This will be long, my apologies in advance, but to tell you the story of them, it can't be helped. lol
I grew up very hard, the only bright spot in my childhood at all was my grandfather, and he protected me from things that no child should ever have to go thru. I remember I'd go and spend time with him, and he'd always be out with the horses, he broke all of the horses in the town we lilved in, if a horse needed to be broke, it was him to be the one to do it. He would let me sit on the fence and watch but never get in with them, he was afraid I'd get hurt. When I was about 13, I was separated from him, and I didn't see him again until I was married and had my second child and finally had found him again, he was in a hospital very near me, literally on his death bed. I went to see him and we talked about the horses, and how very much we had missed in each others lives. I remember telling him how very much I wanted to have my own horses one day and I would, and I'll never forget the look in his eyes or what he said.... He said "Tam, you have a gift, you always have had, you should follow that and do it, it will help you more than anything ever will", he was such a kind and gentle soul in my life and I vowed I was going to follow that, if nothing else, to have HIM near me. Crazy I know, I was 22, what did I know?
Skip to about 10 years ago, we moved into this very small subdivision and there was my 1 acre lot and one right next to me, I couldn't get both at the time, but I made darn sure no one bought that lot before I could afford it. If I seen someone looking at it, I'd go and tell them that this lot wouldn't be a good lot to live on, it was too wet and stayed that way. Thankfully, fates stepped in and no one bought it. Last year I finally got in a place to buy it, but I didn't know what I was going to do with it, I just knew I didn't want anyone moving in on top of me. But I really couldn't validate buying it, what on earth was I going to do with it, let it sit there? I had no clue, I just knew no one was buying it but me.
Last November 2010, my husband decided I was going to have my dream, but we both knew I couldn't put a big horse there. We had been seeing mini horses around, but never had been less than 100 yards from them, but they looked so pretty, just like the big ones, only a very small scale. My husband went on a rampage trying to find me a mini horse for Christmas... I didn't know this at the time, I only found out this later. I was also on the hunt, I had talked to him and he said it would be the perfect thing for this lot, and for me. He started sending me pics of mini horses and I was about to go mad, I didn't have the money at the time to even consider this because when I looked into them many many years before, the cost was amazingly high, and I didn't think about them again.
Here we go, he sends me THIS pic:
I immediately just fell for her, not sure why really, I had seen so very many of them, but this one just struck me and I knew I had to have her. I had already emailed the lady and was in talks with her when out of the blue, she emailed me back one day and said she was sold. I was absolutely crushed!!! This lady and I got to be good friends thru emails back and forth and she started to feel bad about having sold her, and while I was sitting here talking to her one night via emails, she had sent me pics of her other minis she had for sale, but I couldn't get my head away from this one. My husband walks into the room, pulls my chair away from the computer, which REALLY irritated me...... and he stood me up on my feet, I had ap ic of her on my screen. He pointed at her and he said, "Do you like that horse?" and I was so mad, I thought he was just torturing me..... I told him of course I did, but sadly she had sold and was off the table.
This man handed me a receipt he'd had in his wallet for TWO weeks...... TWO WEEKS! It was a receipt for this baby, who is now known as Peebie. I started to cry and I hit him and hugged him at the same time. BUT then panic set in.... really really hard, what on earth was I going to do now, I had nowhere to keep her, no pen, no nothing. I asked what did he have in mind for that one, you oh so brilliant soul you... he just looked me in my face and he says "We'll put her in with Bo" (this is my 10 yr old Boxer. More panic, more panic!!!!
In all of our talks, the lady never mentioned to me about this one time, but after I told her, she started to tell me about Peebie (who incidentally is named for my grandfather, his initials were P.B.) and she told me what a rough life this baby had had, she was beaten, abused, neglected.... all of the things I had had in MY childhood, almost to the letter. She was very sick and needed more time than this lady could give her as her health was bad. But that Peebie would most likely need a friend, they don't do well alone...... so in comes THIS ONE!
The Pinto in this pic, that is Sky. She was, I was told, a good mom and would look after Peebie, so I bought her too...... MORE PANIC! I still had the same problem, what was I going to do with them.
I go and I talk to the lady about this lot beside me that I had been looking at for 10+ years. She, for some reason, broke and told me she'd sell me the lot on payments and I could start putting the pen up on it and we could do the paperwork after Christmas. More of fate stepping in to help me out.
Finally a week before Christmas, I get to go and meet Peebie and Sky... I was like a little kid, I was so excited. We get there and we are getting to know Peebie and Sky and we keep hearing this ruckus in the back part of the pen, I knew the sound of horse stomping, and it kept going on, the grumbling throat noises, the loud whinnies... it was getting more and more of my attention. I finally looked around for the noise and this lady tells me she's never seen this horse do this before. She had her tied up in the back because she'd been bullying others, but she wasn't shutting up. We left.. but my husband kept talking about this other horse and how strangely she was acting.
Cut to time to bring them home.... we go with TWO of everything, halters, leads and so on to get them here. We get there with trailer in tow and we got Peebie in the trailer.... and again, the ruckus started up again. Sky goes in and we're talking.... this noise is getting more and more intense. The lady told me that she didn't understand why she was doing that, she's never like that. She tells me she is for sale too and she seems to like me.. but I had no more money in hand, so that wasn't an option. She told me to take her and I said no, I didn't know that I could handle 3 or afford them.
This is the culprit of all of the ruckus. Meet Tori, she somehow landed in the trailer with Peebie and Sky, with the help of the girl that took me to get them, my daughters, who were not saving me for a minute, and the girl that owned her. They put her on a lead and brought her over to me and she immediately shut up and waddled up so close to my side that I thought she was going to knock me off my feet, she was going with me and she'd made up her mind about it. She is the leader of her little herd and she makes NO bones about it.
So we went from nothing to having THREE horses....... bare lot, nothing on it at all. In the week we were waiting to go and get them, we bought the lot, put up a fence big enough to house them, a run in shelter for them and had everything needed to bring them home. My 4 kids and my husband and son in law spent a solid week in the very bitter cold and snow to get them here for me.
So there we have it.... my first turned into 3..... and I have the best thing that's ever happened to me personally, outside kids and husband of course... they are so good for me and to me and I couldn't be happier or more in love with any other living thing in my world. What makes them more special is the coming together of my whole family to help with this, the love and care they put into making my christmas so special for 2010.
