How Breezy beat cancer
We’ve always had working horses on our family ranch. We use them to move, gather and sort cattle in pastures and out on the range. So in 1996, when we were short on a horse, we moved quickly to find a replacement---a work mount for my daughter Andrea’s husband, Jim.
Our search took us to a nearby ranch, where we were shown Carmen Willow Breeze, a 5-year-old Morgan mare. Breezy, as we came to call her, had been started under saddle but was still very green. She seemed a bit high-strung but eager to work, so we decided to buy her.
That first summer, Jim rode Breezy a few times, but not as much as Andrea, who traded off between Breezy and her Arabian/Thoroughbred cow horse, Snickers. Over the next few years, Snickers became stiff in the knees from a lifetime of climbing steep hills on the range, so Andrea rode Breezy more and more.
Breezy became a good cow horse, taking Snickers’ place as Andrea’s main mount. The little mare was fun to ride because she liked to “go” and had a tremendous trot. She was sometimes clumsy, but if she was trotting she could really fly and she picked her feet up nicely. Plus she was always sure-footed dashing down hills after wayward cows.
On July 4, 2000, Andrea rode Breezy to
