Our story isn't as grand as some out there, but I feel that is should be shared and I personally feel that me and Partner live an interesting life that others may be interested in!

I was around 15 at the time, and looking for that perfect horse, that everybody looks for when shopping for their next horse. I had been riding out at a ranch in Palmer, taking people on trail rides and when not doing trail rides I was free to ride where ever I wanted, though the horses were wonderful and always will be, they weren't what I was looking for. The majority of them here Belgian/Quarter horses and the Quarter horses that were around were either ill tempered, slow, the one I did enjoy to be around was 42, oh so I was told, you know how old men can "exaggerate" and had a few health issues. It took me over a year of searching every single prospect of a horse out there, looking at everything from $10,000 champions to $1000 green broke 2-3 year olds, I never got that "feeling" with any of them, and all you horse people know what I am talking about when you get on a horse and you just instantly connect.

Well after looking and looking, I was mainly looking for a good barrel/pole horse so somebody said I should go take a look at the ABRA (Alaska Barrel Racers Assoc.) so I drive out and start asking around, and somebody tells me about this horse, not trained for barrels but could become a nice barrel horse at a local stable, so I go take a peek, I was warned that this horse had a "deformed" jaw so I was prepared to see some hideous looking horse with a mangled jaw, so when I walk up to his corral, I look at the left jaw and see nothing, I take a peek at the right jaw, there is the slightest little scar and a bit of a bump, more like a bug bite then a bump. Ugly, I think not, he was very respectable of my space, without a halter or lead rope he let me pick up all four feet, I banged on them to check for any tenderness nothing, he let me poke and prod at ever nook and cranny he had and he just stood there giving me this look like "now what" I was very pleased. "Well do you wanna take him for a ride?" the ranch hand asks, well what 15 year old is gonna turn down a ride on a horse? Not me. So we go over to the local indoor arena and I give him a test ride, we turned him out to have some free time, well he was faster then grease lighting and had absolutely beautiful movement, and even with his winter coat you could see his body was ripped with muscle. I saddled him and bridled him, all while ground tied, he never flinched, lounged him for about 15 mins nothing, not even a buck, well I get on him and we walk, stop then walk again move it up to a trot, the roughest in the world, oh well we can work on that, I think to myself, then we cantered, well out comes the devil, he starts bucking, but I collect him and we ride it out then I ask him to stop, he is like, oh no you wanted me to run now you deal with me, after about 3 minutes of pulling he finally stopped, and for some ungodly reason, I clicked and got that "feeling" and decided right then and there I wanted him. "How much?" I ask "$3500" he replies. My heart sank I was trying to work within $1500 -$2500 dollar range. My mother and I were going to talk to the owner about making payments but she was so busy when we went to talk to her so said she would call us, the call never came so I figured it to be a no.

After looking for another month I just wasn’t happy with the horses in Alaska so I started looking out of state, I found my match, well he seemed like a match. A 3 year old Paint stallion named SBR Bullet, not yet gelded because his other "boy" hadn’t dropped yet. He was drop dead gorgeous, solid back with 4 white stockings and a blaze. Only $1500 because of a divorce. Perfect. So all I had to do was find a hauler, well the person selling Partner was also a hauler so I call her up, and she says that Partner is back. I guess she had sold him, that’s when he jumped the 5 foot fence and landed 8 feet past it. The lady who bought him decided she didn’t want him and gave him back; well in the long run it would have cost me a little over $3500 to get Bullet up here, gelded, and so on. I already knew Partner, knew I wanted him, so I bought him.

After he was all good and paid for I moved him to a friends, no later then a week he got a horrendous cut on his right hind hock. I was paying my friend extra money to leave him locked up the in the stud pen where he couldn’t move around a whole lot because this cut was right smack dab on his right hind hock on the joint, had a vet come out took ex-rays and said he would be find, just needs time for the cut to heal. Well okay then, but then my friend keeps letting Partner out with the other 35 horses on the ranch on a 15 acre pasture were he is running and jumping and the cut is NOT healing. I finally get mad and decided to move him. Well a former friend, who’s name is Candi who has her own boarding stable said she would help out. So I move him over.

This is where it all went DOWN hill. First off, Partner was supposed to have a roof over his little piece of crap 3 sided shack the day before he got there. Well there was no roof the day I moved Partner. Now his leg was still pretty bad and needed to be re-wrapped everyday, and since I lived 65 miles away and still went to school and I was only 15, no license, it made it kind of hard on me, so I paid an extra $25 dollars a month to have Candi re-wrap Partner’s leg everyday, I even supplied the cotton, vet tape, medicine to go on the cut, etc. Well I bought 12 rolls of vet tape, 12 different colors, and I wrapped Partner's leg myself the day I dropped off the supplies, in bright rubber duck yellow vet tape. The next week I couldn’t go out to see him because I had a doctor appointment so I went out to see him the next week. Okay now this is 2 weeks later, I go and Partner STILL has the yellow vet tape on his leg, and since it was right on his hock and he is moving it had fallen down. I was so mad, so mom asked what the big deal was and Candi says, "Oh I used my own vet tape." My ass she did, and I knew it. Anyway when it should have taken Partner 1 maybe 2 months at the most to heal it took him 4 3/4 to fully heal. During this whole time, Partner still had no roof over his head. I counted 7 times I came out to see Partner and Candi was nowhere to be seen, and Partner’s water tank was bone dry, when I filled it he drank for at least 10 minutes. I begged my mom to move him into town, but the cheapest place was $410 a month and that was more then twice what we were paying at Candi’s we just couldn’t afford it.

