I learned to ride at one of my best friends' places; a farm with a variety of animals including the Quarter Horse mare Fancy. She was what I call a good, solid trail horse. A pheasant could fly up in front of her and she would just look at it like, "Oh, a pheasant" and keep on walking. To illustrate her steady nature my first time on a horse Fancy and I had to follow my friend on his horse – straight down a bluff - on a deer trail! I stood up in the stirrups and hung on for dear life while Fancy just slowly and carefully picked her way down the hill with her aging bones cracking now and then. After that she was my horse whenever we went on a trail ride.
Fancy may have been just a plain, old mare but she lived up to her name in attitude. She really did not like strange horses near her and would stop, perk up her head and ears and give a warning whinny to any who would get too close. Of course she knew I was a green, inexperienced rider so she just went on her own slow pace until we turned and headed home.
She lived to a ripe old age and the portrait "End of the Day" is from a picture of her at the end of a fall roundup that takes place on the bluffs along the Mississippi river on the Minnesota side on the farm where she lived and died. She may have been born ‘plain’ but ‘Fancy’ was her name.
