Derby Day 2023!

It's Derby Day! Even though I do not follow horse racing, I am looking forward to watching today's race - I try to always watch the Triple Crown races.

My Derby decor has been out for two weeks - I especially love my six glass Derby glass collection that is displayed right now on our player piano. Each glass represents one of my kids as it has the year of the race it represents on it. That year is also the year each one of my kids was born.

My Breyer Quarter Horse Refrigerator with jockey Kip Dideriksen riding him has been brought out of the china cabinet and is displayed between the glasses.

And my metallic horses and jockeys are racing across a very small table in the living room.

This is the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby and there are 20 horses in the field. As I write, Forte is the 3-1 favorite, with Tapi Trice at 5-1 and Angel of Empire at 8-1. (I love Thoroughbred names!)

A month ago, with help from some readers, I learned that my QH gelding Cee Hunt shared connections with Cee's Tizzy who was the sire of Belmont winner Tiz the Law. Tiz the Law won the Belmont Stakes in 2020 and was released as a Breyer model in 2021 and then glossed for the 2022 Customer Appreciation Event.

Just as I don't follow horse racing, I don't collect many racehorses and did not have a Tiz the Law. But after learning of Cee's connection to him, I had planned to look for one at BreyerFest this summer. However, when we were horse trading in my living room last weekend, Steff pulled one out of her tub that she was selling.  It's mine now!

Also on display to celebrate the Derby is a horseshoe that Liz brought me back from Louisville a few years ago. She got it at Churhill Downs, and it was worn by a horse who ran on that track. There is still dirt in it. (Which is why it's wrapped in plastic.

I keep it and a shoe that Amy wore on display stands in my sewing room.

Despite how close I live to Louisville and how quickly I can get to Churchill Downs, I have never seen the Derby in person. I've gone to the track for an afternoon of racing and eaten dinner in the restaurant overlooking the track and watched even more races, but I've never seen the Derby. It's on my bucket list.

Someday.

More on Cee

I sure am glad I posted about Cee yesterday - I got some more surprise information about his bloodline as a result. Who'd have thought he'd have connections as he does!

I heard from Leslie about his pedigree - she shared something that I had forgotten - Cee was a Leo bred Quarter Horse. Leo was one of the King Ranch's most famous sires and the second Quarter Horse inducted into the Quarter Horse Hall of Fame. Leo was Cee's grand sire.

Leo (Photo from Google Images.)

AJG posted this comment on that blog post:

Well, your post I do believe cleared up the connection lol. King Ranch sold Cee's Tizzy as a yearling and thus probably named him. While officially "bred in Kentucky" that term is a misnomer as it actually tends to indicate where the dam foaled and not where she was bred and I have found him listed as both Kentucky bred and California bred. There may well be some shared lineage there. While his racing career was brief he showed flash in the pan type potential and was given a shot at stud, albeit not with the major names in Kentucky. Cee's Tizzy stood in California and sired the only, to my knowledge, two time Breeder's Cup Classic winner, the superb Tiznow. Breyer recently honored Tiznow's very good son Tiz the Law.
https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/198192/cees-tizzy-sire-of-tiznow-dies-at-28
https://www.pedigreequery.com/cees+tizzy

AJG

Cee's Tizzy (Photo from Google Images

And then someone else posted:

I wouldn’t dismis Cee’s Tizzy so lightly; he sired 4 other millionaires in addition to Tiznow, and dozens of earners in the 6 figure range. The Blood Horse called him “one of California's most successful sires.”

I think the “Cee” in his name came from his owner, Cecilia “Cee” Straub-Rubens and her Cee's Stable. 

Cee’s Tizzy, foaled in 1987, has 2 crosses that go back to Man O’ War through War Relic, to In Reality, sire of Relaunch.

Pretty interesting stuff!

Cee and Me at the Tippecanoe County 4-H Fair in 1974.

