Back in the Day ... Part 1, "Star"

I'm going to write a "mini-series" on the horses who have influenced me and taught me the most. 


KE Flight of a Star

After riding at Kaufman Stables (Westfield, Ind.) for a number of years, I got the opportunity to lease a small chestnut mare named Star. She was sired by Waskeeka's Nocture ... a decent line in the Morgan world. She was young, and cranky. She was not a horse you could go into the stall and brush or mess with. She would pin her ears and was not friendly. She also was a show horse - never turned out, locked up in a stall for 23 hours a day. At the time, I didn't know any better. I began my show career with her - showing all over the Midwest at Morgan "A" breed shows (including Dayton, Ohio, where this photo was taken) The ugly brown saddlesuit in this photo came as the recommendation of my instructor. It was even custom made. Geez. 

Even at the time when Morgan Jr. Exhibitor English Pleasure horses were still english pleasure horses, instead of park horses, Star was still very average. In today's Classic English Pleasure division, she still would not hold up. Not much movement and sort of a dumpy headset. (The dressage queen in me cringes at this word, but just work with me here) Of course, I didn't know any better at the time. My instructor filled my head with great things. How she looked fabulous and we would do great things. Star was really good at spinning and rearing. I fell off numerous times due to this antic. She was never one to rear so high that she was in danger of flipping over, but I think now she would have made a good reining horse. She also dumped me twice at the Dayton Horse Show in the warm-up ring. In the name of saving the very expensive, very ugly brown saddlesuit - I did land on my feet ... both times.

With Star I learned some hard lessons about showing. Smiling throughout the entire class won't win you ribbons. Neither will pleasantly trotting along on the rail. People are going to cut you off. During one class in Michigan, Star decided to throw in a lovely buck during the canter. Startled ... I didn't know what else to do but just keep going. One of the more valuable lessons ... ever. We never won a blue ribbon ... in fact I was more than thrilled to get ANY ribbon at all, as most of the time we were last or close to it. I could never figure out know why we always did so badly - even when we did not make any mistakes. Now I know ... obviously ... there were better horses and better riders.

As far as I know, Star is a school horse now for a Morgan stable in central Indiana (actually, last I checked, it was Sheryl Woosley's barn ... poor mare). When I took T-Bone to his first show as a 4-year old, I saw Star there ... trucking another junior rider around the ring. She had some grey hairs on her face, but still looked the same. As much as the mare dumped me, I still liked her. She was fun to show, and really for the most part safe. She set the stage for many, many years with Morgans.

... to be continued ...