My Fancy Horse

Owning pets is such a rewarding experience and heartbreaking as well. Most people have their pets from 5-10 years. Some of us are lucky to have them in our lives longer. I had my horse Fancy for a quarter of a century.

Dad bought Fancy as an 18 month old filly. She came with her own pony Sugar who Dad gave to my son Rhett. She was an Arab/Tennesse Walker and full of fire and spirit. When we got her, we found her halter was inbedded in her head behind her ears. Her previous owners had said she was green and hadn't been handled and this was proof positive. I strongly suspect her halter had been put on her at about 10-12 months and had not been adjusted to match her growth. We cut the halter off of her and allowed the wound to heal.

Dad's plan had been to breed horses when he retired. He had already purchased two in Florida, a pretty little palamino mare called Apple Annie and a chestnut quarter horse mare whos name escapes me now. Anyway, Dad came to Virginia to look at Fancy and purchased both her and her pony companion Sugar and moved them to the farm my now ex-husband Danny and I were living on. We had my old pony Ginger there already and were now adding Sugar and Fancy. Dad's health was not the best and so after a year of my tending to Fancy he asked me if I wanted her. Well DUH!!! BIG RED TRUCK!!! Did I want her?? I was the original horse crazy child. I lived and breathed horses and to have one of my own.

I started working with her to get her used to the saddle and realized that she was a bit more horse than I could handle. We located a farm that spealized in Tennessee Walkers and had them begin her training and mine in the process. The picture here is of Fancy and my sister Jeanne after she had learned to go under saddle. One thing Fancy never did learn and that was to stand quietly while we mounted her. Once she felt your weight in the stirrup she was ready to go and go she could. She floated when she cantered. It was a sight to see.

Fancy and I went through a lot together. There was some question as to if I would ever be able to ride her. The Arab in her made her very high spirited and a handful at times. We moved from the farm in Piney River to the family home in Amherst, built a barn and fenced in the field and brought Fancy and Sugar to the live there. I learned quickly Fancy had a very sensitive mouth when I used the reins and her mouth for leverage to mount her. She stood straight up on her hind legs and flipped over on me. I was fortunate enough to get everything out of the way but my right foot and she landed on that and broke it. That was the first and last time she ever dumped me. After a couple years of riding lessons at the college where I was working, Fancy and I We learned together to become a team and trust one another.

We bred her when she was 4 1/2 and got Jasmine, who I stil have. That seemed to help calm her down some. One thing remained constant however, Fancy was not a man's horse. Even as she got older, she didn't care to carry a man on her back. I taught a couple people to ride on Jasmine but Fancy was my girl and that was that.

In 2000 I moved to Colorado and had to leave Fancy and Jasmine behind for a year. I hated it!! I missed looking out my kitchen window and seeing my girls. I missed calling to them from that kitchen window and seeing them come up to the back gate in anticipation of my coming to feed them. And I just plain missed them! 2001 we headed back to VA to Rhett's high school graduation and to bring the horses here to CO. What a trip that was. Rhett and I alternated driving my Explorer which was pulling the horse trailer with my precious cargo. I knew Jonathan would be freaked out by the girls shifting their weight and thus causing the trailer to move. We spent the night in Nashville and in Kansas City before pulling them into Colorado. Along the way I developed a new sense of being. Previously I had been terrified to drive I25 in CO. Now, after pulling the horse trailer across country, I knew I could drive anywhere. It was liverating to say the least.

Here in Colorado I was finally able to say I had riden horses in the west. My girls however never got over being Southern horses and as such thought the whole idea of being in the west and being a cowgirls dream was just plain silly. Well this is the impression I got anyway. Fancy and I spent the next 6 years riding the trails in Chatfield State Park next to where she and Jasmine were boarded. She had begun to show her age, although if you had even alluded to the fact that Fancy was getting on in years she might have bucked you off to prove she wasn't. This past winter was particularly rough on her. Acutally it was the late spring that was the hardest. She had blown her winter coat when we got a late spring snow storm and as a result lost a lot of weight in an effort to stay warm.

I had managed to put weight back on her and Jasmine (who hadn't suffered nearly as much) and she was starting to look good again. Considering Fancy's age, I had decided to formerly "retire" her from being riden any longer. I thought that now when I went out for a ride on Jasmine, I would pony Fancy so she too could go along and enjoy the adventure. Both girls seemed to enjoy each outing so much it seemed a same to leave one behind. Little did I know my decision would not come to fruitation. On June 21st (the first day of summer) Fancy decided it was time to cross over that rainbow bridge and really retire. I was distraught with grief and still am. How do you cope with losing a beloved pet that had been with you for 25 years? She was family and my girl. We had such a bond. No matter how frightened she became when I was on her back, if she spooked she never dumped me. If she left me hanging in mid air because she went left while I stayed centere, she came back under me. She might prance and jig but never did she run away with me, nor anyone else who happened to have the privilge of being on her back.

I've had people ask me if I will get another horse and my answer is immediately no. I still have Jasmine and I can't imagine committing another 25 years to another horse. But the real reason I won't own another horse is she/he would never compare to Fancy. We were as one and finding that trust and loyalty again is not a given. I think that if she had to leave this world the day she chose was a good one. She too was my familiar and I miss her so much.

Dona