Cee Hunt

I'd planned to start the discussion of Breyer's dapples this morning, but as I sat down to write that first post, I realized that I was missing some information and still had some research to do. Give me another day or two to finish that - maybe Wednesday or Thursday I'll post the first entry in the series.

Next, and for those interested, yesterday the National Weather Service added two more tornados to the count for Indiana from Friday night - we are now up to nine with two just north of us (and very close to Leslie and Rick's home) and one south (near Cowpoke Ian and Pony Pal Mila's school which was hit by a tornado in 2014 and closed for two years while repairs were undertaken.)

Their school after the tornado in 2014.

Sadly, an area couple died in the tornado that hit a state park in southern Indiana Friday night. They were camping and unable to get to shelter. So sad. Let's hope tomorrow night's predicted tornados are not as bad. 

Anyway...

After the Give Away, reader AMG posted the following comment:

What fun to see these photos. Is there a story to Cee's name? There was a rather famous Thoroughbred sire by the name of Cee's Tizzy back in the 90s who tended to produce dark bays with irregular white stripes and blazes, so your Cee is aptly named; if not for the cars reference I might wonder if your Cee was one of his get. AIG

My Cee could not be the Thoroughbred Cee's get as he would be too old. Cee was a registered Quarter Horse who came out of the King Ranch. His name was Cee Hunt which was a play on the old TV show, Sea Hunt. 

I'd say it's possible that there is a connection of some sort though - with a name as unusual as Cee plus the fact that, back in the 70s there was a lot of cross breeding between the two breeds (think of the term, "appendix Quarter Horse.")

I gave Cee to Leslie after I got married and his papers went to her. I did have a pedigree for him that went back several generations. I'll ask her if she still has them and if she does, see if I can take a look at them and share what I learn.

And if anyone has information on Cee's Tizzy, send it my way - I'd love to know more about him! (horsiemama8@gmail.com)

Give Away Winner, March, 2023

And the winner of the Give Away is...

Congratulations! Please send your mailing address to horsiemama@gmail.com.

Someone asked if horse #4 had a docked tail. That was a good question - I did not remember him having one, but a lot of time has passed since that photo was taken. I had to look very closely before I finally could see the tail on his hock. So, no, it was not docked.

Cee and me - he has a white saddle pad on. 

Thanks to all who entered!

A Memorable Christmas Parade

As I said in yesterday's post, I have ridden in the Lafayette Christmas Parade as well as in other parades in the area. There is one parade, though, that is far more memorable than the rest.

My high school band had a mounted dragoons unit that rode behind the band whenever we marched and I was part of that unit with my Quarter Horse, Cee Hunt. For this particular parade, we'd headed to Attica, Indiana.

Cee and me, ready to ride in a parade.

The parade was staging and we had just stepped off, coming around a corner to join the main body of the parade. (Parades line up in sections [staging] that then merge together as the parade begins.)

Who'd have thought that tiny Attica would have the Shriners performing in their parade? If you've ever seen the Shriners, or a group like them, you know that they zip around during the parade in teeny tiny go-carts, doing formations, and careening around everywhere.

A group similar to the Shriners performing in the 2021 Lafayette Christmas parade.

As we came around that corner and were falling into line with the main body of the parade, there were the Shiners, zooming around as they practiced their formations before stepping off themselves. Oh, my goodness! How would Cee react to that chaos and commotion?

Good boy that he was, he flicked an ear at them and kept on walking behind the band! Was I ever relieved. (Extra carrots after the parade for you, my boy!)

And later in the parade, when a helicopter loudly swooped low over our unit as we marched? Cee was still calm and kept walking. (To this day, I still wonder why a helicopter was flying over the parade.)

Needless to say, I've never forgotten the time I rode in the Attica Christmas parade!

Christmas Card of the Day

More Gems from the Past

When time allows, I continue to go through tubs of my parents' things. My mother saved everything (I found thirteen boxes of my school papers, one for each grade) and while at times I sigh and feel overwhelmed, there are other times when I come across gems that make me glad she hung on to everything. 

