As our long term friends know, in April of last year, our family said good bye to the first horse my husband owned.

Shakes Wonder Girl was a gorgeous TWH mare with spunk, spirit, and flirty eyelashes she batted non-stop at Mr. P.  He laughs as he tells the tale of the day Gypsy decided she wanted to be in the barn with my colt and bolted.  He claims she took a corner, through a fence post on just one leg.

She was our first lesson horse when we opened our lesson program.  She survived a trailer accident.....her St. Francis of Assissi medallion falling from her halter to the right spot of her coronary band as her hoof got caught in the leaf spring of the trailer as a tired blew out and ripped up the side of our trailer.  She was an amazing teacher and carried little ones into the ribbons every time.  She was the mount for a rodeo "little miss" and wow-ed the crowd every time she was in public.  She attended the Bill Pickett Rodeo and high stepped it under her rider with some of the top walkers in the country.

She had the most gentle eye on a horse I have ever seen. She comforted me when my beloved Jack died, nuzzling me as I was in shock and rubbing her soft cheek against my cheek. 

 She taught BOTH of my girls to ride.....but she was Caroline's favorite mount.  Little Bit climbed up that mare's leg out in a field when she was just 3 years old and was found riding bareback in our pasture.  Our gypsy did everything in her power to make sure that baby did not fall off

I  regret not breeding her but I had a vision in 2008 in which I was told by a close friend who had passed, "Do not breed Gypsy.  She's far too tired and will have enough to do before her time comes." A few weeks before we put her down, this same friend appeared to me again in a dream and told me "It's Gypsy's time.  Send her home to me, I'm waiting for her."

A few weeks ago, I was scrolling through ads for saddles when I found an ad offering a trade:  any of these mares (with 6 different ones pictured) for saddles, tools, guns, or anything that does not eat.  I stared at the ad for a minute and closed it just as my mouse hovered over a pic.  I had to open the ad back up and take a closer look at the only black mare.

I stared at her and finally had to contact the man.  Something about that mare made me curious.
A phone call and an email confirmed it.  The black mare was a grand-daughter of our Gypsy.  I went out to see her, taking a very expensive show bridle and matching breast collar with me.  I stared into a very kind, somewhat familiar eye and I didn't care that she was unbroke and had the same knobby knee Gypsy did.  That knee and that quiet eye just endeared her to me more. I showed the man the bridle and breast collar set.  He nodded and we shook hands.

The little black mare is now happy in a stall at a local barn where I am working a couple days a week, assisting the trainer in exchange for her board.  She is gentle and soft and reminds me of our Gypsy in so many ways.  I don't mind hauling horse shit and working the lunge line for the trainer so the horses aren't so hot for the lesson kids.  She's worth it.

I'm pretty damn sure she was meant to be as her barn name is so much her own but very much just like that of Shake's Wonder Girl

Meet Zingara