Tuesday, August 30, 2016

This blog is going to the dogs, Day 30




Cat, Nickel, Mercury, and Cowgirl.
 The two mares in the picture are Scharbauer mares we bought as fillies. The Scharbauers are old money ranchers and oil men in West Texas. Elmer Kelton was born on one of their ranches called Five Wells or Horse Camp. The first Scharbauer came to Texas in 1880 from New York with $2,000. When he died, his ranches sprawled across four Texas counties and into New Mexico. He was heavily invested into oil, real estate, several corporations, cattle, sheep, and they always had good horses. They furnished horses to the cavalry which wanted a better grade of horse so they furnished Thoroughbred stallions to improve the stock.

Anyway, The Scharbauers were always fond of good horses and fast horses. Alysheba was theirs. When horses finished on the track they often found their way back to the ranches. They were good friends with the King ranch people so a lot of their champion bloodlines are crossed in the Scharbauer horses.

They don't even break mares. If they aren't planning on breeding them, they sell the fillies as yearlings. My middle son, Cody was working for them when he was in high school, so they asked him if we'd be interested in buying some of the fillies. We jumped on it and bought five of them. Four of them were granddaughters of a champion cutting horse and one was a granddaughter of Dash For Cash, one of the most famous Quarter running horses in history. Their pedigrees top and bottom are royal with cutting and race champions.

We, in turn, bred the mares to complement their strengths and hopefully come up with a good all around arena horse.

The babies were imprinted at birth so they were always used to being handled. That's usually a good thing except when you're trying to do something and you've got a dozen curious heads in the way, trying to see what you're doing or stealing tools, gloves, instructions, what have you.

In the picture is Cat, Nickel, Mercury, and Cowgirl.

33 comments:

Scott G said...

Thought I was looking in the mirror there for a second.

french sojourn said...


^ha.

My dad retired from a life of boats, and settled in Oregon where he and my M.I.Law raised Cutting horses. Very beautiful creatures Julie.

cheers.

Jennifer R. Donohue said...

The pictures render as thumbnails in Feedly, which is what I use to list and organize the blogs I read. I was like "That's a horse butt!" *clicks* "yup."

Of course these are Julie's beautiful creatures ^^ I'm thankful for the time I've had around horses, but always always felt like it wasn't enough time. It makes these stories even better for me.

Carolynnwith2Ns said...

Love this and love that you love them.

Colin Smith said...

Wait wait wait... don't tell me... I can guess Opie here... it's... ummm... let me think... knows horses, tells stories, has a horse called Cowgirl, has a son called Cody... it's Donna! No, wait.. it's... Craig? How about Michael Seese! Or maybe Sean Ferrell..? (Didn't he write that book, Horse in the Empty Saddle?)

:)

Of course, it's our own dear Julie W. Thanks for sharing! :D

Lennon Faris said...

woot! horses! I think Julie should do a follow-up pic of their faces, all poking in to see what's going on :)

Kae Ridwyn said...

LOL Colin!
Lovely post with the photo, Julie :)

Lisa Bodenheim said...

I had to laugh at Julie's last paragraph. Vivid image i my head of horses getting their heads in the way of a project/task that needs doing. And sounds like the horses have a wonderfully (or would that be exasperating) mischievous sense of humor if they steal things you need for your task.

What an extraordinary way to think of life with horses. I have truly missed out.

S.P. Bowers said...

Beautiful horses!

E.M. Goldsmith said...

Horses! Julie! Almost makes my head stop hurting.

I just got back from Hell. A demon was trying to cut off my feet and I only barely escaped. Now my head is killing me. Horses and fur friends make it all better.

Melanie Sue Bowles said...

Aw, look at these lovelies! I'm familiar with King Ranch but had never heard of the Scharbauers. Interesting story. Thanks for sharing...

Hermina Boyle said...

Wonderful picture and wow, what a great history behind these horses! Would love to learn more about the Scharbauers, too.

Cheryl said...

Yay, horses! My lifelong love.

That's an interesting story about the Scharbauers. Thanks for including it.

Claire Bobrow said...

