When we were purchasing horses a few years ago, we turned to the Millirons in Polson for some quality stock. We were looking at buying 2 horses, a big young buckskin dunn (Tanner) and a red dunn (Mav). Mav had a half brother that we also looked at. He was a palomino and when we looked at him in January he had a shaggy white coat and was not the most attractive horse. 

We did not plan on purchasing a 3rd horse at that time, but this guy just had a manner about him that was easy to connect with.  We felt that if we passed on him we might be leaving the best horse in the barn. We did purchase this guy and named him Harley.

That summer I had an accident with Mav resulting in a busted up knee. In order to give these new horses backcountry experience we enlisted the help of a trainer that would ride and pack them in the backcountry.  She had Tanner and Harley for a month and was very pleased with Tanner, but not quite sure if Harley would turn out to be a mountain horse or not. It was at this time though that Harley started to show off his appearance. 

My knee healed up enough that I was able to head for elk camp in the fall with these guys. We had replaced Mav with a grey we call Freckles. Everybody did ok at elk camp but not what I would term exceptional. After that fall though Harley started maturing into something great.

And he just kept getting better.

He became extremely sure-footed on some precarious trails.

He became trustworthy to the point that we could let the grandkids ride him.

and for some reason he developed into a very unflappable mountain horse

Now his personality has developed along with his skills. Harley is Connie’s dream horse. They are able to go wherever she decides to point his nose. Never any attitude, crosses water, jumps deadfall, doesn’t spook or panic.

This is the kind of horse that every mountain rider wants. We are so thankful we brought him home.

Harley had the breeding to be a great horse, he just didn’t have the eye appeal when we first looked at him. He showed us – Don’t judge a book by its cover.