In Memory of Alex

How do you ever sum up the life of an amazing friend?

Simply you cannot.

1989 to 2020

How to summarize the impact a horse had on so many people in this time and especially me.

While I have failed to adequately blog for a number of years, I feel compelled to share the story of Alex and how he touched my life.

I first met Alex in 2006 at an auction at my university. I had originally conspired with friends to purchase one or two nice lesson horses to donate to the summer camp I worked for as a wrangler.

I had spoken to one of my equine professors and she went over a few horses that would be for sale that she thought would be a good fit. Alex, despite his charming good looks, was not on that list.

Alex in 2006, still with the auction number on his rump

But, as it was, I loved Arabians and Alex had no other bids. For a couple hundred bucks,Alex was purchased. I had no business buying a horse, nor keeping him, so the  camp picked him up.

Over the next ten years, Alex found himself as an amazing camp horse. I have so many stories that maybe I will continue to tell as I remember.

He was not a horse for everyone. While he was safe and not prone to misbehavior, he was forward. He had obviously had a good deal of hunter pleasure and basic dressage type training on him and so if someone was just balancing on his mouth, stopping could occasionally be optional.

But he was still a good boy. I often used him for special events as he was happy to be alone in front of an audience of four hundred kids and not even care. The camp would have theme weeks and often there were "bandits" coming into camp, demanding some or another. A chase on horseback would ensue (as seen above).

One year I was the bandit (in the above photos, I am such a classy bandit wearing the pink hankerchief).

Another time, it was my birthday and I was chasing the bandit across the parade grounds. I stupidly didn't plan my route, looked down as I was hand galloping in front of the children and realized there was a rock wall in front of me. I had visions of being lawn darted in front of an audience, but Alex neatly picked his knees up, jumped, ears up, and continued the chase. He knew his role to play in this little theater.

I also liked to use him to go through the sections in camp to wake the campers up since he was good natured and not prone to startling. One morning he proceeded to stick his head into the cabin and several tents. I can only imagine what those kids thought when they woke up a "neigh-bor" that was a little too close.

One of my favorite memories of him at camp was while an advanced equestrian camper was trying to learn how to do flying lead changes. Alex was absolutely schooled in flying changes and loved swapping leads, often a little too much.

I sent the gal down and asked her to do one flying change on the way down and one on the way back. As she held the reins and shifted her weight, a few too many times, Alex was merrily skipping along and changed leads five or six times. He never held a grudge as that poor kid finally figured out how to cue him correctly.


As Alex closed into his middle 20s, he started having issues holding weight at camp. I tried to figure out where he should go next. He was still enthusiastic, absolutely sound, and had never been lame a day in his life.

At this point, I had started getting involved in supporting a therapeutic riding program. What if Alex could become a therapy horse?

Alex took it like a duck to water. Nothing rattled him whatsoever about the usual therapy adventures of playing basketball off his back, getting objects out of the mailbox, hanging rings off his ears, or any of the other things we subjected him to.

He could carefully ignore excessive cues from his rider and listen to his handler, but then with an independent rider, would totally be game to teach a rider flying lead changes or the art of slowing down his fast trot into an acceptable western jog.

I have always loved the feeling of his gallop. He was a fast horse and in another life would have been an incredible endurance horse. He was difficult to tire out and even four or five hours in the saddle wouldn't slow him down.

A few years ago, while he was a therapy horse, I took a friend out into the hay fields riding. I loved the feeling of just letting him go and gallop, his hooves pounding the earth. I knew it brought joy to his heart. I never had to encourage him to go as he just loved to go. For those few brief moments, it brought us back ten years earlier to his younger years at the summer camp. Sky, rider, horse, Earth, all interconnected.

A couple of years ago, I nominated Alex for the Wisconsin Arabian Horse Association Ambassador Award. I felt that Alex truly was an amazing ambassador for the Arabian. In his years of service, he had introduced thousands of people to riding a horse. He had been a 4H horse, a university lesson horse, a camp horse and lesson horse, trail horse extraordinaire, therapy horse, and friend.

He was solid, dependable, strong, and sound.

