Roadie grazing with Carrie in OK at Cindy Clark's Wild Goose Morgans, who provided a stopover point for them on their way here. The two youngsters really bonded on the trip together. Roadie has lived with horses of all ages and genders his entire life. Horses kept this way usually work out their pecking order and everyone is content and well socialized. Photo courtesy of Cindy Clark, November 2004.


Roadie, November 26, 2004. He is dressed for a Canadian winter so glamour shots will have to wait until spring, but you can see what a handsome young man he is becoming.


This picture really shows how MUCH Roadie resembles his sire, Casino. The photo of Casino I took when he was here on lease (spring 2002).


Jim got me a new digital camera for Christmas. It is the Nikon D70. It has no detectable lag time on the shutter so great action shots are just a click away. And, it can take three frames per second! I will be spoiled now. I can hardly wait for spring and slicked out horses with beautiful green backgrounds to photograph. Here is a great action shot taken with the new digital. Roadie really USES his butt- tucks it under and powers around!


May 2005. Roadie cannot figure out why I want him to go AWAY from me. I was trying to get a side view, but this is what I usually get lots of pictures of instead. It is hard work trying to get pictures of horses without assistance, unless you just want shots of them grazing- that's all ours do unless they have something interesting attracting their attention. I will keep trying!


Here is Roadie visiting with his dam Topaz through the fence. It had rained all day and was getting dark, which made the light kind of interesting. May 2005.


More of Roadie's "power trot". Roadie is not a big horse, but he is as far from "pony gaited" as you can get. He has three excellent, "uphill" gaits with suspension, a nice long stride and engagement.


"Hey, come back here!" I love the deep groove in the middle of his rump, with the heavy muscling on either side of it.


One morning at dawn I called to the horses from our back porch. Roadie was just sure I had something good for him to eat, so he started heading up towards the house. A minute later I was out in the front yard with the camera, and he thought that was very weird. I am not sure what was going through his mind- maybe wondering how I got from one spot to another so quickly. At any rate here he is doing his best impression of "stallion on alert". June 2005.


This was such an interesting picture for me because Roadie is in nearly the same pose as a sculpture I did of his sire, Casino, in 2002 entitled "Frolic". You can see that piece on my resins and artwork site. Art imitates life, indeed!


Enjoying Frosty's company on a hot summer evening, July 2005.


August 2005.


Our dogs Stormy (left) and Jackson like to give the horses a hard time. Interestingly this provokes very little reaction from the horses. It's good desensitization! I have given up on keeping Roadie's mane all on one side. It wants to part down the middle and it is VERY thick. He shakes his neck to ward off flies and the braids turn into knots in short order. I may have better luck keeping it braided over the winter once the flies have gone. August 2005.


I call this picture "Looks Like Daddy"! August 2005.


Roadie visits daily with my old mare Reminiscing when I let her out into the ring next to his field. He is very polite- there is no squealing or noise at all. August 2005.


I got a kick out of these pictures (taken one stride apart) as it looks for all the world like Roadie is practicing a dressage warmup- at liberty! August 2005.


He has three beautiful gaits, but I need to work on getting more canter pictures. Here is another trot one I liked. August 2005.


This picture (left) was taken so late in the day that the shadows and background lended themselves really well to a bit of tweaking in PhotoShop (right).


Roadie's "uphill" movement is also shared by his half sister Coral. Notice the extreme elevation of his front end in this picture. He and Frosty were frisking around, she was in front of him (out of the picture) and gave a kick/buck, hence the look on his face!


Conflicted expression here because he'd rather eat than keep his head up for pictures... as evidenced by his "snack to go"!


Another great example of Roadie's beautifully engaged canter. Late September 2005.


October 2005: Roadie has developed a game to entertain himself. He likes to pick stuff up and run around the field with it. I first noticed him doing it with the salt block holder. He removed the salt block first of course ;-) Well, he was being mighty hard on that salt block holder so I rescued it and gave him a traffic cone to play with instead. He loves it! I took these with the zoom so they are a bit fuzzy, but if I tried to walk over to get a clearer view he would stop playing. I think I need to get him a Jolly Ball. Poor Frosty- look at her expression in this picture. "Come on Mom, quit watching the clown show and give me some hay!" (Michele Walters, a member of the Yahoogroup Morgan Colors, saw this picture when I sent it to the list. She posted that Frosty was really thinking "I'm going to have a kid by that clown, sure hope it takes after me!").


