A Horsey Ancestor?

My husband loves genealogy as much as I love horses. He knows more about horses than most people do because he loves me, and I know more about genealogy because I love him. We can't help but rub off on each other!

Recently while working on my father's line, Craig connected with a distant relation of mine who shared some old family photos, including this one of my Great Uncle Joe, my grandmother's older brother.

I never met this great uncle, but I knew of him and that he was from St. Louis and drove a delivery cart in the early part of the twentieth century.

After the initial excitement of seeing a photo of my great uncle, my attention zeroed in on the horses. "How lucky!" I thought. "He got to work with horses daily!" And then I remembered that, for people who lived at that time, horses were a necessary fact of life, a way of living, and not the treat that they are for horse lovers like me now.

That led me to wonder, "Did they have horse lovers like me back then since horses were so ubiquitous?"  I answered my own question right away - IndyCar racing had popped into my mind. (I am a girl from Indiana, after all! )

The Indianapolis 500 has been held in Indiana for over 100 years. The drivers, mechanics, owners, and fans are crazy about cars well beyond their transportation function. So are those who follow NASCAR - they love cars over and beyond what most of us feel for the car sitting in the garage or driveway.  Just like we have our NASCAR and IndyCar lovers now, no doubt there were avid horse enthusiasts back then, too.

I found that thought comforting for some odd reason. I liked knowing that there have been others like me across the years who lived and breathed horses, loving them beyond their function as aids to human life, loving them simply because they ARE.

Uncle Joe, I hope that you, too, found joy in your daily association with horses, including these two lovely ones. And perhaps you and I even share the same family horsey gene.

The Harrison High School Dragoons

When I was a teenager, I attended William Henry Harrison High School, a brand new high school located two miles from the site of The Battle of Tippecanoe and named after the man who had led the American forces in the fight.

Given free rein to choose new uniforms for the new school, the band director selected military uniforms. These were highly unusual for the time as other band uniforms in the 1970s were basically a jacket, matching pants, a brimmed hat with a plume, and spats. As a result, our band really stood out in parades and at events as a result.

Another eye-catcher for us were our dragoons. Historically, dragoons were a mounted infantry who went into battle on horseback but dismounted to actually fight. Continuing the military theme, our band director decided to have a mounted cavalry as part of its marching band presentation. Since it was a rural high school, finding band members with horses was no problem.

I played the flute in the band, but when we were marching and bringing the dragoons along, I got to ride!

This is my Quarter Horse, Cee Hunt and me getting ready to march. (Any other model collectors think he looks like a Breyer Lady Phase in this photo?)

Written on the back of the photo was that it was 1974 and we were marching at a rally in Battle Ground, the town that grew up around the battle site. The group in red jackets were from Washington, DC and called "The Olde Guard."

I don't remember anything else about this particular march, but it had to have been something pretty special for a group from Washington, DC to fly to and participate in!

Eventually, we all were given saddle blankets like these; mine is still in my tack trunk. At this time I did not yet have mine so I used my show blanket. (I still have all the tack that is on Cee; it's stored out at the barn in the tack room.)

I have been trying to reconnect with others who rode in the Harrison Dragoons with me, but have not had much luck yet. Hopefully I will be able to write another blog entry with more pictures and information soon.

I still count myself as lucky to have had such a unique opportunity!

Horses, History, High Schools, and Axl Rose

I spent most of the school day yesterday mentoring a new teacher. It was good to be  using my teaching chops again; double bonus for the day because of the school's mascot! As I left the school after lunch, I realized that half of the area high schools have a horse as a mascot or logo.

Tecumseh Junior High School

  You can see the horse centered on my visitor's badge from yesterday.

Tecumseh Junior High is named for the Shawnee leader, Tecumseh, who spent time in our area leading up to the battle of Tippecanoe. That historical effect can be felt on my own high school, too.


William Henry Harrison High School

William Henry Harrison High School, whose logo also reflects the events surrounding Tecumseh and the Battle of Tippecanoe. (Harrison went on to be the ninth president of the United States, and his election was strongly attributed to his win here in Tippecanoe County.)

The Harrison High School band wears reproduction military uniforms from the early 1800s when marching or performing

unless they are performing at Disney World where mouse ears are de rigueur. (The girls on either side of the drum major are my former students, Kathleen and Naveen.)

When I was in the band, we had mounted dragoons, and I rode my horse, Cee, as one of them. As you might imagine, I loved attending a high school with a horse logo!


Lafayette Jeff High School
Not only does Tecumseh Junior High have the bucking red horse logo, so does the high school it feeds into - Lafayette Jeff.

There's a funny "history" lesson about this school, but it's not rooted in the Battle of Tippecanoe. It relates to my mother and the hard rock band, Guns N' Roses. Both Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin are from here and attended Jeff High School. Even as a kid, Axl was angry and a troubled juvenile delinquent with many arrests to his credit. He left town as a young adult when the Lafayette police told him that, after more than twenty arrests for battery and public intoxication, they would charge him as a habitual criminal. 

