This is my bud, Shamrock. "Rocky" was a wonderful Thoroughbred/Appaloosa cross who was my first "real" event horse.

I purchased Rocky on March 10, 1987, when he was 10 and I was 13. He’d completed one novice event; I had done maybe 7 or 8. By the time I retired him in 1997, he had around 50 events under his belt, including several at preliminary. We did pretty well too, racking up around 35 clean cross-country rounds. More importantly, we had a blast. Rocky wasn’t the greatest jumper or best dressage horse in the world, but it was a great feeling to head out of the start box with a horse that I trusted completely, and who enjoyed the sport just as much as I did.

I grew up on Rocky’s back, in more ways than one. When I first started riding him, I was a pipsqueak of an 8th grader who weighed about 80 pounds and looked like a bug on his back. He was with me throughout high school and went with me to college. He went to Virginia, Arizona, and Maryland with me when I moved for different jobs. He was the one constant throughout the most chaotic years of my life.

Most importantly, though, he was the willing test subject on which I honed the skills that I’ll use for the rest of my life with horses. For that I felt I owed him a comfortable retirement, and I’m so glad I was able to give it to him and keep him with me until the end.

Rocky died on St. Patrick’s Day (eerie, huh?) 2004 of natural causes, out in a field with all of his buddies. He was 27.