Meridian Meadows Stories, by Dave Jones

More Adventures From The Early Days!
Third in a series
By Dave Jones, Monticello, Florida
Credit: Paso Fino Horse World, November 1996

With Bolivar behind us, we headed for some more Paso ranches. We’d found three outstanding mares, two of whom I can still name. La Duma was a gray that was steady and willing. Another mare, a dun, had ugly lips, probably from getting a rope in her mouth and fighting it. Otherwise she was a great mare, sensible, well built and strong gaited.

Alazana was a pretty bay, perhaps the strongest gaited Paso I’d ever seen. After we’d imported her, we found that she was friendly and a top producer. When the mares were brought in from the pasture all of them galloped except Alazana. She couldn’t, or wouldn’t run. She'd always be the last one in, doing the finest Paso Largo imaginable!

It’s odd how things work out, or don’t work out. At Meridian Meadows, Colin Phipps’ farm back in Tallahassee, Florida, we had a grassy field in the back of the horse barn where we kept mares ready to be bred. A small lean-to, for shelter, was located just in back of our two long barns. Four of our best mares along with their foals, were in that pasture.

One day about noon we had a bad storm. The wife of one of the laborers phoned me at my house while I was having lunch. She said she saw smoke near the end of the barns. I rushed out to investigate.

Nature doesn’t seem to care about whether the best or worst are wiped out. The shed was on fire and in it were four dead mares and three dead foals, all struck by lightning! Alazana’s foal pawed at his mother’s dead body and within a week left us to join her in horsey heaven. Our vet said that the huge bolt, strong enough to kill seven horses, undoubtedly caused small veins and capillaries to rupture, so death was probably instantaneous.

Before this great sadness though, we were still hunting for our broodstock and Uribes’s farm was next on the list. We’d purchased a nice mare from his son on our previous trip. Senior Uribe had a beautiful farm and had some horses corralled for our inspection when we arrived. The mares were nothing special to look at. One of them had a ridiculous appearance because the ticks had killed the nerves and cartilage in her ears; they twisted and bent in various ways. In other ways though, she (Mora) was well built and had a fine gait.

Magnificent Mora And Her Offspring

In such a tale, one must occasionally digress, so I’ll do so here to talk about Mora and her offspring. After we’d had her for a while, we found her to be one of our more usable mares. Every day in the spring, we had to bring the mare herd in for teasing and rebreeding. We had to run them in and this was very hard on our saddle horses, which were broodmares; they would get very upset because they wanted to run with the herd. Before long, the ridden mares would lunge and plunge around when we had to slow or turn or stop. This will make fools out of even the most level-headed saddle horses, but there’s nothing to be done about it.

Mora was very good since she was hard to rattle. She’d fight her rider, but was easily controlled. Mora had been bred in Colombia, so we had to stop riding her when she showed to be heavy in foal. She was put in the nearby foaling pasture when she was about ten months along. One morning, she showed up for breakfast with her new colt by her side. We named him Balzac.

Balzoc stood out like a man wearing camouflage in the deep woods. He was a dirty brown with small eyes set too close together. When we had him up as a two year old to start under saddle, we were still unimpressed.

One day, a retired couple showed up at the farm. They had some quarter horses, but the trot was getting to be too much for them. They were looking for a small gaited horse and, of course, that’s just what a Paso is. They couldn’t afford much so I showed them Balzoc. His price was $500. Now, we’d make a colt buyer a good deal on training, $100 a month, so they said they’d go for the deal and agreed to two or three months of training.

When we started Balzoc, we were astonished, for he was phenomenal! In two weeks, he looked like the best of the Colombian show horses. We’d have two men stand 20 feet apart and slowly walk toward each other while Balzoc gaited around them. He’d hold the high, fast Paso Colombiano gait in those circles even when there was almost no room for him to crowd between the men. Such a price was ridiculous! We needed another zero on that $500, but once Colin struck a deal he stuck to it.

Years went by. One day I received a call from Balzoc’s owner. His wife had passed on, the other horses were gone and now Balzoc was for sale. I called a friend in Michigan who came down, saw Balzoc, bought him and hauled him directly to the Grand National Show, where he won the Fino Geldings Class!

