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SM Lace Stockings ~ "AJ"
63/64 Arabian mare |
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Susan had some money from her Dad to spend on a horse so I told her I would help her look. Dreamhorse is great for both buying and selling horses so I started there and the first two horses I emailed to her were SM It's My Pleasure and his half sister SM Lace Stockings. They were both part Arabs who had been worked with as two year olds but then turned out in a large pasture for several years so they were pretty wild. It turned out my two favorites were also Susan's favorites so we went to ShallowMyre to see them. When Susan and I arrived at ShallowMyre, one horse (out of probably thirty that were there) put her head up and whinnied at us - I recognized her as being Lace. I jokingly said to Susan "Your horse is talking to you!" |
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| photo copyright Katrin Herzog |
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When Daria put Lace in the outdoor arena for us to look at, after showing off for the video camera she walked over as close to Susan as she dared and stretched her neck to check Susan out. Her brother Imp, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with us. We never even went to see any other horses - Susan decided on the spot that Lace was hers.
Lace arrived on Thanksgiving morning. She went through several name changes (Missy, Firefly) before Susan settled on AJ. She was very easily started under saddle and went English and did a little jumping for a while until Susan decided she would rather ride Western. I hate to say it, but the little Arab "sport pony" I had envisioned actually looked better under Western tack. |
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Susan and I started making plans to have AJ bred to a pony stallion for a pony jumper baby. I had every reason to think that the two of them would be around forever... AJ would be the beginning of a sport pony breeding program at Abbey Creek and Susan would help me train horses and give lessons.
Then we found out that Susan's mom had plans to move to Kansas. Susan decided that her place was in Kansas with her mom, and of course AJ would move with her.
I got these really cool photos on Susan's last full day in Oregon, on an unusually sunny day (for March). Not only was AJ a cute jumper and a fearless trail horse, she learned to do tricks, too! Click any photo to view a larger image. |
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Oops! This was even a little too high for Susan. |
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Much better... not quite so scary. |
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back to horses... |
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