Then we went on a trip to California for a month, when I came back I went to visit Partner, who at the time was turned out with 3 other horses. Candi tells me that Partner has rain rot, sure enough he does, which I hear is a MANAGEMENT problem. I ask how my horse got this, and Candi says, he brought it over from my last stable, even though he had been at Candi’s for 5 months and it just now showed up. Anyway, Candi says "Give me $60 dollars and I will get him the medicine to clear it up" okay and so I give her the money. Then she says I have to give him a bath, well it has been 25 below zero and there is no possible way, well then the day comes when it is 35 above, so I skip school and me and my boyfriend go out and give Partner a bath. She hands me a bottle of benidine that costs maybe $13 dollars at any supply store. "That will clear him right up" she says. By this time Partner had rain rot in every crack and crevice of his body, I’m talking back, ribs, butt, ears, face, belly, EVERYWHERE. Well one week later, still nothing, if anything the rain rot has gotten worse, so I go online for help. Shapley’s M-T-G everyone says, so I pay $15.99 for the quart, plus $35.97 to have it over-night shipped. It does wonder’s, it cleared him up right away, within 2 weeks Partner was completely clear or rain rot and his hair was starting to grow back. Well during that time we had moved Partner back into his own paddock that finally had a roof, which was only a old tarp with some holes in it, that happened to blow off and away the following week during a windy day, the horse that was next to Partner had a little rain rot on her shoulder, I knew rain rot was contagious so I told Candi and she gives me a funny look, and she says "Oh I know, she had it before you even got here" and my horse had been out in the pasture with that very same horse for over a month.

Summer comes and so I take Partner over to the indoor arena across the way so I could work him, the owner of the indoor arena almost has a heart attack when she sees Partner. "He is so skinny you have got to move him" well after we talked she said that she would find a place to move him, but if I was late at all with board she would take my horse. Now the owner if very nice but I know she wanted Partner and I wasn’t about to take a chance of her getting Partner. I start looking into stables in town since I got this new job making $15 dollars an hour cleaning houses. At the time of this visit I was camping at the river only 2 blocks away from where Partner was being boarded and every morning when I went to visit him there was no hay. I knew where Candi kept her hay and there wasn’t any hay there or anywhere on the place for that matter. After my 4 day weekend was over I was so mad I could have killed Candi right then and there. I go home and cry to my mom about my weekend, and what the owner of the indoor arena told me. Mom gets mad and takes a trip out there to visit Partner and asks Candi what the hell was going on. Partner recently had his teeth floated and Candi said this was the reason he lost so much weight, and that she has a vet (Sabrita Holland) come out every 2 weeks and the vet says Partner is fine. When mom told Candi what the owner of the indoor area said, Candi got mad and went and yelled at the owner, getting me in trouble and banned, now I was never there to defend myself and I have no clue what Candi told the owner, so for all I know it could be just a bunch of lies and bull shit which Candi is famous for making up.

Anyway I found the new stable I was moving Partner to, the F-Bar-J, I was so excited, but I have to pay Candi to move him because I don’t have a trailer of my own, but who cares my horse is coming to town. Now that he is at the F-Bar-J safe and sound this is what the after math is. My step dad’s friend’s wife owns a horse and she had a vet from Arizona come up to specially look at her horse's injured leg. I asked this vet, Dr.Balding, to take a look at Partner, NOW I was told by Candi that she had a vet look at my horse, this vet says he lost weight due to his rain rot, and that he needed his teeth floated, I got all that taken care of and he still lost weight, this vet also said that Partner may have ulcers, which I didn't think could be true for one second, (now I did not hear this from the vet but from Candi) but anyway, I ask Dr.Balding why my horse lost 400lbs in less then 7 months, I also mentioned that he had a very serious case of rain rot and that his teeth had been recently floated. She did blood work, no ulcers, and after an extensive examination, she said that even if his teeth had been very long and the rain rot was the worst care ever he would never had lost 400lbs in that amount of time, she said that in her professional opinion the reason Partner lost so much weight was due to neglect. Dr.Balding is a D.V.M. in Bowling Green, AZ where she donates her time and skills with the local Humane Assoc. and in order to prosecute animal abusers she has to prove abuse or neglect. She is in charge of deciding whether the animal is a horse, cow, chicken, cat, dog, or goat is under weight due to health problems or due to neglect. Plus only after 1 month of being at the F-BAR-J Partner had gained almost 150 lbs.

Now Partner is a happy healthy 1000-1100 lbs. Bright shinny coat and running barrel and poles and helping me tie goats at the college rodeos as fast and as good as any other horse around.

R.I.P. Dr. Diana L. Balding August 13th, 1972- February 7th, 2004 Died when hit by a drunk driver.