Historic Saddles: Part 4

The term "historic" has several meanings. In the case of the sidesaddles, it meant something that was truly a part of history and thus important to preserve and keep.

Today's saddle is not important historically like the sidesaddles are, but it is important to me and my own personal history. It comes from a time when I was having children and was a stay at home mom. I thought my horse-owning days were over, but a highly lucrative early morning job filling newspaper vending boxes changed all that.

I bought and boarded Indy, a sweet half-Arab, with the money I earned from that job. I also bought this English saddle.

Indy's English Saddle, 1970s

After Abby died, Tim told me I could keep my saddles and tack trunk at the barn if I wished. Both of my saddles are still there on a saddle rack in Tim's barn office.

Indy and me, Champaign, Illinois, 1984.

Shortly after I got Abby, I wrote a blog post about this saddle.

---------

Leather, May 7, 2012

I love the smell and sound of leather. It evokes happy memories of rides on Amy and Cee and quiet times spent cleaning tack. Now that I have Abby, I have gotten my saddles out of the garage, had them checked for safety, and taken them out to the barn.

Today the pasture was really muddy when I went out to check on Abby, and so I decided to clean my English saddle.

It looks pretty good despite being at at least twenty five to thirty years old.

 It's a German saddle made by Theo Sommer. I bought it from Linda Duesterhaus and used it for Indy.

 The leather is still very supple and soft.

 A little bit of history - Indy was used as a therapy horse for disabled riders. You can tell by the extra holes punched in the stirrup leathers that we had to shorten the stirrups for children who rode him!

 The leather billets under the panel are in great shape.

 Finished! All clean and oiled.

Next up is my western saddle. I bought it in 1970 with money I earned babysitting. Like the English saddle, I have kept it cleaned and oiled over the years. It will take a lot longer to clean, so maybe I will wait until the weekend.

---------

I'd estimate that Indy's saddle is pushing 45 to 50 years old. Theo Sommer began making saddles in Munich in 1965, so the oldest it could be would be 60 years.

It is a very comfortable saddle and puts your backside right where it needs to be.

Mountain Mama Jessica riding Indy in my Sommer English saddle. (1987 or so.)

Now that the weather is warming up, I plan to go out to the barn and give my saddles a good cleaning. But I'm not quite ready for that emotionally, yet. Abby's loss is still too present for me.

But it's a good saddle and I'd like to keep it in good shape, so hopefully soon I'll be ready to tackle that task

One more historic saddle to share - stay 'tooned!

In the Saddle

In the photos Leslie has been scanning, she found some horsey photos of me, ones I have never seen before. There were a lot of Amy, but not so many of Indy. (Which makes sense since Indy was with me when I lived in Illinois.)

She did find this one, taken in 1986 or so. He was a nice gelding with that typical Arabian endurance. No matter how long or how far I rode him, he was always game to keep going. Indy was exceptionally gentle and the Champaign Park District even borrowed him over the years to use in their therapeutic riding program.

Another photo that Leslie sent me was this one of Curt out at her farm in 1992.

I don't remember this gelding's name, but he was staying with Leslie as a rescue for a time. He later moved to a stable as a school horse and then went on to the show ring and had success as a hunter/jumper.

Early in July Music City Son Cole's kids came up from Tennessee with Emily to attend Camp Tecumseh. Part of that experience was getting to ride.

Pony Pal Susie looks a bit unsure to be in the saddle, but she soon relaxed and enjoyed her ride.

Walking around the premises was part of the riding experience.

Pony Pal Kate in the saddle.

I attended some camps when I was their age - all of them had a riding component.

Those were the best moments of the day!

I didn't get any photos yet of Julie riding but when I do, I'll share. 

As I suspected, this fabric sold out quickly in the Mercantile.

Yesterday I made this traditional for a long-time customer

along with an extra long Traditional and four Classic and Curio pouches. I may order some more of it to stitch up for Marilou's show. And, I'd hoped to make myself something from it, too!

Exciting news from a Feast friend that is coupled with the history of a very famous horse from this area. I'll spin to win for anyone who guesses that horse's name correctly in this post's comments below. Guess before 7:00 AM Eastern tomorrow, only one guess per person.

The prize? Maple cakes!

Stay 'tooned!

Throwback: Indy as a Therapeutic Horse

 I mentioned yesterday that Indy had been used by the Champaign Park District as a therapy horse. Here is a throwback post about that that I thought you might enjoy.

