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Sold Horses & Happy Customers

(more photos below)

From Nard Bailey, Alturas, California November 2009

“Try to visualize this if you can! The second time I roaded a dog off of Iceman (NFF Wilson’s Iceman) it was a year old male pup. We were going along with the pup pulling to the front, rope down the left side of the horse all of a sudden a bird gets up to the right of the dog, dog goes right we ride past and dog comes back on our left side, the rope is wrapped around all four of Iceman’s legs with the pup pulling. You would think oh no wreck. Iceman came to a complete stop and did not move until I dismounted, all was untangled, remounted and he was asked to move. With any of the other horses here we would have had a wreck. (Sweet) This horse came to me just as an eight year old, his mind is that good! Austin did a splendid job of training this horse.”



    Nard and Iceman "roading" one of the dogs              Iceman ground tied with Libby standing on Whoa!

                                                                                              Iceman will stand ground tied until you move him.

This is me with Iceman. He has a Haggas trooper saddle and an Imus bit.

The Search For My Dream Mare by Cathy Martinoff, Rock Creek, British Columbia, Canada (Reprinted from Heritage Highlights newsletter, July 2008)

Now I’m not one of these people who spend long hours at their computer looking at horses for sale to build an imaginary dream herd of horses.But back in the year 2000 I did pull a picture of a stallion off of the ‘net Society’s Lee Allan with the dream that one day I would have a filly of that breeding to cross with my stallion Chance’s Liberty Spirit, a son of Chance’s Yellow n’ Gold. That stallion was the only horse I had in my filing cabinet as a “must have” one of his get.

As the years passed I did not add to that file being quite content with the mares that were in my broodmare band. Most came from descendants of Pearl Tompkins breeding program.

On July 5^th 2005 I tore my left rotator cuff and had to wait until October of 2007 for surgery. When you have universal health care the main priority is given to people who are not ambulatory. I could walk therefore it was deemed my surgery was elective and I  would have to wait.

After two years of being barely able to lift bales of hay I decided to pretty much put my entire herd up for sale with two exceptions.   I would never, ever sell Romeo (Chance’s Liberty Spirit) and my boss mare a.k.a. Big Momma, Royal Bay Quest. Sales went very well but left me with only one mare for breeding.

Upon the realization of having only one mare for breeding my husband Michael asked me what were my plans. So I took that query and ran as fast and hard with it as I could. In March I looked at Grace Larson’s website www.hiplainswalkers.com and found HER, Echo’s Royal Lady; the filly of my dreams. Okay so she wasn’t by Society’s Lee Allen, she was by Society’s Dan Allen. Close enough. And she was in Montana. I always wanted to go to Montana and so did Danny, my nephew who lives with my husband and me.

Grace quickly put me in touch with Lady’s owner, Austin Turley. Austin informed me of Lady’s breeding; that Billy Taylor of Confederate Hills Farm in Franklin County, Tennessee had bred her. Billy Ray Sanders of Moore County, Tennessee bred Chance’s Yellow ‘n Gold.

After a few phone calls between Austin and myself the deal was more or less done. It was the logistics of the transition that would be challenge. I always had a gut feeling that this was meant to be and with faith and a little prayer everything fell into place slowly but surely.

My trailer needed a few repairs so it went into the shop. My truck was not going to make the journey and one of my girlfriends loved the idea of a road trip so off we went in her truck with our kids.

I went to Mapquest to get a travel route and itinerary. Unfortunately Mapquest did not recognize the three mountain passes I had to drive through and it grossly underestimated the travel time. Day One: Rock Creek, BC to Whitefish, Montana, estimated distance 359.74 miles. Estimated travel time 6 hours and 35 minutes. Actual travel time was approximately 10 hours with a dinner stop for 45 minutes and one stop for fuel.

Oh, and one stop by the Montana Highway Patrol because my trailer tail lights were not working, brake lights and turn signals were okay though. The Officer was very nice (looked like Sam Elliott, I had to hold my tongue and not ask if I could get a   picture with him). He let me off with a warning, which was awfully kind of him.

Day 2, Whitefish to Laurel, Montana, estimated distance 463.66 miles, estimated travel time 6 hours and 54 minutes. Actual travel time was another 10 hours. Fortunately the speed limit in Montana is a very reasonable 75 miles per hour and the I-90 is   an excellent freeway to drive on. We stopped for fuel twice and lunch at a Cracker Barrel in Missoula. We don’t have a lot of these chain restaurants in Canada so when I’m in the U.S. I like to try as many as possible. Besides I just love biscuits and gravy and can’t get real good ones here.