Like this photo of my Quarter Horse Cee that I'd never seen before.

The photo was taken during the summer of 1985. That's me on the left, pregnant with Local Son Curt. My mother is holding Cee while Mountain Mama Jessica (black tee) and Teacher Daughter Lisa wait their turn to hop up for a ride. Beach Son Kyle is up on Cee and waiting for his grandmother to lead him around.

Cee was such a gentle boy and the one we often used when the kids wanted to ride. (He reminds me of Hokey, both in his color and in his temperament.) I found a second gem of Cee with kids on his back while going through a tub.

My brother's wife Cindie has put her daughter Holly up on Cee's back and then Teacher Daughter Lisa is behind her riding double. This was taken during the summer of 1984.

Not from my parents' tubs, but another of Cee since I am thinking about him. This is the two of us in 1974 at the Tippecanoe County 4-H Fair and we'd just placed third in a very tough Western Pleasure class of thirty-three. I was so happy with that placing that I still have that ribbon hanging up here in my horse room.

Here's hoping that I will find more gems like these as I sort through all these tubs.

Golden Memories

Going through my parents' things has made me cry more than once. Some are sad tears as I sit there and grieve my folks, others are happy because the memory brought to mind is so precious.

This series of photos brought those happy tears. We were living in Illinois at the time and had come back to Indiana to visit. I had taken Denver Daughter Sarah out to see Amy and Cee.

Sarah was two at the time and I think this is the first time she ever had met a horse. We started outside the pasture by giving Cee and Amy treats.

Look at the joy on her face as she reaches out to pet Cee! He was such a wonderful horse - how I miss him.

Sarah wasn't sure she like having his nose against her leg

but he was so gentle that she relaxed and soon was petting him again.

My parents, especially my mother, saved everything and at times I have groaned as I have sorted out tubs and wished that they hadn't.

Then there are times when you find something like this, and the memories are so precious, so golden, it makes all that sorting worthwhile.

Dad's Slides: Purdue Horsemanship Camp

Even after Bobbie Sue and I aged out of Girl Scouts, we still had another opportunity to attend camp with horses. In June of 1973, we went to Purdue University's Horsemanship Camp near Seymour, Indiana.

The camp was actually held at the Jackson County Fairgrounds in Brownstown which butted right up to the Jackson-Washington State Forest.

This meant that we stayed in the woods and had lots of trails for hiking during our downtime. This is the cabin where the girls at the camp stayed.

 Our 4-H leader, Jerry Synaesal, hauled Cee and Starbuck, Bobbie's horse, to camp for us - Brownstown is in the southern part of Indiana and only about twenty five miles from Louisville.

 Me, Jerry, Starbuck, Bobbie, and my sister, Jenny.

 The horses were stabled in the fairground's livestock barns.

Me with Cee, Bobbie, and Starbuck letting the horses stretch their legs after the three hour drive south.

 Another view of the barns at the fairgrounds.

It was a wonderful week spent learning about horse care and improving our riding. This was a terrific opportunity for me since most of what I knew was from reading books and then trial and error experience with Amy, Nick, Pokey, Cee, and Flame. I will ever be grateful to Jerry Synaesal and his 4-H club for the way it started me on the path of becoming the horsewoman I wanted to be. 

There were a lot of other 4-H teens from around the state in attendance, and both English and Western disciplines were represented. We were instructed in horse care, conformation, how to show in halter and performance, and so many other aspects of horse ownership.

The 1973 Class of Purdue Horsemanship Camp graduates. I've put a blue arrow pointing to me, and Bobbie Sue is to the right of me in the blue shirt.

At the end of the week, a horse show was held so that we could show what we had learned. I was so excited to win two third place ribbons in large classes against kids who'd grown up with horses and had far more experience than me.

 In fact, those wins meant so much to me that the ribbons hang in my horse room to this day.

I was especially excited about the ribbon for horsemanship - I had felt so far behind the other campers and that win showed me that, despite my lack of lessons and experience, I could catch up with more experienced kids and that I could ride well. 

