that I have raised from a baby. She is 8 this year but will always be my baby. I am a recycled rider and thought Icould no longer ride due to back and hip pain. Rosie makes it easy. Patiently waiting for my slower mount. She is like riding a magic carpet. Even when we're not exploring a new trail, she is my best friend She will come running when called. Even in a 60 acre pasture with other horses.  She makes gettin older a blast. I wish all horsy people a horse as wonderful as my "rose without thorns"  .

I just cut & pasted a blurp out of my blog about 'the love of my life';

I grew up on a ranch in Arizona. There weren’t many other kids around (unless you consider my two siblings…but, other than torturing them, what good were they?) So, by default, my dad’s roping horse was forced into the task of being my best friend. If anyone ever deserved a medal of honor, it was him. His name was Abe (he was born on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday), and over the years during his tour of babysitting, we spray painted his feet, put curlers in his mane and tail, sprayed glitter hairspray on him so he sparkled like diamonds, and even once used blue and pink Halloween hairspray on him (which I got in trouble for, but that’s a different story.) I also  got in trouble for riding him under the low hanging patio to ring the doorbell ONCE (only once…the horrified look on my dad’s face when he answered the door told me there’d be heck to pay if I ever did anything that stupid, again.) Well, stupid is as stupid does, I guess. Abe also gave me my first and only surfing lesson. The COOL people in school were all going to move to California and be surfers when they grew up…I wanted to be cool too, so I ran home to practice up. I took a piece of baling twine and tied it in a big loop so I had ‘reins’, and I stood up barefoot on his back and got him to lope around the large catch pen at the end of my dad’s arena (Instant surfer girl, yes?) Needless to say, he turned the corner, I didn’t, and I was treated to an additional bonus flying lesson which ended at the sucker rod fence.

Aside from the antics, there were many beautiful years with my friend. We both loved going out riding at the break of dawn to watch the sky change colors, and he adored being in parades…I swear he thought they were all in his honor. When we’d rope off of him (and miss), he’d turn his head around and make a face (his eyes were so expressive, he could raise his eyebrows) that asked, ‘what the heck are you doing???’

As the years went by, I grew up and had a family of my own (still at the ranch), in which by then he was an old pro at teaching kids ‘the ropes’ in life. My kids adored him just as I had. He carried me through a divorce, and I found his old mane could hold more tears than I’d imagined.  I lost him when he was 31 years old. By then, he was affectionately known to everyone as ‘the little old man.’ The morning that I found him down, the poor small-town 911 operator got a screaming call (I know, you CAN’T do that in today’s world...but things were different then.) She dispatched the guys that had grown up with us and knew him so well. They brought out the fire truck and even put him on IV’s. Anyhow, after sleeping at the barn for a week, my little old man slipped peacefully from under my watchful eye. The morning of his funeral, I had intended to bury him with his favorite blanket. However, my dad had already buried him and told me that we were just going to have a memorial later. It had never occurred to me until that moment that that old horse was still DAD’S horse and he needed time alone to say goodbye. I still have the blanket, and I guess I’m grateful to be able to hold it from time to time.

It's funny, even after all these years, I still have very vivid dreams about him. Joanne, in one of your books, you talk about that once in a life time horse that people tend to spend a fortune trying to have again...Unfortunately for me, I'm one of those folks. I bought 'Mater' because he initially reminded me so much of Abe (as time wore on, he isn't even close. Nobody wants to ride him...and we all call him 'the big rolling turd') and literally have spent a fortune trying to make him what I wanted. We've managed to find Cruiser and Jackpot (also loving known as 'Jak-Jak', aptly named off of 'The Incredibles'...from the line, 'Jak-Jak's the only NORMAL one in the family...and he's not even toilet trained!' They've both been wonderful companions and have managed to weasle into a special place in my heart. I can't imagine life without them.