First Curly meeting

Age 5, I had my first pony, Daisy ( a flea bitten grey Shetland.) My last horse was a gorgeous Old sport horse type Morgan filly, Sleeper, who was born at my place when I was 15. By age 16, I'd decided I wanted to try a more social, less restrained by horse responsibility life style. I've been working with other people's horses ever since.
Ten years have gone by and now that I am finally nearing completion of my BA, I decided it's time for me to look into having my own horse again.
I went hunting for a breed I could really get involved with, which had the build to maybe do some low level three day eventing, maybe some therapeutic riding, maybe some equine assisted psychotherapy, maybe some driving, maybe, well, anything. Most of all I wanted a breed I could really love, not just a few individuals, but the breed on a whole. Then I thought hmm, I wonder if their are any breeds that are hypoallergenic? I'm not allergic at all, however I've been to a few clinics where participants could not participate because of their allergic reactions. This was the first time I'd ever heard of a Bashkir Curly, which is exactly the horse who came up in my searches. Not only do they have the right build, more like my image of the old sport type Morgans, versatile, as well as the genetic where with all to be able to work with more people who couldn't otherwise due to allergic reactions, but they also possessed one of the most incredible temperaments of any breed I've ever met, or so the information I was finding said.

Of course I had to meet some of these remarkable horses. After looking for a local breeder, I drove an hour and a half to go visit Tames and Jim Alan's Curlies at Celtic Curlies. It was love at first sight!! To be honest I wasn't sure I could handle the curls, I thought maybe they would be too different from my image of a horse for me to fall in-love with them. Couldn't have been more wrong! Their little curls in their ears, ringlets for manes and tails, ringlets for feathers and waves on their bodies were spectacular!
I had been thinking I'd just go look and get some ideas, meet as many curlies as I could and think on it for another year or so.
I visited the Alan's several times and finally they offered to let me purchase their mare, Epona, so much for a year! I feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to own her.
She's mostly been getting a little depressed and a lot over weight over the last couple years, as she's no longer a brood mare and thus has been away from her band.
Epona moves to Olympia, near where I live, at the end of October. I plan to work with her gradually every day to get the weight down. Epona has, thus far, proven to be one of those genius horses who reads her rider. She gives me a really hard time, being challenging and quirky, yet put a new rider on her or a rider lacking in confidence and she is as sweet as can be, taking her cues from me the whole time. She is a remarkable personality!!

During my trips to visit Epona, I also went to meet several other curlies, I enjoy meeting them, they are all so amazing! On one such visit I met Xandra. She is an extreme, Bay Roan Bashkir Curly. When I met her she had recently been weaned, she got very stressed and depressed and rubbed out all of her mane and tail along with a lot of her neck and face hair. Honestly I thought she had some sort of mite when I first met her, thought it was odd none of the other horses had it. Funny now, knowing she's an extreme. Her skin was irritated too though. She was being kept in a sandy round pen to help with the weaning. The first day I met her she came right over to the fence nickering. She was leary of letting me touch her, although she did eventually. Sounds like her previous owners didn't really have time to do much with her, so she'd not had much human interactions, seemed curious about being friends but had no real reason to be.

I went back to visit her several times, she got worse about letting me anywhere near her, not better. Finally in desperation I explained to her that she had to make peace with me or she couldn't come home with me. She walked right over, I put a lead rope on her and we did all sorts of new things, like walking with me, scratching itchy spots, even walked onto a trailer in preparation for her trailer ride home.
When I went to pick her up, she walked right on the trailer.
She came home on September 28th, 2007, she's since had her first ever hoof trim, stood better for the farrier than some of the other horses with a lot more experience at it. I can't keep her away from me long enough to get any good pictures of her, which is funny, she follows me around like a puppy dog, helps me with my h.w. (rests her head on my head or the back of the chair I'm in, or tries to eat the book I'm reading when I try to do h.w. in her field with her,) nickers when I arrive, and is perhaps the sweetest horse I've ever met. Not to mention she is fearless, curious, confident, and learns things scarily quickly. She's definitely decided humans are pretty neat to have around, not to mention all the tasty treats they seem to have so frequently! ;-)
I love my two Curlies and honestly still can't believe I get to have them in my life, it's all very exciting!
I will try to keep up every now and again with updates as to what we are all up to, any training we try or experiences that are noteworthy. Hope you enjoy!
~Heather, Epona, and Xandra.

I am looking forward to Epona joining Xandra and I here in Olympia and eventually getting both of my Curlies out into the world to help educate more people about their existence!!