I left camp with far more confidence in my abilities to care for my horses and feeling, for the first time in my life, like I was a horsewoman.

Cowgirl Outfits vs What You Really Wear

I was looking through my large stash of sewing patterns the other day and came across this one.

Oh, the memories that pattern brought back! It was the early 1980s and prairie skirts were very popular, for kids as well as for women. I'd sewn this outfit as school clothes for our oldest daughter, Sarah.

That pattern brought back memories from my own childhood in the 1960s. My sister and I were both horse crazy and so our mother sewed us matching cowgirl outfits. I can't find any photos of the two of us in them, but I remember that they were red and black with stars on them and made from felt.

After doing on online search, I found this vintage 1960s pattern and I think it must be the one she used.

It's close to what I remember, especially the stars on the yoke of the blouse and the vest.

Leslie and I use to "canter" around the yard in those cowgirl outfits, saving people from villains and going for rides around the ranch. When we began riding real horses, though, the cowgirl outfits were left behind.

Me, age 11, on Gambler's Maid. She was owned by the stable where I had my first riding lessons and I always requested her when my mother took me out to ride.

We learned that our cowgirl outfits, while fun, were more a Hollywood-stylized version of what men and women wore to ride in.

 My Quarter Horse gelding, Cee Hunt, and me in May, 1975.

And so, Leslie and I exchanged our cowgirl skirts for more practical jeans and boots. I have a fair amount of western wear and jewelry. Still, there's a part of me that would love to whip up a cowgirl skirt and vest for adult-me, just for fun!

Flood!

I consider myself lucky to have grown up on the Wabash River. My parents' home was nine acres with a wide stretch of riverbank running all along the east perimeter, and we had one of our pastures across the highway that split our property into two parts.

Concerned that somebody might play a prank on us and open the gate  to let the horses out if we situated the gate right by the highway, my father put the gate down by the river when we bought our first horses and fenced in the river bottoms.

Except that river bottoms = flood plains. Which we found out to our sorrow.

The Lafayette Journal and Courier, Thursday, December 27, 1973

That's Amy on the left and Cee on the right. When I realized the pasture was flooding and just how quickly the water was rising, I had frantically called my dad at work in town, telling him that the gate was inaccessible and that I could not get the horses out. He raced home, grabbed some wire cutters out of the barn and cut the fence so that we could rescue the horses and move them to a pasture on higher ground.

We repaired the fencing after the water receded, but we never changed the gate to a different spot. We felt that in the long run it was safer to make the gate as inaccessible to pranksters as possible, and we'd learned to keep an eye on the river, watching for high water, and to keep the wire cutters handy.

Most importantly, we learned to NOT put the horses in the river bottoms pasture when flooding was forecast!

Me - In the Saddle! Part Two

Cee Hunt was a Quarter Horse gelding who was my show horse when I was in high school.

Cee and me at the Tippecanoe County 4-H Fair, July, 1974

He did well at shows, but even better, he had a quiet personality and you could do just about anything with him.

Like swim with him on a hot summer day! Cee was a real water baby and would even jump off the banks of creeks and rivers into the water. I count myself lucky to have had the experience of swimming with my horse. Not many people get to do that anymore. 

 You could also just hop on his back with only a halter and lead rope and go for a ride, too. (Where are my shoes??) This photo was taken when Cee was in his late twenties. I am in my early thirties, I think.

When Craig and I moved to Illinois, I left Cee behind with my sister, Leslie. At that time, we had started our family and I was a stay at home mom. Money was tight and I could not afford to board him. Plus, I did not want him in a stall full time - I have always preferred keeping my horses on pasture with a barn or shelter that they could go in and out of at will.

Leslie, and Cee, heading for some water fun in the Wabash River. Probably early 1980s.

Leslie had that arrangement for her own horses, and so she added Cee to her herd. He lived out the remainder of his days with her and had a happy life.

I miss him.

