This is STL Pink Moon Mare, aka “Pink.”

This is a difficult one to write, but for all the right reasons.

We acquired Pink as an add-on purchase to the purchase of Phoebe.  Jen fell in love with her, and I appreciated her for what she was on paper.  She has very good breeding behind her (she and Phoebe share a sire).  Pink is one of the few Smoky Grulla horses in the GVHS registry (which is what she’s registered as), but she’s also Smoky Grulla Tobiano, so she may or may not be the only one registered.  There are no other horses registered as Smoky Grulla Tobiano that I know of.

I knew from the seller and the seller’s family’s reactions that Pink was something very special to them.  She was a year older than Phoebe, and I had the impression that there was a little boy that was very bonded to her.  I remember hearing the phrase, “no, not Pink,” from a small voice when we picked her up.  That kind of makes me feel bad.  It sticks in my head.  Letting them go is one of the hardest things in this business.

How do I write a story about a horse that is always perfectly well-behaved, always an angel, always friendly, aways compliant, and has no vices?

We brought her home and turned her out with Phoebe in what we were calling “The Pumpkin Patch,” at the time.  It was the paddock where all our yearlings and weanlings lived together.  That paddock has since been completely torn down and has been in a “rebuild status” for more than six months now.  We’re having it rebuilt in a way that we don’t have the necessary expertise to perform the rebuild ourselves, and we’ve had a steady stream of contractor related issues.  Don’t get me started on that, because it is the primary reason that we’re now selling some of our horses that we don’t want to sell, but back to Pink…

Within days, I could see the spark in Pink’s personality.  She’s very, very smart.  She’s probably our smartest Gypsy Vanner Horse (Fleck, our Tennessee Walking Horse mare, edging her out with smarts).  Whereas Fleck is a “boss” mare, Pink is not.  Pink is bottom of the middle for dominance in the paddock.  She’s not a bottom mare, but she rarely has beef with any other horse.

Pink is sweet and very personable.  She’s always second, third, or fourth to the humans, and not because she wants a treat, but because she enjoys her human interactions.  Zero issues for farrier, vet, and human handlers.

She just exists, and she exists in harmony with all other horses.  She’s just about as close to a perfect Gypsy Vanner Horse as you can get minus just a few conformation issues (which they all have…there are very few horses that are even close to having perfect conformation even though we try our best to breed the best).

She’s going to be bred for the first time this spring after having come of age.  She’s going to make beautiful, smart, and friendly foals.

She would be one of the very last horses to leave our farm.

So, what else?  That’s it.  Such a nice horse and easy keeper that there’s not much else to say other than we absolutely love her.