Roadie was pretty dirty from rolling in the red clay, so it's good these are not well lit pictures. His "orange incarnation" is... well... orange is not a good color on him ;-). You can see the long suffering salt block holder in this pic. I managed to get it pummeled back into it's proper shape. A few days after these pictures were taken, we arrived home from the gym one night, and by the headlights of the car we saw Roadie running around the field, in the dark, with his cone!


I'd been watching ebay for the last year or so for a delicate, pretty, all sterling silver bridle for Roadie (not plated or overlaid, and not German silver, but solid sterling- which is about impossible to get nowadays unless you get it custom made). I wanted the old Poco style as it just looks super on a pretty headed horse. Remember Catskill Senator Lad showing in one of these? Well, in October I hit the proverbial jackpot and acquired this gorgeous bridle. Because the brand is not stamped on it anywhere that the seller (or myself) could find, I think fewer folks were interested in it than they might have been otherwise. It IS stamped "sterling" and it IS a quality bridle- the leather is beautifully soft and supple- I just don't know who made it (if anyone does, I'd love to hear!). A similar bridle, breastcollar and rein set sold recently on ebay for $1300. Picked this up (it's in like new condition, but likely dates from the 60's or 70's) for $150. It has to be my Best Ebay Buy Ever. This is only the second time Roadie has worn a bridle, so he is chewing on the bit, but I thought it was a cute picture anyways. November 2005.


It wasn't easy trying to get a simple head shot of Roadie in the new bridle. He started playing with his new jolly ball, running around with it in his mouth. His sister Coral joined him in the game from her side of the fence. They each did a couple of laps on their respective sides of the fence. This shot just made me laugh out loud. It looks for all the world like Coral is playing with a jolly ball too- they are almost mirror images of each other!


OOPS! Dropped it!


A lap sans jolly ball seemed to be in order.


I am not sure what they were chatting about! Isn't there an interesting contrast between the two shades of palomino? Hard to believe it is the same color. And can you imagine a dark, sooty palomino next to Coral! November 2005.


This is a bit of an artsy photo of Roadie hanging out in his favorite spot in the shade of a cedar tree. The view is from my front porch, through the branches of a crepe myrtle. May 2006.


Roadie's long lonely spell is soon to come to an end. Frosty has been weaned from their 2006 son Unconventional, and is living in a small paddock next to Roadie's pasture while her milk dries up. When she is ready she'll be put back in with Roadie. From the look on Frosty's face she is not in the mood for company just yet! Late June 2006.


Late June 2006.


Late October 2006. I was trying to capture some of our fall color, and a good looking horse in the picture doesn't hurt at all!


Roadie is spending the summer on lease at John and Margie Singleton's Scattered Oaks Morgans in Killen AL. Margie says he literally stops traffic because people get such a kick out of watching him play! April 2007.


I have been blessed to find fantastic placements for 5 of my horses this year, including the horse of my heart, Roadie. He will be deeply missed at Brookridge but we will continue to use him in the future as a sire, and his beautiful daughter Positively Charmed will be a daily reminder of him here. September 2007 photos.


10/14/07- I wanted to get some pictures of Roadie and I together before he leaves for Kristal's. So I worked on getting the red clay stain out of his mane and tail (with a new whitening shampoo!), and then Jim took a bunch of pictures of us. He's not quite dry in the first picture. There were a lot of good ones- I really couldn't pick a favorite.

There is a sort of sentimental deja vu to  these pictures, because we did the same thing before Roadie's sire Casino (who we had on lease for the winter of 2001-02) left to go home to Colorado.


Roadie and his jumbo sized cone! Some boys never outgrow their toys! August 2008. Photo courtesy of Kristal Homoki.


August 2008- Roadie is now going under saddle and he took to it like a duck to water. Not surprising for such an acquiescent, people pleasing horse. He may even get to a few shows in 2009. I am excited, and adding to that is the anticipation of Roadie's 2009 foal that Kristal's pretty black mare Spring Lake Katefly is carrying. Photo courtesy of Kristal Homoki, who is shown riding Roadie here.


Late August 2008: Here is Roadie- looking like a finished show horse!-  during a photo shoot for MtnTop Morgans' fall magazine advertising. That's Kristal up on Roadie. I am so incredibly proud of him!