Mystery Photo No 2 from newsletter No 16 Revealed

BJ's Palooka and Audrey Bishop

Hey famous at last!  Tulsa as she is known is a white roan Appaloosa mare now 9 years old.  She came into my life about 4 years ago.  I was helping my friend, who owned her, to exercise her as she had another horse that was already being ridden in western shows.  I had known Tulsa for a couple of years previously when she had been put in foal and always thought she was a lovely mare.  She had not been ridden very much at all and was quite green but looked after me on one of our rides up a long track that went under the trees.  It was very dark in there and the ground was pretty uneven and fell away to the sides!  When my friend decided she was to be sold I was mortified I knew I had to buy her, but how?  I had no money put by.  Luck would have it that her owner was happy for me to have her and I paid, would you believe it in instalments.  Life with Tulsa has had its ups and downs, if you were at Bruce Lawrence's clinic last year at Amazing Appaloosas you will know what I mean! Tulsa got her feet tangled and promptly reared up into the air and fell over with me partly underneath her.  Poor Bruce I felt sorry for him he was very worried about us.

Things went from bad to worse and I lost my nerve for quite a wile although I did ride out for hacks quite often not knowing if I was going to get back in one piece!  Strange thoughts that I must sell this horse as I could not get to grips with this western riding and this almost happened but for the fact that when I tried to sell her I found I couldn't do it!  Back then to the drawing board (so to speak) back to basics, back to hacking, as many clinics as I could afford and lots of help from my friends and a very good trainer you may have heard of called Bob Mahew.  He finally taught me how to ride to a reasonable level so that I could teach my horse.  The secret ingredient is to know what you are trying to do in the first place!  We have now got to a goodish level of western riding.  She tries so hard and is a pleasure to train.

My story so far, I enjoy the clinics, the shows, the many rosettes that she has won for me, but mostly I enjoy her company and love riding her.  We have a long way to go but I think we will get to where we want to be one day.  Many thanks to all my friends and especially to Lee Jose the previous owner who enabled me to own the kindest horse I have ever known.