Kendra
Well-Known Member
Many years ago, 1984 I believe, my grandparents and uncle went to New York and bought 4 black geldings. Flying W Farms was selling their eight horse hitch, all named after Santa's reindeer. Four had already been sold, so Grandad bought the remaining four and started home with Prancer, Vixen, Donner and Blitzen in the truck topper. The long trip was not without incident, they had very little respect for a halter and once, while letting them graze in the ditch at a rest stop they all four got away and ran down the grass in the middle of a divided highway! In spite of this, they got home safely.
According to their papers, Prancer and Vixen were born in 1976 and Donner and Blitzen in 1978 ... of course according to their papers they were all also sired by the same horse, FWF Masterpiece, and out of mares that started with M as well, Melody, etc. We had also heard that to form the hitch Flying W Farms advertised for black stallions and geldings throughout North America, and this was a time when the AMHA was just forming. The end result of all this, is that we didn't necessarily know how old they were, and the photos of blurry black horses in the distance that were on the papers were not exactly definitive. We figured out who was who by what we'd been told and their age according to their teeth, and then looked for identifying markings to tell them apart easier. (This is what I'm told ... I was four!) For the first little while, they were known as Star (Blitzen, this one stuck, he was Star his whole life), Spots-On-Back (Vixen), Spots-On-Nose (Donner), and Straight Black (Prancer). This made quite an impression on me, once in a showmanship class I told a judge that my horse's name was Prancer, but his barn name was Straight Black!
Each of these geldings were so important to us. In addition to being the beginning of our hitch, teaching many of the horses that followed them the ropes, each of them had their own stories. Star did a stint as a roping horse for a little cowboy who will one day be a rodeo champion just like his dad. Vixen was the best roadster and barrel race horse aroud here in his heyday (he DID NOT do the stake race though, he only had three turns in him), and later was my cousin Taylor's princess horse and went to his last show at 24 years old. Donner spent longer in the hitch than any of them, and once, when a little girl who stalled near us at a show had her horse measure out, he went in, and won, his very first showmanship class. We lost Star last year, Vixen the year before, and Donner is still going strong, running the pasture and keeping all the other boys in line.
But this story is about Prancer. In the beginning, he didn't really know as much about driving as we expected, he'd mostly followed the guy in front of him, and Grandad was the only one who really knew how to drive a horse. Prancer had never been driven single, and was a little concerned at the though of going on his own. He was a fast learner though, and the next year hit the show ring with my family. He was my first show horse, the first horse I learned to drive with, and he took me into my disasterous first driving class a couple years later. We all showed him through the years, in absolutely everything, and in spite of his feet going each in their own direction (that just meant he was ready for anything!) and his perpetual gelding tummy, he won his fair share of halter classes too! He had a beautiful head and was, without a doubt, the kindest horse I've ever had the fortune to handle. He could drink diet coke from the can, and loved peppermints. When my brother started showing, Prancer started over at the beginning, doing showmanship with John's arm around his neck. It didn't matter, the other little boy in the class followed suit!
After Prancer developed heaves we quit taking him to shows, the dusty barns were just too hard on him. For a while, he just hung out at home, helping to train young horses and being played with by my younger cousins. A neighbour of ours who raises and trains Quarter Horses needed a horse for her daughter to play with, she was 4 and had no fear of the big guys and she needed a horse that wouldn't accidentally hurt her. So Prancer went to play with her and her two year old sister, and then later, a third sister. When they were finished with him, he was to come home. Prancer went to more than a few AQHA shows with them, and was ridden by all three until this past year when he started to get stiff and the littlest girl grew too big. But they weren't "done with him" by any means, and still went out and brushed him and took him out to graze every day. The last time I saw him, his whole face was silver.
Yesterday I talked to their mom, she told me Prancer passed away on Sunday, they think his kidney's failed. She said she had three heartbroken little girls, and I admit, I'm feeling like a heartbroken little girl myself right now. Prancer was a huge part of my childhood, and he's the reason that I continue to spend my life with horses.
