When God created the horse...

And God took a handful of southerly wind, blew His breath over it, and created the horse.
                                         ~Bedouin Legend

Years before Patches came along, I boarded my beloved horse Selah at the same farm.  Selah was a beautiful bay horse with black mane, tail, and lower legs, as well as having a white blaze.

One of the other boarders had a yearling colt pony they were trying to decide if they should have gelded or not.  For those unfamiliar with equine terminology, a gelded horse is the same as a neutered cat or dog.😄

When those of us who owned mares expressed concern to Pete about how much longer was he going to wait, he of course insisted there was no way Rocky could impregnate the mares.  Was too young, he said.  Couldn't reach them either, he said.

By fall, it was obvious to those of us with mares, to see we had EXPECTING mares, thanks to Rocky "the too young who couldn't reach the mares yearling."  Rocky was then quickly removed from the farm after all the fun he managed to have.😂

In spring the foals began coming.  Selah gave birth to a lovely little filly, I named Rachel.  I was there when she was born and we immediately bonded.

Since I could not afford to keep two horses, I knew I would need to sell Rachel, and it wasn't going to be easy.  Nevertheless, when she was old enough to be weaned, I had her moved to another farm.  After she reached the age of one, like with Patches, I simply began riding her, because of the bond we had.

This farm was located near trails, via various backroads.

One summer day riding bareback, in my bare feet, blowing huge bubblegum bubbles, I was riding Rachel down one of the backroads to reach the trails.

A man in a car slowly passed us.  He turned around and passed us again slowly.  Then he turned around and came back towards us.  By then I was obviously very uneasy.  Suddenly the man stopped and got out of his car.

By the look on my face, he quickly reassured me and showed me his camera, explaining he was a photographer with the newspaper.  He LOVED the image of Rachel and I, riding bareback in my bare feet blowing bubbles.  He asked for permission to take our photo, and the next day, there were Rachel and I on the front page of the newspaper, with my face partly obscured by a huge bubble I was asked to please blow.  It was called, "Blowing Bubbles On Horseback."

Being a Little Person had nothing to do with it!  I loved it.

And you know what else?  The newspaper received several calls from people wanting to know if Rachel was for sale!

I interviewed each one, then checked them out first before deciding on the one who would buy Rachel.  She went on to have a much loved, happy life...all because one day we were on a backroad with me blowing bubbles...