By: Patti Leininger

He was born on a snowy Valentines Day to our red roan halter mare Strawberry Misty. This was her first foal and already I had his future planned. He would be a beautiful halter horse as were his parents. As I looked at this fuzzy shivering red foal with the sweatshirt on, our bond was beginning. He was soft and cuddly with a curious nature. I named him Valentine Laddy and I took him to my heart.

As Laddy grew, he developed the beautiful red roan color of his mother. He was stoutly built and had a pretty sculptured head, a big kind eye and little fuzzy Quarter Horse ears. His hip was very muscular and he resembled the old style Quarter Horses.

As he matured, his neck stayed short and thick, as did his body. Although his mass was impressive his balance lacked. It became obvious his halter career was not to be. Normally, we would have sold this colt and moved on to one with more future, however, I had grown to love this husky horse with the friendly attitude. I kept him and sent him for training with hopes that he would be a pleasure horse. Laddy was a kind, willing horse to break to ride but his heavy shoulders, short back and thick neck restricted his fluidness of motion. A pleasure career was not in the cards either. He came home a big teddy bear of a riding horse for me.

We went to several trail rides with the local saddle club and Laddy seemed to just enjoy going and being involved. He was gentle and trusting and I enjoyed our time together. He would make funny little snorting noises as we jigged along quite satisfied to spend the day on the trails and be with me. Being a novice trail rider, I was a little worried when we went on the Brown County ride. The scenery was gorgeous but there were many narrow paths overlooking big ravines. As we traveled along one such trail one of the seasoned riders called to me, “Don’t worry, that big gelding will take care of you!” And he did.

Occasionally the kids would bring home friends that wanted to ride. Most of them had never ridden so Laddy would be saddled for them. We could trust him to just go along with anyone. Youngsters loved his gentle nature and he relished the attention. He also knew at the end of the session a treat would be waiting for him.

At home on hot days when I’d give the horses extra water, he would come to the tank and drink from the hose. He loved to have a cool shower at those times and would face me as I showered his front end and then turn to have me do his back and hindquarters. He was always the one to come and see what you were doing and seemed to enjoy just being a friend. He heard many of my secrets and listened to my problems when it was too difficult to confide in humans.

He and his mother graced the pasture for years being mostly pasture ornaments and providing a beautiful picture to view from the kitchen window. He truly was a Valentine gift.

Tags: Amazing Horse Story, Emotional Horse Stories, Horse 2 Heart, Horse Stories, inspiring Horse Stories

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 4:16 am and is filed under Horse Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.