I was so pleased when Alex won the award and was presented at a rated Arabian show and received his custom leather halter. I happily took the couple of photos seen above.

2020 has been a rough year for so many of us. I have been laying low and unfortunately putting off so many visits with friends and family. I do feel badly that I didn't have the chance to hug Alex one last time and let him know that I loved him.

His fifteen years of friendship didn't go unnoticed.

Setting the Bar

Lots of things to catch up on, but as always, I'm trying to set the bar high.

Also known as trying to eat an elephant.

I am scheduled to go to a dressage schooling show this weekend.  I am glad it is just a schooling show, as who knows how things will work out.

I am just bringing Chili.  However, I am planning on showing two horses owned by a friend.

One is Alex, the amazing auction horse who is previously mentioned on this blog.  I will try and link back to him. 

The other is Madison, a horse that deserves her own blog post.  Suffice it to say, I had an adventure a couple weeks ago, which culminated in a new horse for my friend's program.  She is very sweet and I hope it will be a great show!

Madison, Alex, and Symphony.  I will be showing Madison & Alex

So far this is my plan:

Show Schedule

Intro A (Chili & Madison)

Training Level (Chili)
Dressage Equitation (Chili)

Western Dressage Trail (Alex)

Doesn't look too bad on paper.  Too bad there are three patterns to memorize! 

Wish me luck as I keep setting the bar high!

Through the Meadows

Of course, horses are good for the soul. 

We know this.  But sometimes, it's imperative to experience this.

Ridiculously cute barn cat napping on hay in the stalls

Friday was my day off from major obligations.  No work, no class.  I had two exams Saturday, so I had that looming, but no actual deadlines to be in one place or another. 

A friend is working to place some horses that a boarder can no longer afford.  I am a horse enabler so I was meeting up with another gal I know to see if she might be interested in one.

When this was done, the clouds had parted, the sun peaked through.  The drab Midwestern weather had seemed to lift for just a moment.

I was at a facility where Alex, the amazing Arabian had landed.  I seized the moment.  Let's ride!
Another person saddled up with me and we headed into the arena briefly to warm our old mounts up.  Alex is 25 although from his sassy, cheeky behavior, he resembles more of a five year old gelding.  Cass, an twenty year old Paint, also seemed particularly full of P&V. 

We headed out, the horse's heads tossing with enthusiasm. 

With each footstep, I felt a bit of happiness and peace returning.  Carrying so much anxiety and stress causes me to shut down and compartmentalize things, but this didn't matter at that moment.  Just the breeze in the trees, the sweet smell of autumn, and two joyous horses.

We picked up a gentle trot.  I collected Alex up and he quietly obliged, a season veteran.  His trot was jarring, but I have ridden him hundreds of times.  No major deal today to sit and hang out with an old friend once more. 

I looked back and Cass and his rider.  A canter?  Yes please.  Such power as they moved forward out into the cut hayfield.  The sweet smell of grass and smooth footing as the horses continued onwards.

How could someone not find joy in this?  Muscles rippling underneath the saddle, a responsive horse, beautiful weather, a good companion.

Thank you dear Alex for bringing my safely through the meadows and once again, back on a path of happiness. 

Finally!

I have spoken briefly in this blog about Alex, a horse I originally purchased with a friend from auction.  He has been living the life as a camp horse for almost a decade now.  

Well, a while back I heard that the camp was possibly looking for a new home for Alex.  Alex has been a harder keeper the past few winters and the camp isn't very well set up for special needs as the horses are all rough boarded and fed free choice hay in the winter.

So, long story short, is that my friend runs a therapeutic riding facility and she has a soft spot for Arabians as most of her horses are part-Arabian....

So I think Alex won the jackpot today.

New cozy stall.  Dental work coming soon.  Chiropractic work and some more saddle fitting adventures.  He is twenty-five now and his prominent withers and little sway doesn't make it the easiest thing to saddle fit.

But in the end, my heart is happy.  It was worth the road trip today and I am glad when all organizations (camp and the therapy place) worked together to make sure a special horse landed in a new home where he will continue to make children happy and delighted. 

