Al's wife, Mary, showed me a picture of the colt's mother.
She was a gray, registered half-Arabian, half Quarter Horse,
and 17 hands tall. That means her withers were 5 ½ feet
high. This is unusually tall. Her conformation was excellent.
"His grandpa on his father's side is Sandia," said
Al.
I already had enjoyed riding Sandia, a sorrel Egyptian Arabian.
He was the gorgeous horse girls dream about. He belonged to Melody
Wulfekuhl, another friend from church.
I tried to catch the colt. He ran away. Then he noticed Virginia,
walked over and nuzzled her.
I paid $200 for him.
Just as we were loading him into Al's stock trailer, his friend
offered to sell me a seven-month-old mud-colored filly. He said
she was a half sister on the father's side of Virginia's new
colt.
I wasn't sure she would amount to much. Her 14-year-old mother's
front pasterns were so weak she could barely walk. The filly's
pasterns were also weak.
"Her dam single foots," her owner said. Just like
Coquetta. "I'll sell the filly for $100."
What the heck. Virginia named the colt Lightfoot. Valerie
named his sister Vashti, after the first wife of the ancient
Persian despot Ahazurias.
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