HORSE ALBUM
A PASSION FOR HORSES
by Camille
I can't say enough about horses. They have always calmed me with their beauty and grace and inspired me with their strength.
They smell good. They carry us around on adventures across awesome country.
Here is a little gallery of some of our favorite horses and horse photos.
JESSE, THE WONDER HORSE
Jesse earned his name by being the kind of horse that would do just about anything. He can canter from a standstill, pull a cart or a man on skis, calmly walk in parades, and jump tractor tires. Jessie was a school horse with such a nice personality that even small children could ride him in a halter. Jesse was always a gentleman - even when in pain. You could crawl under his belly without fear. He ate his corn from the cob in a straight line (if you held it for him.) He is the sweetest and most reliable horse we have ever known.
Jessie now lives in Colorado with Julie and Heath Hunter and their two children.
He was Camille's horse from 1987 to 1992 and Bob's horse from 1992 through 1997.
MET HORSES
EQUIS
Equis wasn't always a lady but she got the job done. She was Bob's number one guide horse in Belize. She carried lunch, ropes, cave lamps, a first aid kit and Bob through the jungle. She didn't weigh 1,000 pounds and was under 15 hands in height. During one of our first weeks in Belize, Bob went out into the overgrown pasture to round up the horses. This was before we began feeding them and so taught them to be waiting in the corral in the mornings. This particular morning, Bob was little concerned with snakes and wasn't too keen on the size of the brush he was wading through. One horse spotted him and came up to investigate. Impressed with her outgoing nature, Bob slipped a macate around her neck and jumped on her to go find the others. Together, they rounded up the rest and from that day on, Equis became Bob's special horse. She bucked every time Peter got on her back but behaved herself reasonably well for Bob.
CALYPSO
This is a terrible photo of Calypso but is the only one we have. I had to put him in the hall of fame because he was my favorite horse in Belize. He reminded me of Jesse even though he wasn't always a gentleman with others. He kicked Humberto and Aaron and bucked both Sam and Bob but never misbehaved with me. We never figured out why. We had to sell Calypso because he was making a nuisance of himself by breaking down fences and mounting the mares. He had been gelded but didn't know it. Although he never bucked with me, he was unreliable and would never have made it to the dude string. We couldn't afford to keep a personal saddle horse and since he had good breeding and was only 4 years old, we were able to get a good price for him. We sold him for $300 Belize Dollars (or $150 US dollars) which is top dollar for a horse in Belize. I was so sorry to see him go, that I cried.
ANGELA
Angela was Bob's other guide horse. She was only four and very sweet-natured. The wranglers called her "Nalgas" because she had a big behind. She was quarter horse bred and had the characteristically "apple-bottomed" hindquarters. She got very sick (we think she foundered) and the ranch owners ended up giving her away. Pure-bred horses don't do well in the harsh environment of Belize.
MARLEY, SPOCK, NIKKI
Marley worked harder for men than she did for women so we scheduled her accordingly. If she lagged at all for Bob, all he had to do was pick up a twig and then she moved SOOO nice. She reminded us us Jesse, the Wonder Horse. Big, pretty, strong and lazy.
Spock frightened tourists with the sounds his stomach continually emitted. They thought there were tigers (Belizean for jaguar) in the bush! He bit me on the wrist so hard that the wound oozed for days, prompting us to get all of the horses vaccinated for rabies. A bit like closing the barn door after the horse has been let out of the barn. Nevertheless, Spock was reliable in many other ways and more than earned his keep.
Nikki became my favorite after I had to ride her back to the lodge from up in the Pine Ridge one afternoon. The tourist who had ridden her up there was unable to finish the ride, so Rolando drove me up to meet her and brought her back down in the Trooper. I had such a wonderful ride home on Nikki that I declared her my guide horse from then on. She responded to my slightest inclination even after years of packing poor riders over rough terrain.
Wrecks was Peter's guide horse until he nearly killed him with one of his notoriously fierce gallops. Peter knew two gaits: walk and run. The tourists loved him for it even though none of them would treat their horses at home that way. Peter would gallop the group for at least a mile and then stop and tie all the horses to trees while the tourists went for a swim. One afternoon, Bob and I had driven to Big Rock Falls with lunch and found Rex standing tied to a tree, drenched in sweat and panting. I hiked down to the falls and got Peter to come up and walk his horse while Bob unsaddled Rex and began moving him about.
WRECKS
SOMBRA
Little Sombra. She didn't weigh much more than 800 pounds. She was a beautiful little horse. Sombra means shade in Spanish. You can see the notch in her left ear where a machete caught her. We called the vet but he didn't come until a week later. By then, we had done what we could do with penicillin and larvacide. Sombra was a nervous animal, but quick and big-hearted. We decided not to let any of the tourists ride her and then made the mistake of giving her to Peter as a guide horse. Peter was hard on his horses. He only rode two gaits - walk and run. Poor little Sombra.
THE LITTLE ONES
Within a month of our arrival at MET, two new horses hit the ground, bringing the herd up to 22. We wouldn't have believed it possible that two mares in that skinny herd we inherited were carrying foals. We named Mariposa, the yellow filly after a butterfly and Sol, the bay colt Sol after his star, which was a big as the sun. We later learned that Calypso may have been the father of either or both foals as he was gelded as a four-year-old. The stars on foals are always large in comparison to their little heads because, while their head grows, their star remains the same size. We kept the mares in the orchard and fed them three times a day until they had foaled and their foals were weaned. We sold both foals rather than feed them for 5 or 6 years in the hopes of adding them to the dude string. Sol was sweet and Mariposa was not.
CAMP SMITH HORSES
CP
CP stands for Cow Pony, Chess Piece, Cutie Pie or Camille's Pony. He was Camille's favorite playmate at Camp Smith Stables on Oahu. Bob was managing 17 school horses and 4 instructors for the Marine Corps with Camille's help. Mostly Bob worked and Camille played with CP.
CP was only 14.3 hands but full of energy and incredibly well-balanced. He loved to get out and race around, He had a bad habit of making a quick U-turn and changing direction at the canter which frightened some of the school kids badly. On the trail, he was a handful but eventually calmed down enough to walk without blowing like a freight train. Start a trot, however and it would begin all over. He has a special place on the trail where he liked to eat the red dirt. No matter what acrobatics he was engaged in, I never felt as if either of us was off-balance.
BUBBA
Bubba was a little temperamental but knew his job on the trail well. Bob knew he could trust him where it counted, but when he took him into the arena to warm him up, Bubba would get all worked up and try to buck Bob off. Nothing Bob couldn't handle and to his credit, he was never unseated.
MAUI HORSES
PHILIGREE
Carole Crist, her sister Trish and I often go for romps through the pineapple fields. Philigree is the horse I always ride and we have a great time together.
PROUD WARRIORS
Snapped this photo at a horse show. We see this trailer around town quite often.
GROOMING FOR CYNTHIA ON MAY 20, 2001
Bob with Pele and Camille with Watch Me , who took first and second place respectively in their first class . Watch Me did not take favorably to Bob leading Pele away. She broke loose from Camille to gallop down the asphalt not long after this picture was taken. Luckily, she didn't hurt herself and Camille got her to the arena in time to win second place after Cynthia finished her ride on Pele. May, 2001