Older Alex posts.

The Auction
The Compromise
The Jump

Memory Monday: The Compromise

It seems that a lot of my memories are about falling off.  And that's true, because they all seem to be memorable occasions.  Good thing there aren't that many falls, so folks, there will have to be a new topic on Mondays.

But without further prolonging my inevitable agony.

Remember Alex, the cute Arabian gelding I liked to ride?  Yeah, he is once again the star of the show.

It was a run out to the far fields again.  Alex loves to lead and so leading we were.  The thing about leading is that it's not always as simple as it seems.  A fast enough pace must be maintained to keep the horses from slowing down and grazing, but slow enough that the slower horses don't wonder where the leader went and quit running.

Add in a further run and fields with some grass between point a and point b and the level of difficulty increases.

So, off we went as leaders.  Unfortunately, I lost half of the horses partway through and had to turn around and run back to the field where we left half the herd

.  Part of the run was through a heavily forested area.  There were clear paths that the horses often took with thousands of hoof print etching themselves onto the roots.  There was one fork where someone could turn left or right and essentially go around the same tree.  

Not the actual tree

I wanted to go left.  Alex wanted to go right.

We compromised.

And hit the tree dead on at a full gallop. 

I don't actually remember hitting the tree.  I remember the "Oh crap" thought about .02 seconds from impact.  I then remember hearing my walkie talkie crackle with people asking me where I was.  I am fairly certain that there was a time lapse in between.  Actually I know there was lost time. 

To my amazement, Alex was still standing next to me waiting.  I jumped on and we continued our run back out and finished the job.  Little did I realize later with the one heck of a back-and-headache what had actually happened.  Then, the following day, an astute kid pointed out there was a hoofprint on my sweatshirt, which happened to be the one I was also wearing the day before.

What is with horses stepping on me??

But my sage advice is this:

When you come to a fork in the road with a horse and there's any sort of speed involved, let the horse pick!  Compromise isn't always a winning solution.

Memory Monday

The Auction Horse

In 2006, I bought my first horse at an auction.  Technically, a friend held up the bidder's card, but I wrote the check, which same friend later reimbursed.  We purchased him to donate to a summer camp at which we were working as they needed a few more solid, dependable horses.

Meet Alex

I am sure I will have many stories about Alex on the blog here over the years, but I suppose I should just tell one for today.  Alex is a purebred Arabian gelding who had been shown in the 4H level and done a bunch of trails.  He's a solid, good natured in a hyper Arab way kind of guy.  And I love him quite a bit.

The summer camp has theme weeks which a special "theme" day once a week.  Western week is when all the crazy men and women who work with the horses get to shine as we introduce the horses all to camp, usually with a storyline of how bandits are in camp and we need to catch them.

Pretty fun game.

Usually.

It takes a special horse to handle the hoopla of three hundred plus children and assorted staff talking, interacting, and being around you at once.  I thought Alex would be up to the job.  Plus, he is a fast fellow and perfect for chasing a bandit or two.

So on cue, we raced onto the "stage" which was a built up wall next to the waterfront.  The bandits had been stealing the flag or something along those lines.  I don't really remember that part.  We did our best chasing impression as the children were herded backwards, flying across the built up "stage".

Visual prop here.  Different year, same stage

Coincidentally, Alex is on the far left again.  He gets drafted a lot for these events.

See how there is a rock wall in front.  Well, I knew that part.  What I forgot is that there is a rock wall for a couple feet on the far edge that curves around.  So imagine taking off at a quick canter and looking down and realizing something.

There is a rock wall.  I panicked.  I had no idea if Alex could jump or not.  I just thought I was going to get shishkabobbed on the western saddle in a dirty stop.

But Alex's version of the event was something more like this.

Well this is interesting.  All these tiny humans looking at me.  Look we get to run.  I love to run.  Look at my tail when I run.  Oh look!  Something to jump.  What is that person looking at up there?  Who cares?  Let's run AND jump.  Hurray!

And that was that.  So, by being unobservant I managed my first cross country jump in a western saddle on an Arab in front of an audience of almost four hundred people.