We arrived in Laurel at 10:00 PM. The kids got to go swimming in the hotel pool and I soaked in a hot bubble bath to unwind. I was so excited (and caffienated) I did not fall asleep until after 3:30 in the morning.

My son, Danny, with Austin and a young filly

We arrived at Austin’s around 9:00ish the next morning to pick up Lady. I was in 7^th heaven seeing all of Austin’s wonderful horses.  I fell in love with his stallion, Moon, his conformation and temperament remind me of my Romeo. Would have liked to bring another mare or filly home with me if we could swing a deal but Austin doesn’t take MasterCard and we could not have   got the health and Coggins done in time.



I could have easily spent a day or longer talking horses with Austin and looking at his fabulous collection, but we were in a hurry to get back on the road with so many miles to travel.

Cathy, Lady and Austin

We managed to get in Bozeman for lunch and stopped in Butte for some shopping. The weather had cleared and it was smooth   sailing all day. We stopped for gas in the very small community of Rock Creek, Montana, home of the World Famous Testicle      Festival. Being sleep deprived I did not want my by then overactive imagination to go into high gear and try to figure out what the festival was about so we left in a hurry.

A few miles down the highway in Clinton we found The Dreamcatcher Horse Motel. Jack and Deanna who own the place had   a nice big turnout for Lady to spend the night in. They had driven from Coeur D’Alene the day before and told us that the on mountain pass it was raining so hard they hydroplaned part way down the mountain. That would be terrifying. So it looks like     we made the right decision to stay in Missoula for the night. There was more swimming for the kids and another bubble bath for me.

Day Four: Up at 6:00 AM, 5:00AM Pacific time, had breakfast at the hotel while everyone else was asleep. I hopped in the truck  and drove back to The Dreamcatcher to pick up Lady. She immediately came over to the fence when I arrived. I petted her and scratched her, put the lead rope on and she loaded beautifully. I was very impressed. Don’t know too many young horses that would load that easily after spending 8 hours in a straight haul trailer with a person that they have only met for 10 minutes.

Picked up the rest of the gang and off we went. The last day was an easy drive. We made it to the border by 3:00pm. My husband did all the commercial importation paperwork ahead of time so all I had to do was calculate the taxes based on the daily exchange rate.

We were in and done at Canada Customs in 15 minutes. No one even came out to the trailer to see if the horse in the trailer matched the description on the paperwork.

We arrived home by dinnertime. Lady was happy to be out of the trailer and all the other horses on the property greeted her quite noisily. My husband and his friend were out on the back 120 of the ranch shooting and when they came in for dinner they stopped to see the horse from Montana. Lady came right over to them and greeted them.

I really feel privileged and very blessed to own Lady. She is incredibly sweet natured (yes, most TWH’s are), she has a neat   little flippy front end and can really drive from her hind end. I can’t wait to get her under saddle later this year. I expect she will be my primary using horse when she is not producing foals.

Thank you Austin!



         Bud, sold to John in Billings, Montana                   Rascal, sold to Dave of Wrentham, Alberta, Canada



Sam, sold to Jim in Cranbrook, Alberta, Canada            Montana Royale Ginger sold to Terry in Castor,

                                                                                                                   Alberta, Canada



        Nard from California on Benson                               Ostella's Diamond Ann, sold to Roc Ridge Farms

                                                                                                               Watsontown,Pennsylvania



         Footloose, sold to Joel in Georgia                           Meagan, sold to Adele in Anderson, Texas



Red Bud's Revival, sold to Slush Creek Walkers,       Ruby & Dividend, sold to Adele in Anderson, Texas

                      Bainville, Montana



Tide's April Star, sold to Aarron in Billings, MT              Walker, sold to Terry in Castor, Alberta, Canada



Red Bud's Serenade, sold to Slush Creek Walkers                Ace, sold to Chad in Laurel, Montana

                    Bainville, Montana



Blackie, a Paso Fino mare, and John from Billings,         Echo's Lady Bug Allen, sold to Diane from Wisconsin

                            Montana                                                     Bug will be going to her new home at  in Belgium

                                                                                                                     in the spring of 2010



Ostella Sara Lady, sold to Slush Creek Walkers                   Easy, sold to Sheldon in Oakdale, California

                  Bainville, Montana

Carbonado's Nancy Bee, sold to Terry Walsh, Castor,

                          Alberta, Canada