We’ve had very little snow up on the mountain at Apgar View Ranch. This makes for poor ski conditions, but it’s been great for extending our season with the horses. Today when I was planning to catch a horse and take off, I decided to skip the regular guys that I ride and grab our old guy. Freckles (aka Whitey) is a horse that we purchased years ago following an accident that I had resulting in a busted knee. The folks that we purchase our stock from brought him up for Connie. She needed a horse that could help boost her confidence and Freckles was a gem. 

Freckles has been the go to guy when it came to visitors wanting to go for a ride. He was also the horse that all of our grandkids were riding. Yet when I crawled up on him he could still crank it up and give you some fun. 

Freckles was also the horse that I learned to pack with. His younger years were spent roping, so when I was working with ropes dragging around him and tying loads, nothing seemed to bother him. He was a great teacher.

Freckles has always been special to my granddaughter Sophia. Over the Christmas holiday the kids spent a couple of days out on the horses and Sophia’s pick is always Freckles. While out riding she asked “grandpa do you think I could buy Freckles?” Well, I would love to have said yes, but I knew that was not gonna fly with mom and dad. So my answer was “Sophia it would probably be better if I kept him and you just come and ride”. Sophia wasn’t really satisfied with that answer and persisted with her question of would I sell her Freckles. Her mom asked her why and her answer was priceless. “Mom you always tell me to save my money for what I really want, and I really really want Freckles!”

This is the kind of horse that is super special and doesn’t come along often. He turned 20 this year and although I don’t work him to hard anymore he is still tremendously fun to hit the trail with.

So we saddled up today and took off for a little ride up the mountain. He was his usual frisky self when we headed out. Just two old guys out for some fun!