Indy was one of those horses that enjoyed people and never pinned his ears, nipped, bit, or kicked. So, when my friend Linda Duesterhaus was exploring starting a therapeutic riding program, she asked me if she might be able to use him as one of the mounts for it.

I had a few questions (insurance was one, in case someone got hurt), but Linda was able to answer them to my satisfaction and so I gave her the green light to borrow him and Sugarfoot, my kids' pony.

I got to help train Indy for the program. We put him into the paddock and rolled wheelchairs around him, we limped around on crutches, bumped into him with both wheelchair and crutch, made lots of noises, sudden movements,  jumped around... anything we could think of that might  happen while he was being ridden and startle him.

Indy passed with flying colors, and Linda's program began.

I actually have this photo framed somewhere in my closet of photos and albums. I have been poking around in there and looking for it, as it is one of my favorite pictures ever taken of Indy. (The other is the one in a previous blog entry where he has three kids on his back.)

We made the front page of the Features section.

I didn't realize that the story continued on another page when I took the photographs of the article. Oops! I'll have to get back into the closet and see if I can't find part two.

It was really meaningful to be a part of Linda's program. It melded two of my great loves, kids and horses together, and made a difference in the lives of those who attended.

Writing about Indy has made me teary a time or two - he was such a nice horse. I keep his old stall nameplate hanging in my office where I can see it every day, and when I do, I cannot help the smile that spreads across my face.

Yearning for a Horse? The Story of Indy

Jennifer Buxton recently wrote a very poignant blog post titled, A Message to My Younger Self. In it, she traced her life as a horse lover/horsewoman and her struggles in keeping horses in her life despite all the things that life can throw at us. It's a really good read especially if you are yearning to have a horse in your life.

While our journeys have been different, our goal was the same. Jennifer and I both loved horses and we wanted to share our lives with them. This is the story of how I found a way to afford a horse while mothering six kids and being a stay at home mama.

When Craig and I got married, we both wanted a large family, and having one of us stay home with them was important to us both. Knowing that that would mean a lot of budgeting and doing without, we started our life together.

Sarah was born a year after we married, and then Jessica two years after that. We lived on a very tight budget with Craig as the sole income source as we continued to welcome our children into our home. Kyle was born 19 months after Jessica with Lisa arriving 17 months after him.

We had absolutely no extra money and had to watch every single penny. Looking back, I do not know how we made it as our budgets never, ever worked out on paper. But somehow we muddled through.

Amy, my much loved first horse, lived with my sister Leslie back in Indiana, so I technically was still a horse owner during that time. Leslie never charged me a penny for her care and rode her in exchange for board. Kind of a lease/board exchange as it were. But Amy was two hours away and I did not have the time or the gas money to go visit her.

As our family continued to grow, Craig began looking for a second income, one that would let me remain at home and yet still be enough to help support our growing family. Unbelievably, a job fell into our laps via a friend and Craig and I took over his job of filling vending machines with newspapers. One of us got up every morning at 4:00 (the other stayed home with the kids), drove out to the pick up point and loaded the car with the day's newspapers, and then drove a route of 30 some vending machines around town, removing the previous day's unsold papers and filling the machines with new ones.

It was incredibly lucrative, so much so that after a year, we had enough and to spare. Enough that I was able to afford owning and boarding a horse without sacrificing elsewhere in the budget.

Me with Indy, probably 1983.

It was so good to have a horse again, one that was near me. The whole family enjoyed having him as he was very gentle and sweet. (He was such a sweet boy that the Champaign Park District borrowed him as a therapy horse one summer.)

Kyle riding Indy with Craig walking alongside.

Indy with Jessica, Sarah, and Maria hitching a ride.

Curt was born and his pregnancy and birth slowed me down for a while. Then, three years later, I became pregnant with Cole. At that point, I decided to sell Indy. It had gotten harder and harder to make time to visit Indy - the older kids had a lot of activities and sports to go to plus I was tired and barn visits were mostly "hello," some hand grazing, and grooming. I did not have the time for Indy and he deserved better.

I trailered him over to Lafayette where a long time friend took him for me. It was hard to sell him, but it was the right thing to do.

