On my 6th birthday, my mom said, “You’re getting something for your birthday that you’ve been wanting for a long time!” Imagine my disappointment when they wheeled out a bicycle instead of a horse. I’m sure my mother thought I was a most ungrateful child. Later, she and my dad understood that I had somehow acquired the affliction/addiction of “horse fever.” Once you get it, you have it for life. When I was seven, my father stopped smoking and saved his cigarette money. With it, he bought me a Shetland pony. The next year, Dad sold the pony and bought a horse, a Tennesee Walker. Duchess was probably about 15 hh, but to a short kid like me, her height was intimidating, and after I looked at the ground from on top of her, I started to cry. My dad had never spoken a rough word to me in my life, but he said, “If you get off that horse, I’ll sell her!” I stayed on; stopped crying; fell in love.

The mare was in foal, and the following Spring, to everyone’s surprise, out popped a Palomino filly. However, she was one brick shy of a load, and eventually this translated into “dangerous”, even to experienced people. Meanwhile, being people who didn’t learn their lessons easily, we bred the mare again. This time, she foaled twin Palominos, but she was unattended, and they never made it out of the sac. That heartache rode with me for a long time.

On my 10th birthday, my dad and stepmom presented me with a Pinto stock horse, with one blue eye and one brown. The mare and her cantankerous filly went to a good home with a guy who just wanted them for pasture ornaments, while the Pinto and I started going to little fun shows, and having a ball. Then he pulled up lame with some sort of nerve disorder that was never resolved. As my skills were improving, Koko also went to a loving home where he retired from “active service”, and after some fun years with a large stock-type pony, my dad bought my first Registered horse: a gray, AQHA mare out of Oklahoma. I got a few lessons from a guy who was a show judge, and started going to bigger shows. Later, off at college, I got a call from my dad that my mare had cut her hock, and the vet had been out, but couldn’t do much for it. By this time, we’d acquired a 2-year-old Leo-bred filly, and I was just starting to show her some. Long story short... the wound got worse, and the local vet gave up. Dad hauled the mare to Purdue while I was at school, and the diagnosis was osteomyelitis, an incurable infection of the joint. They euthanized her at Purdue, and my desire for horses took a nose-dive for several years.

After two brief marriages, and no children, I bought some ground and started keeping my own horses for the first time. This taught me that prior to this point, I actually knew little-to-nothing about horses! I sure learned a lot while wielding that pitchfork… After being dumped 3 times by my 15.3 hh Quarter Horse gelding, I bought a little Doc Bar-bred Breeding Stock mare that I’d seen advertised in the Trader magazine. The same lady who sold me the mare, had another mare that I saw, and fell in love with. Uh-huh: the infamous “collector” syndrome! However, a friend of mine loves tall horses, and wanted my big black gelding, so he went to live with her. When my little Doc Bar mare matured, the urge came to raise a foal. It probably strikes most owners who have an affinity for a special mare. I waffled, since everybody and his/her brother was breeding, including a lot of junk, leaving colts studs that ought to be gelded, and so forth. A difficult decision, I finally decided to do it. This baby told me her name before she was born, and she has been a joy, a puzzle, and a pain in the butt since Day 1. She is almost too smart for me; she’s my little baby one minute, and the Tempest from Hell the next. Be careful what you wish for: you may get it!

Then at age 50, evidently I had a mini-stroke, because I decided I wanted to breed some quality horses. So Bear Stump Ranch moved to Lebanon, Indiana, and a breeding program began. Since we all know that you can make a little money in the horse industry by starting with a lot, and I didn’t even have “a lot” to begin with, it wasn’t long until I realized there was some element missing in my program. Sort of like “Field of Dreams”, I put up a Cover-All building last September, and then things began to happen. Bear Stump Ranch sort of took on a life of its own, and the energy continues to build.

Over the past year, my facility’s purpose has been repeatedly reinforced. I do love having the babies come, and playing with them, watching them grow. But I now realize that it’s only a part of why my place has come to exist: The bigger purpose is to help people get closer to their horses.

To that end, we’ve had an Open House, 2 natural horsemanship clinics by a local person, a couple of casual Play Days, a booth at the Hoosier Horse Fair, a Parelli Level 1 clinic, and something new: 2 “All Natural” Horse Shows.

On top of that, add in a week in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, at the Parelli headquarters’ annual Savvy Conference, and it totals up to a very busy and fun year. Three of the Bear Stump “Core Group” attended the Savvy Conference, and in between the seminar, eating and shopping too much, we managed to do a lot of brainstorming about next year’s events.

We’re planning on hosting more natural clinics, and in addition to our Horse Fair booth, we are hoping to take horses, and do some demos about horse-handling. To keep things from getting dull, my two AQHA mares are both in foal to Clint Haverty’s champion reining stallion, Who Whiz It, a son of Topsail Cody, the first AQHA $3,000,000 sire. Since opting for a business, I’ve had 5 babies, sold 2, have 2 on the way, and am breeding 3 mares this Spring. I have two really nice yearling colts, and my associates and I are trying hard to make time to play with them and several of the other horses on a regular basis. I welcome any of you to come out and play or ride with us, or attend a clinic.

Happy trails!