The first picture is Butteryfly Kisses with Brandon in the stirrups. The second is WOF's Whispering Hope. She is out of VBF Blue Ridge Mt Girl and by SC Code of Honor.
For those of you raised in a good ole Baptist Church you will recognize the name as the name of a popular song out of the Baptist Hymnal. Maybe other churches had it in their hymnal as well but I was raised Baptist and I sang a duet with my best friend and we sang Whispering Hope.
It is just about time for the UMH World Show once again and it is an exciting time for competitors. One show at a time and class after class we have been showing what our horses can do. Sometimes we win and get to go to center ring to get pictures made and sometimes we congratulate others as they do their victory lap. It is all educational and an opportunity to show off our beautiful horses to other competitors as well as show what our horses can do.
Of course there are the friends we have made and the friends we don't know yet. The World Show offers an opportunity to see friends we may only see once or twice a year.
Last year for the first time we had a progressive dinner. Every barn had an assigned dish to prepare. It started with drinks and ended with the dessert table. Yum yum.. It was also a poker run with a very nice prize at the end for the best hand. I started out strong with an ace but it went downhill from there.
The Breeder's Cup Classes is always a class everyone wants to see and especially to win. Last year my two year old filly, CGH Flair for Fury won the 2 year old trail pleasure class. For those who don't know how that works my trainer, Stanley Tipton, rode Flair in under saddle. He showed her just like a regular under saddle class. He rode her both ways of the ring at a walk and show gait. He then dismounted and his groom pulled the saddle off, brushed her out and then Stanley showed her like any halter class would be shown. It is an awesome feeling to have your horse win. It is not easy for a horse to be both good under saddle and conformation as well.
This year I will have a weanling showing in the Breeder's Cup. She is red chocolate and barn name Paris. Paris has already won two classes in conformation and we are hoping to keep the string going.
The first year I was involved in showing, I bought a weanling filly from Van Bert Farms named VBF Butterfly Kisses. I saw her on their website and I liked her immediately. She is a chestnut and that is not a well favored color in the mountain horses right now. It is all about chocolate with white mane and tail. That is fine but this filly is awesome regardless of her color.
Butterfly Kisses won her Breeder's Cup Class and then went on the win her regular conformation class. Stanley competed with her in trail obstacles where she placed 2nd. She made one mistake and lost to a colt that made no mistakes.
I sold her the night she won it all in the open conformation class. I made a nice profit on a horse I had owned only three weeks. I followed her scanty career and always admired her from a distance. I often asked her owner how she was doing under saddle and didn't really get much information.
Recently Larry Patterson called me and asked me if I wanted to buy her back. I said yes immediately. She is four years old now and she is almost full grown. She will be at the World Show is year. Let's see if the judges still like her conformation despite her color.
I don't get the big deal about color. Many owners advertise their stallions as having no red gene. It is necessary to give people the options they want. The option in many cases is no red horse. I understand the necessity of that since chocolate is the color buyers want. But the core problem is why do the buyers want chocolate and only chocolate too often? If one has a chocolate gelding it is worth more? Why not buy according to the way the horse goes and what the disposition is like?
Why are we breeding for color and not for all the other good qualities that a mountain horse has. I have a chestnut mare that I don't mind putting any child on. She is sweet and very forgiving. She will carry her young charges where ever they want to go and take care of them all the way.
I also have a chocolate gelding. He is everything a person would want in a mountain horse. He is chocolate, he has a sweet disposition and he has a smooth gait. My friends who ride him call him "the Cadillac ride". But I don't put children on him or riders who may not be able to handle him.
Whatever you want in a mountain horse, it is there. Why start out eliminating a horse just because of color?
It is my opinion as well as people I consider really smart that once you start eliminating color in mountain horses you may be inviting other problems in. For instance it is now known that breeding chocolate to chocolate will probably get a really white mane and tail but it also may get a blindness in horses. Do we want to make that sacrifice for the sake of a color?
What else are we breeding into the herd besides blindness? It is the law of unintended consequences.
I have been seeing chestnut horses in the show ring this year and I do hope Butterfly Kisses will once again make people set up and take notice of what she is and not her color.
Martin Luther King once lamented that he hoped "some day men would be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin."
I want that as well but can't we judge our mountain horses by the same criteria. Isn't there room for outstanding chestnuts and sorrels the same as chocolates?
I hope to see you all at the World Show. The theme this year is "Light up the World" It is always interesting to see what various barns come up with for decorations to carry out that theme and who wins the competition for best decorated barn.
So be careful on the way to during and from the show. Good luck and best wishes to all of the competitors. I will try to keep you posted with blogs from the show.
May God bless you and keep you in his loving care. My prayer is that God will keep each and every rider surrounded by his hedge of protection. May you each do your very best and may each horse behave in a way that brings honor to their trainers and riders.
And most of all may our humble efforts bring glory and honor to God who made us all and who created these awesome horses for our use and care.
Regards,
Mary