After we saw Balzoc, we bred Mora to our top producing stallion. She had a magnificent colt that became a show champion (Ejemplo que tal).

But Now… Back To South America!

Colin and I were to visit Rancho Chapolita, so a taxi took us to the middle of no where. We waited in a little store for some time when, finally, many saddled horses were driven up and held. We were to ride to the ranch. We had a long fast ride to make due to the lateness of the hour, but we couldn’t have been better mounted. Emilio Cardoni, the Club Hipico owner from Medellin, was with us once again. He rode a mare named Faerona. During the ride, he said that we had to buy her for she was absolutely the best Paso he’d ever ridden. I was riding Maria Bonita and I, like Emilio, thought that my mare was perfect. She could run as well as gait. They all could. Actually, we did end up buying the mares we rode.

At the ranch, we saw the stallion Eblis and I’ve never been more impressed with a horse. His conformation was perfect and his muscles stood out like those of an oiled body builder. His head was the worst part of him though, and it needed help. I was told that the lady who owned Ranch Chapolita was wealthy and could afford any Paso stallion she desired. In her opinion, no better horse was available anywhere. Eblis’s daughters were bred back to him. Intense line breeding sometimes works, but often goes astray.

When we got those Chapolita mares, we had one extra that I’d never seen before and for danged sure wouldn’t have purchased her at any price! They must have had high hopes for her though, for she was called Chapola. Chapola was bad-headed, Roman-nosed and pig-eyed. She was so rank I had to throw and tie her down for shots and hoof trimming. One day, I had her down for shots and she managed to bite my ankle. Thank god for heavy boots! I jerked loose and limped away to find a broom. I put it within reach of her and she snapped it in two with one mighty bite!

Chapola’s colt was just as rank. I had my photo taken with him for Western Horseman. He was being sacked out while hobbled and side-lined, all the while five feet in the air! I had no doubts about being able to train Chapola’s colt, but didn’t think we had enough time to keep him ridden enough, for he was an “iron colt” for sure. Then I came up with a plan. A South Florida rancher, Charlton Well, had visited Meridian Meadows so often he became my friend. He was always trying to get a good one at a cheap price. He’d gag and gasp whenever I mentioned prices.

One day, I said, Charlton, I’m sick of your “poor boy” act, so I’m gonna do something that’s gonna shut you up. I’m gonna give you a Paso! He asked, Say what? I ain’t kiddin, says I, I got a good, strong colt right here and he’s yours. Now, maybe I won’t hear no more belly achin’ about my high prices! Charlton said, Wow! I’ll take him!

Before long, a man arrived to pick up the rank Paso gelding. I didn’t hear from Charlton for a long time. Finally, I got a letter. It went something like this: I know why they say don’t look no gift horse in the mouth. You try that with this colt and he’ll bite your face off! My daddy was watching when I gave him his first ride. He started spinning and he was knocking his teeth out on a post. He didn’t buck much, but was real jumpy. My daddy said, I been in the horse business fer 40 years an’ thought I’d purty near seen it all, but Charlton, I ain’t never seen nothin’ like that before! Well I got him broke and he’s the best cow horse I ever owned. He’ll knock down palmetter bushes to get to a cow. You can rope off him real good and you can crack a whip off a him too. When I’m usin’ him, I get more work done than five other guys! But, when I get on him afore first light, he starts his darned jiggin’ and he’s still jiggin’ when he gets home that night. I tried ridin’ him every day an’ it’s the same ol’ thing, for they ain’t a man alive that can wear him out! He jigs along in his fidgety trot an’ he’ll jig sideways if you hold him in. A feller asked me the other day, "Charlton, is that the Cadillac gait we been hearin’ about?" His jiggin’ made my ribs sore. He ain’t done the first lick of smooth gait. With him, it’s jig along or run wide open! Like I said, he’s the best cow horse I ever had, but I hate the miserable SOB. You give him to me and I’ll be glad to give him back an’ even haul him back to you.
When I answered, I said, No thanks, Charlton, we got no use for such a good cow horse.

To be continued ... part 4
Coming up…Yet another trip to Colombia to meet Fabio Ochoa and the legendary Resorte III!