[QUOTE=meaty ogre;8686823]
Your description of how she handles makes me wonder if she had reining training.
Maybe contact companies that make custom freeze brands and see if they’ve done an iron that matches your mare, and if so maybe they’d put you in contact with the customer?[/QUOTE]
These folks make a lot of custom freeze brands. If they did not make it, they might recognize the workmanship.
meaty ogre: That’s a consideration as well. Someone obviously sunk a lot of training into her, regardless of whether its reining or cattle work (or both?). I know horses are bought and sold all the time and for all manners of reasons and I don’t want to snoop in places where folks may not want to share with me why they sold her, but I’d love to know more about her training background because she’s a bright girl. And hey, if we can get a DOB and sire/dam (highly unlikely) being able to register her buckskin would allow me entry in our local breed show where buckskins are pretty thin on the ground. My barn owner wants to see her in a WP show locally because her moving gaits are very WP: smooth trot that is easy to sit, easy extended trot and that pop up on the loping stride that is more typical of WP lopes. Right now I’m just playing around with speed events developing my handle and confidence, but it’s clear she’s not destined for speed. She’s willing, but just built/trained for precision more than flat-out speed, you know?
csaper58: I’ve reached out to Dan at the custom brand website you’ve mentioned. I’ve also reached out to Mr. McBeath who was very prompt in replying and I have plans to phone him today as well. While I’m hiding from the kids for some peace and quiet, I will contact the vet who pulled her Coggins too.
I will report back with any info (forward momentum or dead ends) that I find out from today!
Well, whatever her real story, I think you hit the jackpot here! Really nice working conformation, wonderful training, with working years ahead of her. Someone put thought into breeding this horse, and effort into training her. Whatever happened that she ended up in the horse-dealer world, she was loved and cared for initially. I’m thinking something went badly wrong for people, a death, serious illness, an estate liquidation, a bankruptcy, a divorce. You just don’t get horses like this in the regular run of rescues.
Scribbler: I could not have said it better myself. We came to this setup not having tons of cash to drop on a horse for me to go games and trail ride with, but we really fell into a lucky draw. Your reasons about how this mare may have ended in horse trading speak to why we are interested in her history: obviously finding her pedigree would be fun, but to be honest, it’s clear she was well trained and well loved at some point. She needs mild refreshing (do I really have to do XYZ?! Oh, then I will) but other than that, she’s absolutely perfect for us.
I notice you don’t have CO on your list. They don’t have an online brand book, but publish it hard copy. You may be able to call the brand office and get a yay or nay on the brand, or perhaps you can get a copy of the brand book via library loan? Would hate for you to miss out on a possibility because their book isn’t online 
I knew a lady who had her horses freeze branded at a large week long group trail ride and had her first and last initial with a rose inbetween like this brand is set up. It could be this is also a custom freeze brand made during a large clinic or trail ride at some point in time.
Simkie: I’ll have to. look up the CO brand book on OCLC to see if I can get an interlibrary loan. The lack of online book was indeed why we didn’t search there.
pasolover2: Thank you for sharing that story. That would be an interesting wrinkle and explain a lot if that’s what Athena’s brand is.
No luck on any of the leads I’ve been trying. Mr. McBeath has become quite busy and Dan at the custom brand site has not gotten back to me. I might try the CO brand book as discussed above, but beyond that, I think we might be at a dead end.
I am not on facebook, but if the AQHA has a page, have you tried asking there?
Someone reading there may know the brand.
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