Chief 🤎

A handsome bay, 16.2 hand, 1400 pound Appendix Quarter Horse gelding. Chief 🤎 he really was the best horse ever. There’s a lot of Chief stories and maybe one day I’ll be able to write them all down. ⁣
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One of my best friends owned him and then we got him. He was my dad’s horse and one of my original lesson horses. I think in his lifetime he had almost every job possible - dude & trail horse, hunting/pack horse, worked cattle, dressage & jumping, barrel racing, omoksees, first rope I swung was on him…. ⁣
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Anyone could ride him. From the teeniest scared kid to a grandparent, he would babysit and pack them around gently. But anyone else that wanted to do more, he was game.⁣
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Like any other horse he had his quirks - he wouldn’t hard tie or else he’d rip that post out of the ground, you couldn’t just throw your tack at him (he liked slow & gentle), he wasn’t a huge fan of his face being messed with unless you had just the right touch with him, and man he could really bloat when cinching him up 😅 And in his earlier days he would sometimes play hard to catch, but it would only last a couple minutes. ⁣
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He also would eat anything! I remember him even eating a hot dog one time 🤦🏻‍♀️😅 He loved food and naps best but he’d be ready to go work when you wanted him. His best buds were Royal and Ziggy and it’s brings some comfort that he’s with Royal now and when it’s his time too Ziggy will be right there with them. ⁣
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I don’t think there was ever anyone that didn’t get along with Chief- both horses and humans. Everybody loved him. As I said he was one of the original horses in my program. My dad likes to talk about horses and their LTE (life time earnings) and while this usually refers to performance horses it’s a wonder to us what Chief’s LTE would be… because he taught sooo many lessons and shared himself with countless people. He was my go-to, my main guy. I will forever love and be grateful to that big guy. ⁣
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31 years old and we laid him to rest on a good day… a beautiful, sunny day with all the treats he could eat… I believe in letting them go on this kind of day 🙏🏻⁣
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My old bay friend… I know we’ll meet again 🤎