Zoe the Tank and Foxy the filly—my two horse children

Read more adventures of Zoe and Foxy

Zoe (see the picture on the back cover of All God’s Creatures) is a half Shire, half thoroughbred (or something) bay mare.  Around the barn she is known as the Zoeberg (Zoe Mountain), or Zoe the Tank. Although she’s only a little over 16.1 hands tall, she weighs about 1600 pounds.  She is kind, easy-going most of the time, and extremely forgiving when I screw up, as I do frequently.

She learned to drive to a Meadowbrook cart before she was broke to saddle, and because she was never asked to canter while she was driving, she decided on her own that cantering was stupid.  She absolutely, positively refused to canter until she was seven years old. Then, suddenly, she decided—again on her own—that cantering was great fun.   On a recent trail ride, she actually ran away with me at a full gallop, because the other horses were way ahead. Zoe ain’t dumb. She knows that dragons always pick off the stragglers. 

I knew she wouldn’t gallop long. She’s much too lazy to exert that much energy for more than five minutes at a stretch.

Foxy, the filly, is a granddaughter of Riverman, a Grande Prix Holsteiner warmblood, and of my thoroughbred stallion, Stone Cool Fox. I bred and birthed her mother out of my Canadian hunter mare, and I bred and birthed Foxy.  She was 2 years old on April 15, 2004. She’s already over 16.2 hands high, and will probably mature over 17 before she turns five.

I bred her ostensibly for me to ride.  I must have been out of my mind.  She’s a darling, a real lover, but she’s opinionated.  I have no more business riding a four-year-old horse at my age and my size, than I do taking the nearest space shuttle to Mars.  Besides, it’s obvious even in these early days of training that she was born to be a jumper.

So sadly, she’s for sale. I hope someone will buy her and take her to the heights. That’s where she belongs.

In the meantime, Zoe the Tank and I will putter along in the dressage arena and on the trails in relative safety and comfort. 

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