So, what is my point in writing this blog post? To share hope and encouragement that even if owning a horse seems to be an insurmountable challenge, it isn't necessarily so. To encourage looking for options or being creative as Jennifer was when she looked for horsey opportunities. (There are some really good ideas in her blog post.) 

Getting up very early to deliver those newspapers to their vending boxes, driving (and hopping in and out of the car) in all kinds of weather conditions, and lifting and carrying heavy bundles of newspapers was hard. VERY hard at times, but being able to have Indy was worth all the missed sleep, ink covered hands, and sore muscles.

If you are yearning for a horse, I hope you find your own opportunity to make it happen. And if you don't find it right away, don't give up. I've done both - the waiting and the finding of opportunities. (A bonus of waiting is that that can make it all the sweeter when you finally do get your horse.)

Good luck to you. I'm pulling for you and hoping that your dream to have a horse comes true.

Blasts from the Past

For Mother's Day, Hawkeye Sarah posted a collage of photos of me from my early-mama years. The very first one was one I'd never seen before.

I recognize the chair I am sitting in but I am not sure which home that is - we had two in our Illinois days and I can't match it up with anything in either house that I can see in the photograph. Going by the manufacture dates on the models, the photo could not have been taken any earlier than 1988. And that isn't much help in determining which home that is - we moved from our first Illinois home into our second one in 1988! 

She also posted a photo of my Illinois horse, Indabab's Image, more commonly called Indy to note my Hoosier heritage. I was still a stay-at-home mom with only four kids then when I bought him, earning money to pay for him and for his monthly board bill by filling newspaper vending machines for The Chicago Tines, The Chicago Sun Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.

Photo from iS Stock and found on Google Images,

I'd get up at 4:00 AM and drive to the circulation warehouse, load my car with the newspapers, and then drive all over town, stopping at donut and coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, gas stations, university dorms, and more, filling the empty vending boxes. Sometimes I'd take one of our kids and we'd grab donuts at one of the donut shops I delivered to. I was done and home by 7:00 AM.

It was incredibly lucrative and I made enough money to support Indy and my hobby, with plenty left over to buy the kids clothes, pay sports fees and piano lessons, and more. It was the perfect job for a stay-at-home mom! 

Photo from Ultimate Classic Rock and found on Google Images.

Another bonus? I once met Def Leppard as they were checking out of their hotel. They'd performed at the University of Illinois the night before and were heading to the airport. As I popped into the hotel, I got a chance to say hello before I had to zip back out and resume my route. I got a lot of "cool Mom" bragging rights from my kids for that!

The Horsey Gene Surfaces

In the 1980s, we were living in Illinois and I had a half Arab gelding named Indabab's Image, or Indy for short. (Oh, how I loved that connection back to my home state of Indiana!)

My birthday cake with me and Indy - thanks, Mom!

Indy was a big part of my life but when I became pregnant with our sixth child, I could no longer give him the time and attention he deserved. So, I brought him back to Indiana where I sold him to a friend who I knew would give him good care.

Over Thanksgiving weekend I began sorting through a tub stuffed with photos that my parents had been saving.  I came across this one of me with Indy that I don't recall ever seeing.

May, 1985 is written on the back, and I recognize that maternity blouse - I was pregnant with our fifth child, Local Son Curt.

Curt's introduction to horses from the earliest days of his life did not lead to any horsiness in him.

But it seems to have skipped a generation, and for the first time EVER, one of my grands has Breyer horses on her Christmas wish list! 

Any guesses as to who might have put that on her list?

If you guessed Pony Pal Mila, then you are right!

(Photo from Breyer website.)

I've got an Aurora all wrapped and ready to give her Christmas morning. 

The December 5 Advent Calendar reveal:

Another horse! This time a foal.

50th Anniversary - The Lean Years of the 1980s

 Shortly after we got married, we moved up to Central Michigan University where Craig had taken a job after finishing his Masters at Purdue. We also started our family.

Craig and me with newborn Denver Daughter Sarah. (And our bird, Sky.) 

Those were very lean times for us financially. With Craig's support, I chose to be a stay at home mama, and there was no money to spend on horses, real or model. I left my collection at my parents' home planning to get them soon, and my sister Leslie took Amy and my other horses and cared for them with hers. (She didn't charge me a cent - now THAT'S a sister!)

Taking Sarah for a walk - yes, I am wearing my cowboy boots!

