A History Lesson and A Revelation

I have had a few readers ask me some questions about My Boy's breeding and history. I wish I had more information to share. I even had phone numbers of previous owners but reached disconnected lines, and had one unreturned message for information. However, I will tell you what I know.

My Boy was born on February 2, 1994. My birthday is in February, too. Actually, My Boy shares a birthday with my sister's boyfriend!

This is My Boy's dam, Cherry's Foxy Dawn.

She is sired by Montie High Don, out of Cherry Isle. Cherry Isle was sired by a Quarter horse named Risk Thy Isle, who traces back to Three Bars, as most stock horses seem to do. Montie High Don was a 1979 chestnut leopard Appaloosa who was a select futurity sire and had done well with limited showing. He was sired by a near-leopard named Montie High Bar, also a halter and performance champion. Montie High Don's dam was a palomino leopard named Glad-Ra-Don Freckles, whose grand sire is "unofficially" Joker B, a legend of foundation Appaloosa breeding. As you can see, Cherry got a lot of color and a huge hiney! (This is not My Boy pictured with her below.)

I was able to look up Cherry online, and I emailed a woman who once owned her and asked her for information about her. This was her reply:

"Hi. Nice boy. I bought Cherry from Frank, sold her a few years ago. I saw your colt then. Cherry was a supreme riding horse, out on the trails, if she did not want to go, you checked to see why because she was always right. Stopped 2 feet from a pit that did not show once, saved my life probably. I heard she had another blanket colt about 3 years ago or 4. Don't know where she went, she gave me some nice foals. I still have her filly and 3 grand get. Healthy, smart Appys."

Here is a picture of Cherry and My Boy as a foal This picture came in My Boy's "baby book."

Moving on to daddy. My Boy was sired by Dreamkeeper:

If you look at My Boy's face markings, you will see that he almost has an identical star and snip as his daddy!

Dreamkeeper is sired by Dreamfinder. This stallion appears to be a household name in the Appaloosa world.
Dreamfinder is sired by Alias King (I remember seeing this stallion advertised in issues of The Appaloosa News back in the 80's.)

So all of this breeding and who came out of it? This little stinker!

I wish I could have known him as a foal. But the few pictures I have, he looks so darn tootin' cute!

My Boy grew into a nice copper colored yearling colt with a flashy white blanket. Here are some pictures from when he was a 2 and 3 year old. He was ungelded at the time.

He has really roaned out now. I sometimes wish he was still this sorrel.

A little studly trotting in the pasture. He still flags his tail like this!

Look at the next picture closely. I know it is a fuzzy old picture, but do you notice anything unusual about one of his hind legs?

As a yearling, My Boy sustained some kind of fence cut to the front of his tendons below the hock area. It appears to be swollen in this picture so my assumption is he was still healing from that injury. Here is a close-up:

He still has a large ugly scar from it. And I wonder why my horse is off and arthritic in this leg! A picture of it today (well, taken early spring, he was still a little fuzzy-legged.)

Before he was gelded, My Boy did have at least one daughter. I have no further information on her other than this picture. I'd love to see her in person to see what she turned out like. Maybe she foaled a couple of times. Hey, wouldn't it be neat if I could someday own a horse that was My Boy's grand baby?

I believe the people that actually bred and raised My Boy sold him to the woman the trainer I got him from got him from. Does that make sense? Okay, I will break it down:

Cowgirl S bought My Boy. Here is the ad she saw on Dreamhorse.com for him (I have a copy of the ad, it was in his "baby book.") They wanted $3,500.00 for him.

Cowgirl S had some difficulties with My Boy, so she made a deal with Trainer M, trading My Boy and a Welsh pony for an Appy mare. Trainer M used My Boy for lessons and as her husband's trail horse, and I started leasing him from Trainer M (for more on this story, go here.) Last December, I bought My Boy we rode off into the sunset happily ever after! The End.

Well, almost. I would still like to know if more about My Boy's showing and training. And more about the daughter(s) he sired. For now, I am content to continue building a new history with him. And a permanent one, for that matter!

Oh....thought I'd forgotten about revealing that little secret, eh? Well, when I started blogging it was just for family and friends, and it was kind of difficult for me to "go public." I wanted to keep a few things private and sacred, including my identity and those of my family members. As I work with my horse I always talk to him and say, "How's my boy?" This "My Boy" nickname stuck. But nope, it is not his real name. His real name is actually not a barn name either, it is his registered name, with the addition of a few initials before it. So are you ready for the big reveal? Are you SURE? Wait- one more thing. I am going to continue calling him My Boy in my blog. For no reason other than I've been doing it and I like it and that's what he is, he's my boy!

Okay, here it is. My Boy's real name is: Riley.