Every little girl at one point in her life dreams of owning and caring for her very own horse. I, like most were one of them. I absolutely loved animals from as far back as I can remember. I grew up with many different kinds of house pets but none prevailed over my dreams of owning my very own horse.
Although, I never had the opportunity to fulfill this dream for myself as a child.
It never completely went away.
I could very much still see myself waking up in the cool spring mornings when the air is still thick with fog and the air perfumed with the smell of wet grass, taking my horse her morning rations of oats and hay before we would take our first mid morning ride.
It wasn't until I became a mother of two little girls trapped in suburbia where seeing a squirrel at your bird feeder would be considered "wild life" that I told myself history would not repeat itself again. My girls are still very young. The thought of putting my youngest, a very
courageous 1 1/2 year old around a horse scared me to death even though I have been told it is best to start exposing them as young as possible. My oldest, in all means is the complete opposite of her baby sister. Naturally, she has always had a fear of even the tiniest animals which always saddened me and I knew no amount of pleading or bribing would get this 3 year old on the back of a horse... at least not yet.
My eye had been drawn to a local farm outside of town years before I was even married that bred and raised show miniature horses. You couldn't take your eyes off these forever babies! The farm must of owned close to a hundred of these pint sized horses. They stood between 27-37 inches tall and were just as majestic and beautiful at a full sized horse. I always looked forward so seeing the tiny horses out in the fields grazing everytime I took a trip out that way.
My husband was never allowed to have pets growing up and never really shared my interest for horses or animals in general. The idea that I would ever have the opportunity to own one of these horses seemed out of the question just the same as owning a regular sized horse. Still the idea never drifted too far out of reach.
Living in Michgan can be hard to bear in the winter monthes especially when you are cooped up with small children. Winter weather can begin well into September and last as long as mid-April. Even though we are blessed to be surrounded by lakes we rarely have time to take advantage of the local beaches before the cool weather hits once again. This winter particularly took a huge tole on my health which kept us in most of the time.
My mom one weekend showed me some pictures of a few minature show horses. I brushed the pictures aside replying with a simple "that's nice". She then continued to tell me that she thought that we should each go out and find a miniature show horse of our own. Train them, get some show experience and then pass it on to my girls. The thought puzzled me... Where would these horses live? We both lived within city limits even though these horses are no bigger than some types of large dogs there was no way either of us could legally keep them on our property. She persisted to tell me that they would simply live at a boarding facility until either of us moved to a more "horse friendly" location in the future. That was good enough for me! It's funny how having you own children suddenly makes you realize that life is too short to leave everything in therory.
So that is how the begining of our journey....
My daughter was completely satified with her choice of name and lost all interest in naming the other mini which left it up to my mom and I since he needing a stronger name than just "Buck" to stand up to Flynn Rider. I decided one afternoon out of the blue that the name Urban Cowboy seemed to be very fitting name for the tri colored bay pinto since here we were city people trying to become horse people! I found out later after deciding with the name that it was the title for an old John Travolta movie that was well before my time. 
We walked through the stables a small paddock area. Turned the corner to see a swarm or very lively, nervous, biting, and kicking minis crowded around the gate area. The horses at this particular farm were never blanketed in the winter and rarely spent the night in the barn and resembled unkept shaggy dogs more than horses. The farm owner informed us that her farm hands had brought up all the wrong horses from the pasture for us to look at. But one still caught my eye. He was a breath takingly beautiful tri colored bay pinto even under all that shaggy hair with one light blue eye. I asked about him. She responded with " "Buck" was a national champ and was not for sale". Still my mom and I persisted and she finally gave in and said that she could consider him as long as he went to a show home. Soon after meeting him up close we also got to meet a very scruffy looking sorrel stallion who she called "Yes". He was a little smaller than most of the others that were out in the paddock, standing at only 27 inches tall. "Yes" had never been broke or ever worked with in anyway but seemed to be very excepting of us leading him in his halter around the paddock. His disposition reminding me of a golden retriever more than a horse, just very calm, gentle, and pleasing little guy. We left feeling good about the visit to the farm, although "Buck" and "Yes" carried a heavy price tag and MUCH more than we wanted to spend it didn't take more than 15 minutes after departing to come to the decision that they were the ones for us!
