Otherhorses

Allie’s Best Bet

Date of Birth: 04-29-92; Breed: Thoroughbred; Color: Bay; Sex: Mare; Sire: Catatonic; Dam: Wild Again

Allie is the only Thoroughbred here at Mountain Quest. She is an ex-racehorse formerly owned by the Marriot Hotel chain. She had a moderately successful racing career. Unfortunately, Allie had a devastating injury on the track and if you look closely at her hips you will see that one is predominately higher than the other. This injury ended her racing career. Because Allie was lucky enough to have been bred from a very good bloodline, she was placed in Marriot’s breeding program where she had a couple of foals, but none developed tremendous talent on the track. This sealed Allie’s fate with the big hotel chain. She was being loaded for disposal when a visitor to the track who lived in Virginia saw her and approached Marriot with indignation. Marriot signed her over and had Allie delivered to Virginia. A week later Alex’s son, Andy, was able to purchase her for $1. We jokingly call her our cheapest, most expensive horse.

Allie is living out her life here at Mountain Quest strictly as a pet, never to be ridden again. Due to her life as a racehorse, Allie can be somewhat indifferent to people. Occasionally she connects with someone and shows interest and allows them to stroke her. We consider every one of these moments a victory for Allie. She is truly a gentle girl, easy to handle, and a wonderful addition to the herd.

Dillon

Date of birth: 2001; Breed: Quarter Horse; Color: Palomino; Sex: Guiding; sire and dam unknown.

What can we say about Dillon? He is just "Dillion" and all that means to us. Big, a bit clumsy, and just full of love and affection, often without knowledge of just how large and strong he is! Dillon is the beautiful Palomino you see in the field, changing color as the sun bleaches his growing coat.

Dillon hurt his knee in 2012 ... and we duly took all the time needed to try and eliminate as much of the "proud flesh" (scar tissue) as possible such that he is back to about 95% functionality and up to his old tricks. He is Cracker's best pal. Still, he always has time for other horses who need his affection, specifically, Vision Quest, who is somewhat of a loner, and, more recently, Harmony Quest who has been stalled with an injury. We often wonder if he remembers the time he was stuck in stall ... he makes a point of visiting her and standing outside her stall regularly. We also find love knots in her mane!

Little Docs Cracker aka “Cracker”

Date of Birth: 05-10-97; Breed: American Quarter Horse; Color: Chestnut; Sex: Gelding; Sire: Little Docs Socks; Dam: Sweet Dell Queen.

Cracker—at the top of the hierarchy—is a former rodeo horse. He belongs to David and, personality-wise, they couldn’t have been paired up any better if they had been matched by e-Harmony. He is an ex-rodeo horse (Cracker, not David) and so smart that it’s scary. (Okay, David’s pretty smart too.) Cracker is always happy to perform his “tricks” for you, even if you don’t want to see them. He had only been at Mountain Quest for a few short months when we discovered him loose one morning in the stable where he had corralled all the other horses into one section of the barn and was nonchalantly moving from one stall to the next checking the feed bins. (We’ve since discussed with him, in length, the phrase, “eat like a horse”. I’m not sure it did any good.)

We soon realized that he had apparently become a professional locksmith overnight and he proudly performed his “trick” for us, over and over again. We have all had to become very diligent about double locking everything to prevent him from turning the entire herd loose at will, which is exactly what he will do, given even the smallest opportunity.

Although he delights in these occasional acts of complete naughtiness, Cracker knows how to work the crowd and is always able to captivate his audience with a spark of charisma that the other horses just can’t match. He is wonderful with children and will stand perfectly still with any child on his back. However, replace that child with an adult he has happy flashbacks of his rodeo days and wants to blast off like a rocket!

MQI Vision Quest

Date of Birth: 08-08-04; Breed: Arabian/Quarter Horse; Color: Sorrel Paint; Sex: Mare; Sire: Bonas Jack; Dam: CHC Calamity Jane.

Vision is the great-granddaughter of Two-Eyed Jack, the leading Sire of AQHA champions,

a total of 119 in all! Vision has grown into one of the most gorgeous horses to grace our fields. Her beauty is unsurpassed when she takes to the field in the early morning mist and begins one of her bucking playful dances.

Vision was raised with our Arabian herd and has all the pleasant personality traits of the calm and docile Arabian and the spunk of the “kick-up your heels” Quarter Horse. Somehow, spunk always seems to come at a price, as she can bite the lock clean off of her stall door when she decides it’s time to be let out. This keeps us hopping! Unfortunately, she also carries a bit of fear, no doubt due to the fact that she was removed from her mother much too early after mom (an Alpha A horse) attacked her youngster. (Mom was quickly traded off.) Vision would have liked to belong to Visuelle, but because she carried her mother's smell this was unacceptable to Visuelle. Nowadays, when they are grown, Vision is much larger than Visuelle and will quietly come over when the herd is out and take over Visuelle's hay.