That is what my mother always said! Here was a mother who rode a horse and rode in horse-drawn vehicles before she rode in an automobile. But her love for horses and ponies-- mules and donkeys (her first mount was a b***o) never diminished. I think as her life went on she resented the inventions or creations that were making the role of the working horse obsolete in everyday life. Now, I never rem
embered that I wanted a pony. All I remember is that I always had a pony! The first pony of mixed breeding probably came in 1936, then some Shetlands were added a couple years later and soon more! But that perfect pony was missing. My mother researched everything available on ponies. She found the perfect pony; the Welsh Pony. At that time there were no Welsh ponies available west of the Rockies. One had to go East, Mid-west or import. In 1946, she had a chance to purchase Shoreacres Flash and his full sister, Shoreacres Sunbeam. These two had been shipped with a group of other ponies to a Stable in Portland, Oregon. Within a couple years came a stallion (Cherry King's Image) and a mare (Criban Springtime) from the Heyl Pony Farm and another mare (Beauty's Easy To Love) from Moyer and Sons in Iowa. Then, what she had been waiting for, came Imported Stallion, Cui Mark and two imported mares, Dyrin Sunshine and Revel Bluebird, from the Adam Berreth herd in Calgary. Other ponies came but these first were her foundation. Before the ponies--she developed a large herd of Alpine Goats and with the goats came the name Silver Star. My mother was a night person----she was late starting her chores and often did not return to the house 'til ten or eleven. The skies were usually clear and in the wintery nights the stars shone their brightest. This part of Oregon didn't have a lot of beauty, but she once told me that she found the beauty in the stars--for her it was the North Star with its hue of silver glistening and dancing. Thus came the name Silver Star---first a goat farm then a pony ranch. Her name was Zoe Bauernfeind (1904-1987), she was the first Welsh breeder "west of the Rockies" in the United States. Her love for her ponies never died. Toward the end, she said that she just wanted to sit where she could look out the window and see her ponies, and we always made sure that there were ponies in the pasture that faced her window. She devoted 51 years of her life to ponies--and 41 of those years to her beloved Welsh Ponies.
