2016 Miniature Horse WORLD Issues Feb/March 2016 | Page 20

Carol had an interview scheduled at the middle school so I mapped out several properties in the area to look at. One of these turned out to be a home with 8 acres east of town. It was a beautiful piece of property full of pecan trees and gently rolling pastures. As luck would have it, our agent and the seller’s agent were unavailable to show us the home on the day we were available. So we received a private showing from the property owners, Pat and Red Davidson. It was during the initial walk around the pastures that we got our first glimpse of the Miniature horses the Davidsons owned. We were immediately intrigued with them. Originally, the property was part of the Davidson’s family farm, Camelot Country Miniature Horse Farm (shared with their daughter and her husband, Janis and Lloyd Taylor) but health issues had forced them to slowly move out of the business. After several discussions and much prayer, Carol and I placed our offer and asked for additional property (14 acres total) and negotiated the acquisition of the assets of Camelot Country – including the remaining 14 Miniature horses. Every conversation with people in this business yields little nuggets of information that you will someday need! I think the specific advice we received that has helped us the most is to be careful to focus on quality and not on quantity. We make sure we do things the right way in everything we do, keeping the focus on the enjoyment of the whole Miniature horse experience (day to day, breeding, showing, and the people, etc.). In my mind, that was our initial goal for this venture and we try not to stray from it. Our favorite classes so far have been in the halter divisions. We have tried to make sure we are active in amateur, open, and then provide opportunities for youth to show our horses as well. I’ll be adding driving to the mix in 2016 so that is sure to add more favorites to our repertoire of classes. Carol has experimented in Hunter and Liberty, thanks to Barbara Hibbard’s help. Carol thoroughly enjoyed it and is considering trying the AOTE division this year. Just as it is with your children, it’s hard to single out your favorite horse as we truly love them all! But at the top of the list would have to be our now two-year-old stallion, Alliance Boleros Antonio. In his yearling year with Mike H and Alliance he won our first two GRAND Championships this year-one in Amateur Heritage and the other in Amateur Junior Stallions. An amazing feat for newcomers like us but as previously mentioned, we’ve received some great advice from some very knowledgeable people. We are so proud of this stallion’s accomplishments thus far. 18 Miniature Horse World F E B R UA R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 6