Belle

by Chelsa

Here is Samantha, 12 years old, showing Belle's beautifully arched neck.

 Samantha has really wanted to train a baby horse for quite a while. It all started, I think, when she was 8 years old. Some stray donkeys showed up on our property one day and we ended up keeping the baby boy named Chico, who had never been trained or ridden. He was a gray and white pinto. She would spend hours out with him in the pasture playing with him and training him.  All by herself she worked with him until he was rideable. We have a cute picture of her on him all saddled up with a bit and everything.  He was so cute and small, but we ended up getting rid of him because he was dangerous to have around the other animals. He would chase them and bite them while he was playing. He almost killed our goat Milkshake. Just for your information, male donkeys are not good guard donkeys! Only the females will protect goat and sheep herds.

Samantha, 8 years old, has Chico all saddled up and ready to go. Doesn't he look so cute and harmless?

 When Samantha was 10 yrs old, she got Roman, who was the perfect horse for her at that time. And she happily rode him for quite a while and was content with that. But after a year or so she began to get ideas of training a baby horse. Of course she still wanted to keep Roman and ride him in her Playdays and around the farm, but she wanted to find a mare to buy and breed.

Samantha, age 11, riding Roman at the Hawley Playday

 After much looking she found Ginger, a 16 year old registered Quarter Horse/Thoroughbred who was very gentle and ride able. We tried numerous times to breed her, but because of her age and her having never been bred before, she could not get pregnant. So Samantha began looking at other options.  

 

Ginger grazing in our pasture.

We had taken Ginger to Lester Galbreath in Albany, Texas several times to breed her. He was a very nice man who was in the business of breeding and selling horses. He had showed us several of his babies out in the pasture after they were born. After we had so much trouble with Ginger, we asked him if he had any fillies left for sale. He did not have any at the time, but he called us back about a month later to offer Samantha a little yearling bay filly named, Belle, for $400. It ended up that she was one of his best babies that he didn't want to part with, but had to because it was just too expensive to keep her because of the drought. Samantha was SO EXCITED to hear that. She had her heart set on Belle and bought her as quickly as she possibly could. 

Here is Samantha, Lester, and Belle in Albany. This is September 5th and we're getting ready to take Belle home!

Now that Samantha has Belle, she believes that Belle is the BEST HORSE IN THE WORLD!