The photo isn't working, but in case it appears later, it's of me and Prancer in the spring of 1988, taken with the awards we won together the previous summer.
If you took to time to read all this, thank you, I really wanted to share a little something about a truly great horse who meant the world to me.
According to their papers, Prancer and Vixen were born in 1976 and Donner and Blitzen in 1978 ... of course according to their papers they were all also sired by the same horse, FWF Masterpiece, and out of mares that started with M as well, Melody, etc. We had also heard that to form the hitch Flying W Farms advertised for black stallions and geldings throughout North America, and this was a time when the AMHA was just forming. The end result of all this, is that we didn't necessarily know how old they were, and the photos of blurry black horses in the distance that were on the papers were not exactly definitive. We figured out who was who by what we'd been told and their age according to their teeth, and then looked for identifying markings to tell them apart easier. (This is what I'm told ... I was four!) For the first little while, they were known as Star (Blitzen, this one stuck, he was Star his whole life), Spots-On-Back (Vixen), Spots-On-Nose (Donner), and Straight Black (Prancer). This made quite an impression on me, once in a showmanship class I told a judge that my horse's name was Prancer, but his barn name was Straight Black!
Each of these geldings were so important to us. In addition to being the beginning of our hitch, teaching many of the horses that followed them the ropes, each of them had their own stories. Star did a stint as a roping horse for a little cowboy who will one day be a rodeo champion just like his dad. Vixen was the best roadster and barrel race horse aroud here in his heyday (he DID NOT do the stake race though, he only had three turns in him), and later was my cousin Taylor's princess horse and went to his last show at 24 years old. Donner spent longer in the hitch than any of them, and once, when a little girl who stalled near us at a show had her horse measure out, he went in, and won, his very first showmanship class. We lost Star last year, Vixen the year before, and Donner is still going strong, running the pasture and keeping all the other boys in line.
But this story is about Prancer. In the beginning, he didn't really know as much about driving as we expected, he'd mostly followed the guy in front of him, and Grandad was the only one who really knew how to drive a horse. Prancer had never been driven single, and was a little concerned at the though of going on his own. He was a fast learner though, and the next year hit the show ring with my family. He was my first show horse, the first horse I learned to drive with, and he took me into my disasterous first driving class a couple years later. We all showed him through the years, in absolutely everything, and in spite of his feet going each in their own direction (that just meant he was ready for anything!) and his perpetual gelding tummy, he won his fair share of halter classes too! He had a beautiful head and was, without a doubt, the kindest horse I've ever had the fortune to handle. He could drink diet coke from the can, and loved peppermints. When my brother started showing, Prancer started over at the beginning, doing showmanship with John's arm around his neck. It didn't matter, the other little boy in the class followed suit!
After Prancer developed heaves we quit taking him to shows, the dusty barns were just too hard on him. For a while, he just hung out at home, helping to train young horses and being played with by my younger cousins. A neighbour of ours who raises and trains Quarter Horses needed a horse for her daughter to play with, she was 4 and had no fear of the big guys and she needed a horse that wouldn't accidentally hurt her. So Prancer went to play with her and her two year old sister, and then later, a third sister. When they were finished with him, he was to come home. Prancer went to more than a few AQHA shows with them, and was ridden by all three until this past year when he started to get stiff and the littlest girl grew too big. But they weren't "done with him" by any means, and still went out and brushed him and took him out to graze every day. The last time I saw him, his whole face was silver.
Yesterday I talked to their mom, she told me Prancer passed away on Sunday, they think his kidney's failed. She said she had three heartbroken little girls, and I admit, I'm feeling like a heartbroken little girl myself right now. Prancer was a huge part of my childhood, and he's the reason that I continue to spend my life with horses.
The photo isn't working, but in case it appears later, it's of me and Prancer in the spring of 1988, taken with the awards we won together the previous summer.
If you took to time to read all this, thank you, I really wanted to share a little something about a truly great horse who meant the world to me.