We learned to be creative in earning money - once we traded the top to bottom cleaning of a home in exchange for a month of groceries. We survived, but I couldn't even afford to photo show.

Two years later we were transferred to the University of Illinois. We added five more children, and I took a job filling newspaper vending machines. I had to get up at 4:00 AM to pick up my papers and run my route, but I was done and home by 7:00 in the morning. Our finances steadied and I was finally able to go back to Indiana and get my models.

It was so good to have them with me again! I'm glad I took this photo back then - it's the only one I have of my entire carpet herd! 

Even better, that vending route was lucrative enough that I was able to afford a horse and pay a board bill. Instead of bringing Amy over - she was in her twenties and I did not want to uproot her - I bought a half Arab gelding, Indabab's Image, or Indy as we called him. That's Teacher Daughter Lisa riding him.

I had Indy until I became pregnant in 1988 with Cole, our sixth child. With five kids, I was already struggling to find time to get out to the barn to visit him. Sadly, I decided it was in Indy's best interest to sell him, and so I brought him back to Indiana and sold him to an old friend of mine. 

I hadn't bought a new model in years (aside from the Classic Mustang and Andalusian Families that "Santa" put under the tree for my daughters) but my mother had. My parents had supported my horsey tendencies when I was young and living with them, and they continued to do so during my adulthood. 

I'll never forget the birthday when I opened her gift to me and inside was this Abdullah. Just look at his shading! That prompted a shift in my thinking - my carpet herd and Windsong/Pawnee Stables things were with me, no longer did I have to set aside money to pay for Indy and his board... I now could afford to photo and live show again.

Today is the last day to enter for the third giveaway! Comment to enter!

Horse Trailers

I love horse trailers. When I was younger and we were out driving on the road and our car approached one, I would plead with my parents to speed up so that I could peek in the back at the horse. Then I'd ask them to pass the trailer so that I could see if I could spy the horse's head as we went past. 

Before I had my own horse, my parents used to take Leslie and me to local shows so that we could watch. They'd drop us off for the day, give us some money to buy lunch, and then come back around 5:00 to pick us up.

These local shows were mostly western classes with a few halter classes at the beginning, and always at the end was the crowd favorite, the Jack Benny Class. Jack Benny was an older comedian at the time so the class was for older riders. There was a lot of good natured ribbing and cheering of the exhibitors as that class was in the ring. 

Leslie and I would watch the classes and wander the show grounds, looking at the trailers, and the horses, and dreaming of the day that we might be on the show grounds with our own rig and horses.

The Hoffine family had my favorite trailer. It was a four horse trailer with a dressing room similar to this one. When they rolled into the show grounds, Leslie and I would stop and watch. 

Best of all, the family's name was emblazoned across the sides. Leslie and I thought that that was the ultimate in horsedom - a trailer that hauled more than two horses and that had your name on it? Such grandeur!

(Funny aside, I have had a lot of physical therapy over the years, and my physical therapist is Dusti Hoffine Chase! She saw my horsey necklace at one of my first appointments and she mentioned that she was a horsey gal, too. When I figured out that she was a Hoffine and told her about how I thought her family's rig was the absolute ultimate, we had a good laugh, but I could also see that she was very touched.)

My dad, bless him, always supported my horsey side. After I got my first horse, he bought this trailer for me. 

It's a two horse one, and he painted it in the colors that I wanted and replaced the floorboards. (It was a homemade trailer and he wanted to be sure it was safe. Thanks, Dad!) I was thrilled to have it!

Then a few years later, he upgraded to a commercial trailer. I only have two photos of that trailer; this one is of me in front of it when I was cleaning it out and was taken the summer of 1975. 

Here is another photo of it taken around 1985. I was married with kids and we were living in Illinois. Our church was having a 4th of July BBQ and I hauled Indy into town to give rides. From left to right, that's Mountain Mama Jessica, Denver Daughter Sarah, and my horsey Finnish friend, Merja Voutilainen's daughter, Maria.

Those are the only two trailers I have ever owned. I never got that big rig with my name emblazoned on it like the Hoffines had. But that's okay. If I need to haul Abby, I can use Tim's trailer.

 Tim's tailer parked on the east side of the new barn.

And you know what? Even after all these years, I still get excited when I see a horse trailer on the road. I still try to draw close to it so that I can catch a glimpse of the horses inside.

I don't think I will ever outgrow that thrill.