dreaming.

I still keep in touch with Piney’s breeder/original owner. She is such a nice woman and I am glad that I was able to track her down and get in contact with her. She always enjoyed little updates every now and then about “one of her favorite horses”. She was saddened to find out that he had passed. I let her know the day that he died, and she told me that we should still keep in touch. And she said there is a reason certain people are brought into your lives.
I wrote to her the other day just to say hello. I told her that I missed Piney like crazy and hadn't found the right horse to fill his place, but that I still had the two boys. She told me that she still thinks about her first horse and misses him too.  She also told me that sometimes they have great thoroughbreds that just aren’t good enough to race, but are great horses. And that she will keep her eye out for one for me. She said that they had one last year that they gave to her friend and he is loved to pieces. She also said that another one of her friends took one of their client’s horses and she is a great riding horse.  You don’t even know how amazing it would be to get another horse from their barn. I would do almost anything. Everyone that met Piney commented on how sweet he was and that someone had loved him dearly when he was younger because it showed in his personality. I know for a fact it was his first owner. When I still had him she told me to kiss his nose every single night because that was what she did with all of her horses.  It’s a long shot that I would ever get another horse from them but it is something I can dream about. I don't ever expect it actually happen, but it's nice to have daydreams.
I have even been invited out to their ranch if I ever visit Arizona. They want me to come and visit the place where Piney was born and raised. It’s a pretty awesome place from what I can see from the website. She had all of the fences shipped from Kentucky and they are designed to be safe for the horses. They also have a horse shoe shaped lake used for aqua therapy for the horses. They train and rehab horses at their ranch. I really hope to make it out there someday because I’d love to see it in person and I would love to meet the people that raised my beloved Piney. They really shaped him into the horse that he was. Care and love really does have such an impact on shaping a horse.
I am so glad that the people that raised him were such nice people. When I was terrified when I first contacted the ranch telling them that I had adopted a horse that had been bred by them. I expected someone to snap at me and tell me not to bother them. But surprisingly they were more than excited to find out where one of their horses ended up. They loved to hear that he was being spoiled rotten and that he had someone to love him. They filled me with all kinds of information about his past and his up bringing and told me about how much they cared for him. It's people like them that the horse world really needs especially in the Thoroughbred industry. I've met so many snooty and snobby horse people that I am pretty gun shy around most. It was such a breath of fresh air to have met such warm and caring people.