Q's History

Last week I got a wild hair to finally try to find out what both of my horses' true backgrounds were so far as their breeding went. I receive so many questions about that aspect of them and I've never been able to answer with any certainty. Obviously they're well-put-together, athletic, and have phenomenal temperaments, but I still can't help but wonder to myself what breeds they're composed of.

I reached out to both original owners of both horses as far back as I was aware.

Griffin's trail dead ended pretty quickly. The girl who originally had him (prior to friends of mine picking him up) was pretty young when she had him and unfortunately remembers nothing about where she got him from. Bummer. But I wasn't too surprised to hear this. I did ask if she knew what his breeding was and she said, "TWH, Arab, QH, paint". Well, that doesn't help too much! Still, not surprising.

Q's trail gained a lot more information though! 

I first called the cowboy I got her from. He remembered her and he remembered me and he noted again (as he had when I bought her) that he was happy she had found a good home because he really didn't want to take her to the slaughter auction. He gave me a name and number for the lady who gave her to him originally. He thought he remembered Q coming from around my home town. 

I found the lady on Facebook and sent her a message on there, waited a day or two, and then called her, as well. (What can I say, I prefer written correspondence to a phone any day. It's a lot easier to take notes and keep them when they originate as text than to take notes via phone conversation! I just can't write quickly enough it seems.)

She called me back in < 24 hours.

She was really happy to get an update on the horse after so long. She told me that one of her coworkers got Q as a 2 year old. She said she was spirited and obviously needed more time than the lady could give and needed her own person. She said Q went to the cowboy when she was 3 years old. She asked how old I thought Q was now, and I told her 10 based on vet's estimate based on her teeth. She told me she thought she'd be closer to 8 than 10. 

She told me that Q was a kicker; if another horse brushed up against her or near her backside she would strike out. I noted to the lady that I'd never observed that level of kicking behavior from her in our 4 years together unless a horse crowded her for a good while or in a very rude manner. (And oft times, she would give a warning hump of her back more than a true kick.)

When I asked about Q's breeding, she told me she was half Morgan and half Arabian. She didn't come from a breeder, but from a lady who had a Morgan mare and bred her to an Arabian stallion. She believed she was bred somewhere near my hometown. Go figure!

She was happy to hear from me and get an update on Q. She couldn't remember her original name (and my sharing that it was "Janni" on her original Coggin's didn't ring any bells), but she really liked her new name. She said getting a happy story update like this really brightened her day!

Conclusion? I've got a Morab mare, which fulfills suspicions that many (hi, Nicole!) had all along. She may be a year or two younger than originally thought (really need to try to get several photos of her teeth to analyze), and she may have been from closer to home than I'd originally realized all along! 

I feel like a kid on Christmas morning finding out about this! After a weekend of weddings around mostly non-horse people, I'm thrilled to finally share the discovery with those who will understand my excitement a little more. 

I wish I knew more on Griffin, but hey, it is what it is! One mystery solved is better than none.