Rose maintained roots in Lafayette and after he hit it big, he bought a home here out in the southeastern part of the county along the Wildcat River. It was one of those lovely historic brick homes that dot our county. My mother, a local preservationist, historian, and author of several books on the history of the area, was furious when she heard what Rose was doing to the beautiful historic home. The place was used for hard partying and the lovely leaded glass windows were all shot out for fun while the interior was trashed. 

I don't think my mother ever forgave Rose for ruining one of our county's historic homes just for his own pleasure. After she died, the historic home was torn down and a new home built in its place. I don't know if Rose owns it or not; I suspect he doesn't.

Lafayette Central Catholic Knights

There is one more local high school with a horse logo.

A private Catholic school, it does not connect with any of the history of our community through its logo. I am not Catholic (I am a Mormon), so I do not know much about Catholic history and Catholicism, but no doubt their logo connects to the religion in some way.

There are three more high schools in the area with mascots of an eagle, a steer, and a red devil. (The late Shannon Hoon, lead singer for Blind Melon, is from Lafayette and came out of McCutcheon , the school with the steer logo. Who'd have thought that this area would produce some well known rock singers? Usually it's baseball players!)

I just dug out some photos of me riding as a dragoon for Harrison High School. I'll post a few of those tomorrow.

Mud

Winter thus far has been a bust in my part of Indiana. Every snowstorm seems to split in two and go north and south of us. Or, we get heavy rains and warm weather. Last winter we had record breaking cold; this winter we are having record breaking warmth!

And all that makes for mud, mud, and more mud.

That can make Abby think a bit about coming to visit with me when I call her up.

 "Me? Walk through all that mud for a peppermint?? I just don't know..."

She always comes, though, carefully picking her way along the very edges of the lanes and pathways between the pastures to get to me.

 Peppermints, apples, carrots, pears, even leftover candy corn from Halloween all make it worth slogging through a bit of mud to get a treat.

Besides, the evidence shows that Miss Can't-Get-My-Hooves-Muddy is rolling to her heart's content every day!

A Pony Pal's Pony Party

Pony Pal Mila turned three on January 4. Seems that the horsey gene is expressing itself in this girl!

 Her birthday dress was covered in ponies (and is purple, her favorite color.)

Her mama made her a four layer My Little Pony cake. Plates, napkins, cups, and straws all were My Little Pony themed.

All she asked for was "horses" as gifts. I was happy to oblige her with a package of six My Little Ponies.

One person got her some Paw Patrol books (which she liked - she loves to read)

but everyone else got her horses in one form or another.

 A great aunt even painted her a picture for her room!

If you have never read this book, watch this video of a Scottish grandmother reading it aloud. She gets the giggles - the book is hilarious!

After the gifts were opened and the cake was eaten, Mila had to go to bed. She lined up her My Little Ponies that were already out of their boxes, chose three to take to bed with her, and still had three more multipack boxes to open in the morning. We counted about twenty new ponies for her budding collection.

That's my girl!!

Variations: Bay Running Mares

Finally! We got a spell of sunshine here in Indiana for an afternoon, and I made good use of it by photographing these mares for a blog post with the improved light in my office.

Breyer's Running Mare was first introduced around 1961, and the bay coloring was produced on the mold from 1961/1963 to 1987.

 Both of mine are early pieces; one is a darker brown while the other is a reddish bay.

 The first mare is very similar to the 5 Gaiter sorrel color

 and her shading is outstanding.

 She has those black, black, black hooves of the early Breyers

and no USA stamp, dating her to about 1961 - 1969. With eye whites, no USA stamp, and the semi-gloss finish, she is an uncommon variation for this piece. (The fully glossy model is extremely rare.)

 Her "sister" is a much redder bay

 and her shading is not quite as spectacular although it is still very nice.

 She too, is a semi-gloss, has the black hooves

 and no USA stamp, dating her to pre-1970.

Despite my love of vintage Breyer, these two only joined me a year or so ago. The red bay was found at an antique shop while the darker one came from my friend, Teresa Rogers' collection.

As I said when I wrote about these mares' matching foals, I am not overly fond of Breyer's early bay coloring, but I am glad to have these two in my collection.

My New RubberNedz Circus Pony!

Donna Chaney has a fairly new line called RubberNedz which she has said are for the inner child in all of us as well as a way for her to relax and have fun away from the china business. (From her Facebook pages.)

Last August I emailed her and asked if she would do a circus pony for me with my favorite color, orange, for feathers. She agreed, and he arrived today - I was literally blown away at what was in the box!

 I'd only seen a couple of photos of them, so I was expecting something more along the lines of a My Little Pony when it came to realism.

What I got was a beautifully detailed piece for my circus pony collection! The headstall of the bridle even has orange crystals to simulate bridle rosettes!

Donna used her Tagus mold for this piece, and I think he looks wonderful as a circus pony. I am so, so happy with my first RubberNedz.