An Unexpected Connection

I recently bought a bunch of used trophies from a friend of a friend to use for Happy Trails 2, the model horse show I am putting on next June. The gal was nice enough to tuck in a bunch of extra goodies, including rosettes she had won in the 1990s from showing her own horses. (Real, not models.)

I was admiring them and reading the backs to see what they were for, when to my surprise, one listed the judge as Scott Macdonald. That was the name of my horse, Cee's, former owner who had also gone to my high school! 

The show was in Kalamazoo, and as Cee had won championships from Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan with Scott, my guess was that this was the same guy.

Cee and me swimming in Burnett Creek in 1974. Cee was a real water lover; Scott used to jump him off the banks of the Wildcat and into the water! I also swam him quite a bit in the Wabash.

Scott and I have lost touch, but I looked him up on Facebook and he is still involved with horses. After some further emails and photos back and forth with the woman who sold me the trophies, it turned out that the Scott who sold me Cee and the one who'd judged the seller of the trophies was the same guy!

Who'd have thought that, forty-five plus years later, I would come across a connection to him in such an odd way!

Leslie and Cee

Since she lost Skippy and Coco so recently, my sister has been going through pictures of some of the horses she's owned and loved. One of them was Cee Hunt.

 Cee and Leslie taking a spin around the pasture. Early 1980s.

Cee was my 4-H and show horse. A Quarter Horse gelding, he earned many, many ribbons (I still have one of them hanging in my horse room.) But I loved him most for his quiet personality and the fact that you could do anything with him and do it safely. I do not recall ever falling off him. I can't even remember him shying at things. He was a very, very safe horse to ride or be with on the ground.

Me swimming with Cee in Burnett Creek, 1974.

He also loved to swim, and with the Wabash, Wildcat, and Burnett Creek close to hand, he got a lot of time in the water.  Cee would leap off banks, paw, roll, and thoroughly enjoy himself. Some of my fondest horse memories are of spending time with him as he played in his favorite element on a hot summer day.

After I had been married a while and had had a few children, I gave Cee to Leslie as a Christmas gift. She was over the moon as she had loved him for years.

His final days were spent in a nine acre pasture with Amy and Pokey, with a barn that allowed him to go in and out at will. He passed away peacefully at an old age and was happy and content until the end.

The Ghosts of Horses Past

Since our kids are coming for Christmas and were not here for Thanksgiving, I found myself with some quiet time today. Normally on the day after Thanksgiving, I would have a houseful of people and a full day planned; today, not so much.

So, I decided to do something that I'd planned to do over the summer but had not gotten done since both our moms passed away and I had a spinal fusion. I cleaned out the family history closet - a closet where I store all our photos, journals, and other family memorabilia.

And in doing so, I came across some photos I had not seen in a long, long time. Including some of horses I have owned and loved in the past.

I kept this one in a frame on my desk for years.

That's Amy on the left (see how much she looks like Abby?) and Cee Hunt on the right. Amy was my very first horse and will ALWAYS be my favorite. I was twelve when I got her, and she found her forever home with us. She died in 1991 at 25.  This photo was take in 1978.

Here's another picture of Cee. He was a registered Quarter Horse and my show horse. He was experienced and very mild mannered.

Get him around a body of water, and he was a happy boy. He loved to swim and would leap off banks into the water. This is me swimming with him in the mid 1970s. We're in Burnett Creek in Battleground, Indiana. I also used to swim him in the Wabash River off the beach in front of our home.

Indy (Indabab's Image) was a registered half-Arab that I owned when we lived in Illinois. I never, ever wore that horse out - like a typical Arab, he always had energy to spare. But he was still a gentle, kind boy and we enjoyed many fun times together. I brought him back to Lafayette, Indiana and sold him to a friend when I was pregnant with my sixth child. I knew I would simply not have time for him after Cole's birth and wanted to see him through to a good home so I would not worry about what happened to him.

Finding photos of these wonderful horses today, those "ghosts of horses past," made me smile. And, feel very, very grateful to have had them in my life.