A Visit to Cheryle's Results in...

Field of mustangs and domestics at Cheryle's Living Legends farm.

I stopped by Cheryle's a couple weeks ago to see her new mustang gelding, Chance. She mentioned that one of the BLM volunteers in Arlington had just phoned and had two horses in on reassignment if I knew anyone interested.

Reassignment is when an adopter is unable to fulfill their obligation within the first year after adoption, prior to receiving the horse's title. Sometimes it's a neglect case, sometimes the adopters just change their minds, deciding the horse is too much for them. In this case, the adopters were needing to relocate and couldn't bring their horses with them. They'd adopted a yearling colt and a yearling filly. It didn't take me long to contact Steve for more information.

Steve had all the paperwork on both horses, and I still had the adoption list from the Monroe adoption in June. Usually I sit and watch as the animals go through the ring and take notes on which ones I like best in each lot. While I'm typically drawn to mares before geldings, my notes said that this was a nice lot of colts. The fillies I must not have been as impressed with, and the sorrel repo filly I'd scored pretty near the bottom of her group. Based on the paper in front of me, I was beginning to think that maybe I'd end up liking the colt a bit better.

Within a couple days, I was down looking at the two young horses. The colt had yet to be gelded, so the first thing I asked was whether or not they'd separated the two. "Yes, that seems to be the one thing they did do right," Steve answered. The colt was from Coyote Lakes, which was the same herd management area as Quiet Storm, and like her, he was rather dull when it came to responsiveness. His halter was still on, but he hadn't been taught to lead. He'd follow you if you pulled him to the left or right, but he wouldn't come straight forward. Sadly, he was still relatively thin for a horse who'd been adopted nearly six months ago.

Then there was the filly. She was a bright, coppery sorrel with a flashy little blaze down her face. Being from quarter horse origins, I immediately fell in love with her butt! It was big and rounded, not sleek like Quiet Storms thoroughbredy frame. This girl had big, thick bone in her legs; not exactly show legs, but strong and ready for a days work. Like the colt, she was a bit underweight. Unlike the colt, you couldn't get anywhere near this girl. She'd come without a halter; Steve had no idea how they'd gotten it off, but there was no way she was going to let them put it back on!

Now I was forced to go home and make a decision. I'd been the first person to respond, so I had first pick. Taller, quiet colt? Shorter, flashy and snorty filly?