End of an Era

Era: A period of time characterized by particular circumstances, events, or personages.

The passing of Beamer is definitely the end of an era for me.  

(He would like being called a personage 😊)

Here is a little of his back story, for those of you who have only known him for a short while. 

When I lived in southern BC, there was a ranch across the border, in Eureka Montana, who had a line of horses that I greatly admired. Their sire (Peppy A Poco) was a direct son of Mr. San Peppy and they bought him from the King Ranch yearly production sale in Texas. He was shown in cutting and a snaffle bit futurity before retiring to be a herd sire for the Shea Ranch. When I lost my first stallion, Pocos Last Chip, to West Nile, I decided to see what the Shea's had for a stallion prospect. Once I saw 3 month old Beamer, I was smitten and contracted to buy him. It wasn't until he was 18 months old that I picked him up, and hauled him to trainer Kim Smith in the Ft. McLeod, Alberta, area as I didn't have a place to keep a stallion at that point. 

Kim kept him on board until he was old enough to start under saddle. He showed Beamer as a 3 year old in a big reining class in Cardston, where he earned some money for a 7th place finish out of 29 horses. After that, he was shown the next year twice as a 4 year old; a spring show and a summer show. Both times, just before the show, Beamer's sliding stops were so powerful that he clipped his front feet, dislodging a front shoe. Beamer was quite short coupled so that had a lot to do with it. Since that seemed to be an issue, I took him out of show training and brought him home to enjoy riding him and to start raising foals from him. 

4 year old Beamer

Most of you know the wonderful foals I raised from my own mares. He also sired 2 paint foals and a filly for Kim Smith, as well as a colt for a friend which unfortunately died young. 

Beamer was a ham. He loved to show off, doing one foot pirouettes, rearing on command, giving the best ever horse kisses, and always yawning!

Breeding was always in hand, and he was easy to handle. He had a very loud roar that got the mare's attention and he was never mean to them. 

Visiting Moondance

Owning Beamer dictated a lot of my life choices over the last twenty years. It meant travelling for more than a day or two was out of the question, as spring and summer were busy times with breeding and foaling as well as training the foals. Now that he's gone, I find myself at a bit of a loss for direction, especially since Theo will be gone in a week. Gussie will have to take up the slack- I am getting her back in riding shape. 

Here are a few photos from my archives, some special moments. 

I sure miss him.