Horse Nerd

I am such a horse nerd. This morning, after checking my email and my Facebook, I decided, once again, to do a little research to see if I could find some history about my horse. . . and BINGO! I finally found something. I found a photo and bio of Jude’s sire, Gallant, on the webpage for the Lazy K Ranch in Chowchilla California, the city where Jude was born. It turns out that Jude’s grandsire, Gallant Move, was an APHA Supreme Champion. Supreme Champion!! This award is extremely hard to earn, and Gallant Move was the 39th paint horse to earn the title. Woohoo! I feel like I just discovered that I’m related to royalty. Sadly, I couldn’t find anything about his dam. But I’m sure she was special too. And she was an appendix, which helps explain his wonderful, dressage-aptitude athleticism.

So why do I care about his beginnings? Well, as previously disclosed, I’m a horse nerd. But horse nerdness aside, I find beginnings fascinating. Whether it’s the origins of words or expressions, or the origins of my horse, I like to learn about it. When I first bought Jude, I looked at his papers and noted that he was born in Northern California, was sold to someone in Bakersfield, CA. (a long trailer ride for a 7-month old colt), sold into Iowa a few months later, resold in Iowa (imagine a young horse on a trailer ride from southern California to western Iowa). His registered name was Nick’s Last Call….I imagined that he might have been called Nicky.

That was all I knew for a while. But as fate would have it, my daughter and I bought a pony from the sale barn where Jude’s penultimate owner bought him. The previous owner only mentioned that barn once, but I remembered it. And when I was there, I wasn’t shy about asking the old lady of the barn if she remembered my horse…and she did. She told me that her buyer had purchased him at an auction in Iowa and that she called the previous owner to find some history on him… She told me she gave the notes to Jaime, the man who bought the horse from her (and he had passed those notes on to me when I bought Jude) and so I knew a few more things about his previous life. She also told me they had called him Amigo while he was at her barn.

Okay, I now knew he was bought at an Iowa auction in the spring of 2006….and it didn’t take me long to find the old sale bill online…and low and behold, I now had photos of Jude being ridden western by a blonde-haired lady. The info on the bill explained that the owner was selling Jude because she wanted a western pleasure prospect (it must have been obvious by then that Jude was a dressage horse, despite his loud paint markings). It was there that I discovered that she called him Dewey! Dewey, Amigo, perhaps Nicky….I’m so glad that his last owner renamed him Jude.

The last place Jude lived before he moved to my modest barn was a grand equestrian center near Barrington, Illinois. Jaime, Jude’s previous owner kept him perfectly groomed, so perfect that Jude’s coat was slick from regular applications of Show Sheen. His obsession with grooming and his outward affection toward Jude made it obvious that he loved his horse, but a back injury kept him out of the saddle and a traveling career kept him from the barn for extended periods. And so, after only 6 months, Jude was sold once again.

So now there are only a few gaps to fill. Due to my recent discovery, I have learned that Jude lived outside on a big ranch for the first 7 months of his life. The Lazy K website states that all their foals are raised outdoors….and I have seen beautiful photos of large herds of mares with foals at their side, running through water (which explains Jude’s complete lack of concern whenever we encounter water). Now, all I want to know is why the Bakersfield owner sold him off to Iowa as a yearling, and why that first Iowa owner turned around and sold him again. But I’m thankful that somehow, via Chowchilla, California, he came to me, because in Jude, I have found the horse of a lifetime. And in me, Jude has found his forever home. Yep, I’m truly a horse nerd.