Our Equine Family

Our Horses

Buttons & Buttercup at Corral 35 on Glendora Mountain Road - they loved to run together! Buttons' color is lighter than Buttercup in these photos. And - Buttons, generally liked to take the lead!

Buttons & Buttercup at Three Oaks Ranch in Glendora, CA.

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Now on to the history of horses joining our family: After riding horses in Yosemite in August of 2001, Katie and I decided to take lessons from Debbie Garland. After two months of riding the lesson horse Mikey (at left), we found that it was time to buy our own horse.

On 21 November 2001, Buttons (at right) joined our family. This is a photo from that first day with her. My first thought was, "now what do I do?" just like bringing my first child home from the hospital. Buttons was a very patient and tolerant teacher overall. She's been such a delight! From the time I was little watching Roy Rogers & Dale Evans, I'd always wanted a horse, and with our trainer/instructor, Deb's help, we chose Buttons. And, no I didn't get a Palomino because Trigger (Roy Rogers' horse) was a Palomino! She just seemed to "fit" us.

After a year and a half (in June of 2003), we found Buttercup (and for the record, we didn't give them these names!) Buttercup was abused by a previous owner and she was rescued by a woman in Murrietta (Kim Reynolds). For a period of time, we had the two horses at two different barns/stables. That was a lot of work! Eventually, we were able to move Buttercup to the same barn. We could turn the two of them out together in the arenas at Three Oaks and at Corral 35. These girls would run together, side by side, trying to see who could out run the other. I think these were the times when Buttercup looked happiest. She was with her "sister" running with the wind in her mane and tail!

Here are the two "butt sisters" at Three Oaks Ranch, owned by Toni Agnello and Johnny Blankenship. Johnny is visiting with Buttercup in the picture while she's in the round pen (Stan has Buttons on a lead line). Johnny is quite a musician; he's in the Western Music Hall of Fame with the band, The Reinsmen. The photo at right is Johnny riding Buttons in the January 2003 Rose Parade with the Long Beach Mounted Police.

Footnote to Buttercup's story: We had moved to Tehachapi, CA in March of 2005. Buttercup had generally flourished in the open spaces and clean air. One morning in January of 2007, Katie went to feed the horses. She called me and said that Buttercup was lying down and wouldn't get up. I joined them down in the corrals and managed to get her up. We tried to hand walk her a little, but she was apparently in pain. She called to Wasi (her equine buddy!) and then laid down one final time. Buttercup was apparently having seizures of some kind. By the time we got a call back from the vet, she was already gone. We miss her a lot but we're glad she's not suffering. Her life had been full of so many "scary things" and "scary people" - at least she knew she was loved by us.

Back to our horse history: In the Fall of 2004, we decided to add another horse to our menagerie. Stan had always wanted a dapple grey horse and I found a horse that was called "Frosty" in the Horse Trader magazine. We drove out to see him (near the 15 fwy on the way to San Diego). At about 6-8 years, we found him to be a calm, yet kinda pudgy gelding. We were driving home when Stan said, "We could call him 'Wasi'" from the Val Kilmer movie, Thunderheart. Wasi (pronounced WaSHEE) means chubby or large (or greedy) from the Lakota/Sioux language. It seemed to be a fitting name and from then on, it was decided that Wasi was to join our family. He's not quite a dapply grey - but he does have some dapple markings, plus a little so-called flea-bitten markings (i.e., spots) with a lot of white. He wasn't the calm gentleman we found at first and we've since determined that he likes men better than women. But.... he is part of the family.

Stan on "Doc"

Stan worked with a man by the name of Dennis Zaferis. Dennis and his wife, Debbie, had three horses for sale since Debbie was experiencing some serious health problems. We went to their home in Lancaster and rode two of their horses, Doc (at right) and Lexi (at left). Doc's a Missouri Foxtrotter and Lexi's a Belgium Draft cross (and quite a BIG horse). We didn't ride Luke a.ka. Guido since Dennie & Debbie felt like he needed more training.

The photo at left is of Mindy riding that large load, Lexi!

These two pics are of Debbie saying goodbye to Doc - since he was coming to our house! We'd made plans to put either Wasi & Doc together or Doc & Buttercup - but Buttercup died two days before we were to pick up Doc. It was as if she knew that it was time for her to "go to the other side" since Wasi would have a new friend.

Four months later, Debbie & Dennis called us to GIVE Guido to us. They'd tried to sell him but no one had "met" their expectations so they wanted us to have him. Guido's a big boy! This is a picture of Debbie and Dennis saying goodbye to Guido.Debbie was crying.

Mindy showing Guido's size!

He's a red roan draft cross, with dark points.

Katie petting him!

We eventually donated Guido to the R. I. S. E. Therapeutic Riding Program here in Tehachapi. The Mackie family from the Tehachapi Ward have a son, James, who has Down's syndrome and is in the R.I.S.E. program, and they'll be taking care of him, as well. Kathryn Mackie has trained horses before so in this situation, we feel that everyone wins. Guido was getting really bored with us so this is good for him. He'll be busy.

One of our friends said that 4 horses is so much more work than 3 and I couldn't understand what he meant. He was right. Now we're back to 3 horses, things are more manageable, and Guido will be in good hands! Plus - we thought it would be a good idea to find a better home for Guido before he bent every pipe "panel" that we owned!

Here's Guido in the arena at his new home.