Beautiful horses, Julie! Learning some West Texas history was pretty cool, too, so thank you for that.

And because it's horses today: Frau Blücher!

RosannaM said...

The horses are beautiful and I loved the story. A little snippet of history, a little snippet of current day life. A nice start to the day, thanks!

Barbara Etlin said...

Beautiful horses with very fancy pedigrees! Thanks for sharing them.

BJ Muntain said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
CynthiaMc said...

Gorgeous!Enjoyed learning about them.

BJ Muntain said...



Beautiful horse-butts (and the rest of them, too)!

I'm always interested in historical bits, and of course our Julie can tell those stories better than anyone. But I most enjoyed the mental picture of the horse heads getting in the way, watching and stealing.

Thanks so much, Julie!

Craig F said...

I have always preferred the other end. The one where those big limpid eyes are. The ones that look at you so placidly while they attempt to gnaw the ends of your fingers off for not bringing them an apple.

At least this end isn't doing what it seems to do almost constantly. If you have ever mucked out a stall you would think it happened constantly.

Anonymous said...

I saw this pic in my feed, knew immediately it was from Julie, and SO hoped it came with a story or two. Happy day! Love the mental image of curious horses sticking their noses in and stealing stuff.

Hey, I've got an idea. Seeing as how Julie has insisted she's not going to write a memoir, next time Janet has a blog hiatus, I vote that we have Julie just tell us cowboy stories for the entire month. *evil grin* Maybe she and Kari Lynn Dell can take turns.

Donnaeve said...

Ah, these gorgeous horses, and no matter which end is facing us, I find them lovable, and lovely.

It comes as no surprise there was a great story included with a picture from Julie.

DeadSpiderEye said...

The photo reminds me of the time I came second place in the county ploughing contest.

Joseph S. said...

I enjoyed the Scharbauer history, Julie. It's a tidbit of Texas history I didn't know. Now I must research them more.

AJ Blythe said...

So glad you added a story to your photo, Julie. Would have felt short-changed if you hadn't =)

Beth Carpenter said...

Beautiful horses, even from this end. Of course, for quarter horses, the rump may be their best feature.

I spent my girlhood reading about horses, and finally got one of my own when I was fourteen. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I have no talent for riding. Still, I loved riding my horse badly and taking care of her, although she was neither as beautiful nor well-bred as yours.

Happy trails.

MA Hudson said...

'A dozen curious heads in the way'
As a concept, that is really cute, in a goofy gentle-giant sort of way. As a reality, I've got no friggin idea how you convince 12 half-tonne creatures to back off!
Beautiful horses.

Panda in Chief said...

I knew almost immediately that these had to be Julie's horses. Thanks for the horses and thanks for the stories. I always wanted a horse when I was young, and occasionally I got to ride one, most often the year I worked at a YWCA camp. Then for about 12 years I was horse nanny for my landlords.

I second kdjames' idea that Julie tell us stories the next time Janet needs a break.
Hope this doesn't send me to Carkoon. I do not like Kale.

Gypmar said...

Beauties!

Catherine Vignolini said...

They're gorgeous!

JulieWeathers said...

Oh, horses!

Y'all are very kind. I didn't think horses would make it until later in the year. Yes, they all had very distinctive personalities. When I couldn't sleep I'd often go out to the arena and walk at 2 or 3 in the morning. We kept the mares turned out in the arena much of the time rather than in stalls even though our stalls were more like pens. The other mares would ignore me while I walked, but Skidboot made every step I did like a faithful hound. Well, Ma, if you're going to walk in the middle of the night, I guess I will also.

I very much miss the herd.

My horse butts picture has kind of a history. I use a picture of Cowgirl as my avatar normally. However, when I'm in a crappy, horse butt mood, I'll switch out to horse butts. The horse butt facing the camera has a six on it if you look close.

JulieWeathers said...

Beth,

Yes, for Quarters, a nice hip is very important, but these mares were very balanced and had massive, deep chests, and little baby doll heads to go with the hips.

Steve Stubbs said...

Woof, woof.

That;s all I have to say on that subject.