Happy Birthday Bodie!

Today is Bodie's seventeenth birthday. Wow, seventeen years of driving everyone crazy, escaping, causing trouble and making the world a much more fun place to live. He's a special horse, that Bodie is. I have worked with dozens of horses, ridden a wide range of breeds and I never, EVER, have met a horse like Bodie. He really doesn't act like a horse, he acts more like a large dog with the mind of a cat. He's the smartest horse I've ever met, too. I can recall one day when I was riding him and we watched my sister jump her horse. The next day I was riding him by the jump when he took off and ran for the jump to jump it! He'd seen Mia do it, so he thought he should be able to do it, too. In fact he copies a lot of what I do or what other horses do. That's how he learned to take the yellow handle for the hotwire in his mouth, he watched me do it and figured he wouldn't get shocked if he did that. >.<
Overall, I'm so blessed to have Bodie in my life. And even more blessed to know his background story. I was able to dig up some old photos of Bodie when he was a baby to now, and I wanted to share them with you.
Happy Birthday Bodie, may we have many more adventures and continue to inspire other horsemen and women to reach for their dreams. You taught me how to let go and have fun, no matter what.

Bodie's baby picture. His real name is Bowdie Bow Bar, but we call him Bodie for short. Or Monster Horsie. ;)

This was an add that ran for a while when Bodie was two years old. He's now about 1300-1500 lbs. and is 16.2 hands high! I think the bleached his mane though, he never had a mane that bright. ;)

A picture I took of Bodie when he was eleven.

Annnddd this is what Bodie normally did to entertain himself when he wasn't worked. I think he's twelve in this picture.

There's a handsome boy! This was taken a couple months ago.

"Can I see? Can I? Huh? Please?"

Look at that handsome face! Taken yesterday to celebrate his birthday-and his first bath in quite a while!

Lookin' shiny!

 Classic Quarter Horse face!

Awww, he's so cute.

Interesting Bodie facts:

He was owned by four owners before I got him.

His registered name is Bowdie Bow Bar and he's a decendant of the Doc Bar line, a famous line of Quarter Horses.

He was registered as a paint because he had too much white on him when he was born to be considered a Quarter Horse. O_o

Everyone who has owned him claims he's a "little too smart for his own good!"

He LOVES to trail ride better than anything else.

He was born in Montana.

He was originally bred for cutting, a sport to sort out cows, but he was proclaimed too big for the sport. (Interesting thing here, my sister's horse, Mia, was also bred for cutting. But she was announced "too small!")


Thanks for reading and God Bless!

-Emily