Whinny Up Granite Hills: Our Previous Ranch Animals

Spirit is now sold.

Ashanti:

My first horse was named Ashanti. Her registered name was Bambi's Freckle, but my parents came up with her awesome new name. It was one of my favorite names. Ashanti was a very "womanly" filly. She was baby faced. She had no facial markings. Even though I would have preferred a brown or black horse, she was a chestnut. Unfortunately, she developed a bad habit of rearing which eventually led to her death. On Nov. 17, 2009, she reared up on our concrete patio and slipped backwards and fell over. She died with in five minutes. Poor Tu was with out a friend.

My sister and I with our baby faced horse, Ashanti.

Me leading 'Shanti.

I was light enough to climb on her for short periods at a time.

Getting Spirit:

After Ashanti died, we almost immediately began looking for a replacement. After the death of our camel, a year before, almost exactly, I was not as shocked, but it was still sad. Dad eventually decided we needed to wait for spring to get another horse. That winter we looked at two horses. The first horse was Champ, a younger gelding. He was about the same color of Ashanti. WE decided against him. The other horse we looked into to a Palomino green broke filly. She was not a bad horse, but for us inexperienced horse owners we needed a "good" horse.

With dad's "OK" to start looking for horses again, we began our quest. We looked at dozens of horses online, but not a lot in person. We were pretty close to getting an older 20 year old gelding, but we stopped on him after found out he had arthritis, and though not pained by it, he might have been very shortly. Several of the horses interested me, but we ended up with not so much as going to see them. One horse in particular was a huge interest to me. It was a mustang gelding who was "gun proof" and all. He looked like a great horse, and I rather was very interested in him. However, it turned out we got a perfect horse for me instead.

A friend who had helped us to decide to get Ashanti, e-mailed us about a older mare who was a couple hours or so away. I put her down. I didnt want her because she was older and might have arthritis and might have a heart attack, or something along the line. But we decided to get her after dad and I talked, as well as my mother talking to my aunt, who has a lot of horse knowledge. Our first visit, was not pleasing. Spirit had not been rode very well for a year or two. She was not really responsive, but my older brother really liked her.

However, at the second ride, we got a better perspective. Now Spirit is one of my favorite horses.

Spirit is not a hard horse to describe. She is a dark bay older Quarter Horse. Spirit has black socks on all four feet; both of her hind legs have white "anklets". On her nose is a slightly crooked white blaze with a cute little pink spot on her nose. She has wide, bright eyes (unless they have an infection, which, she sometimes gets.) Her ears are very pricky and listening to you. She has a cut off tail because Tu chewed it off, and it is slowly growing back. Her mane a healthy black with a touch of grey. All and all, she does not have the baby faced look of Ashanti, but is very pretty.

She is a great horse, and a great ride! She is prefect for a not so experienced advanced + beginner like me.