My Quest for a Buckle
By Wilma Yule
I got my start back into horses after a 20 year break when
we bought our farm 3 years ago. We moved in on Monday and by Thursday I had
5 rescued Standardbreds at my barn. After realizing that emotionally, it was
just too hard, and physically my body wasn't built to take the pacing, I decided
to start looking for a Quarter Horse.
A few of my friends, from Nanaimo, showed on the AQHA circuit and told me about a
beautiful little 2 year old gelding that stole my heart from the moment I saw
him."'Precious Pretense" aka Percy was bred for Western Pleasure and I was SURE that
was what I wanted to do. We started the training process very slowly and he
was showing huge potential...he was quiet,he was sane..he was everything I wanted........I
was on top of the world. After about 8 months of very low stress training he
came up lame...they felt it was his stifle and perhaps with rest he would be fine.
On our way from Campbell River to Victoria, I decided to stop at Petroglyph
Animal hospital to confirm that it was his stifle and that he was indeed going to
be fine. Like the trooper that he is...he walked into the examining room like he'd
been there before and stood for 3 hours while they x-rayed and prodded(without sedation)his
stifle.My worst fear was confirmed when i was told it was OCD....and quite a large
defect at that. Percy went to Pullman Washington for stifle surgery on BOTH stifles.
The prognosis was not good and I knew he would need at least 5 months off, so I went
on the hunt for another horse to ride and keep Percy company when he came home.
I had seen Reining at an AQHA show in Red Deer..and thought "how hard could that be?" They sure made it look easy, and it was so exciting to watch. I wanted to rein. I searched all over the internet looking for my new horse, I knew exactly what I wanted and it was NOT going to be Sorrel, no matter what!. I read an ad that sounded exactly like a horse I would want...not only that...it was trained by LYNDA SMITH!! I had heard her name everywhere. So I called and spoke to the most wonderful lady (Kathleen Keating) and then I went off to see my dream horse at a cutting event (did i mention he was SORREL).
I
had no idea what to look for in a reining horse, so Lynn Cullen rode him
and really liked him. He was moved back to Lynda Smith's barn for our next meeting.
Lynda just came home from a show, and was exhausted...but she still took all the
time in the world, to show me what this horse could do..it was truly spectacular
to watch. I was SOLD! Kinky came home to me shortly afterwards and I busily set
out to "untrain " all
that had been done on him. Our first schooling show (3 weeks after I bought
him) was a bit of an eye-opener. We ran large fast and small slow TRIANGLES....our
spins were SPIRALS towards the gates, and the only tracks we left from the slide
were from his front feet!! I knew I needed help .Lynda had offered
to come to the Island and help me as she used to give clinics here...so Lynn started
organizing clinics here again, and the rest is history. With Lynda's help and all
her effort we managed to score a 64 1/2 at our first ever WCRA show the "ROCKSLIDE" held
in Victoria, this past June.
There were a lot of times I was ready to throw in the towel. He has all the "buttons" alright
- everyone told me so - and I had seen him in action, but for the life of me, I
couldn't even find one of them! Lynda encouraged me, on and on, telling me to
hang in there...it would be worth the wait.,Well, I haven't found all the buttons
yet, but i am sure glad I hung in there. I have met some of the nicest people,
made some really good friends and have a coach I think the world of. Does it get
any better than that?