I was born wanting a horse.  I got my first (pony) was at the age of 2. Against the wishes of my parents, my Grandfather (PawPaw) refused to take no for an answer from my Dad and bought me a pony named Lulabelle.  PawPaw donated Lulabelle to the Columbian Park Pony Ride.  I got to ride Lulabelle every week when PawPaw took me to the park.  I kept asking why we couldn’t have horses at our farm, but our tenant refused to take care of anything that wasn’t making money.
 
In the meantime, I read every book on horses in the Tippecanoe County Library and collected the Black Stallion series.  I learned a lot about horses and training from the stories.  The librarian used to call me when she got a new shipment of horse books.
 
Unfortunately, PawPaw died suddenly when I was 9.  Shortly afterward, our family worked out a “trade agreement” with a man who boarded his horses across the road from our farm.  They used our little weekend house on the farm and we used his horses and ponies.  My first training experience was at age 9 with one of the ponies, named Dusty.  Mr. Brown felt that I had done such a good job with Dusty, he asked me to train the other pony Betsy. 
 
Several years passed and my Dad decided to get me a horse of my own when I was 14.  I wanted a cow pony!  I had seen a cutting horse demo on television and “just had to have one”.  Dad, never one to do anything halfway, bought a working cow horse off a Mexican cattle ranch!  Corky was a beautiful palomino paint but he was used to working cattle not being a teenage girls pet.  That horse taught me more about riding than I can describe.  Now and then we got into trouble “working” the steers on the farm, but boy was it fun!
 
My next horse was a black stallion -- Ebony Star.  Yep, since I had all the Black Stallion books, I “just had to have one”.  Dad came through again.  Fortunately, all our other horses were geldings.
 
When I was 16, I decided to go with Quarter Horses.  I bought a pregnant mare with a foal by her side from Floyd Britt.  Dad decided at this point that I had to downsize.  I sold Star and Corky and kept the Quarter Horses.
 
I still had them when I married and began collecting more horses.  By the time I moved to South Florida, I had 14 head of Quarter Horses, Appaloosas and Paints.  I ended up having to liquidate the herd in order to move.  I’ve never quite gotten over it.
 
I spent 18 years living in the South and never gave up getting back into horses.  After returning to Indiana, we bought 10 acres. Before the house was built, I had a horse!  I got Rafftajean, a registered Arabian when he was 18.  He is now 28 and the love of my life.  We were able to find the last foal he sired (he was gelded at 16) and bought her on the spot.  Lady Raffles, a Morab, has since had a foal sired by an Arabian.  Ali bin Mara is ? Arabian but registered as a Half-Arab.  We have 2 other horses, another registered Arab, JazzMin and Cocco Taz, a Belgian-cross.  I will use Rafftajean in the Red Hat activities as long as he remains in good health.  I hope to move Jazz into the activities in 2006. 
 
I thoroughly enjoy the Red Hats and Purple Chaps organization.  It is wonderful being with other horsewomen doing fun stuff.  As Mr. Spock of Star Trek used to say may we “live long and prosper”.