I’m finally home and able to join in "Tuesdays' Show & Tail" hosted by Angela over at West Virginia Treasures again! It is a meme to share about past or present pets or furry friends we’ve known. If you’d like to join, here is the link to the Guidelines.
My Dad was very good friends with a man named Fess Reynolds from the time I was a young kid until he passed away. Mr. Reynolds was an animal trainer for the circus and later for the Movies. They were very good friends, and we used to visit them all the time up the mountain above Lake of the Woods. We lived in Frazier Park until I was 7 years old, and we spent a lot of time at his Ranch and Daddy used to get to play with lots of different animals.
At the time, he was living in the place that they used later, for shooting the Walton’s TV Show. I saw a horse, the other day on an old “Mr. Ed” show that was from his “special” horses. It was white and had a MAJORLY swayed back. We have a lot of 8MM film from our visits there, and I thought I’d share some of the pics I took off of the film with you. Here is a picture of Fess with some of his trained goats.
He had all kinds of animals at his place, and I loved going up there to see them. Here is a white deer that he had there.
He had a herd of bison…
and several exotic animals like this monkey…
One of our favorite films is of my Dad playing with a wolf and a young African lion.
They remained friends until my father passed away… in fact, when we had to move out of the mountains, we gave our peacocks to Fess. Unfortunately, our favorite one was shot by a hunter later on. I will have to find some of the pics of “Pretty Boy” to share sometime. I really count it a blessing to have had this opportunity to be friends with this man and get the chance to see him and watch him training his animals.
There is a lot about him on the web, and from what I read, the last film that he worked on that is mentioned was the Gladiator with Russel Crowe, but I’m not sure if that was the company “Gentle Jungle,” which is run by his son. I gather they still have a place in Lebec, CA which is a few miles from Frazier Park on the pass going from the San Joaquin Valley to Los Angeles. You can see a few more pics of him in the header of the above link. He is riding a giraffe and has some of his trained bulls bowing in a row.
It’s Tuesday again and time for another "Tuesday’s Show & Tail." This meme is hosted every week by Angela over at West Virginia Treasures, and it is always a lot of fun to see all the interesting posts of the people who join in! It is a meme to share about past or present pets or furry friends we’ve known. If you’d like to join, here is the link to the Guidelines. 
I had a couple of ideas about a couple of other horses we’ve had, but found I’ll have to find their pics and get them scanned before I can share them with you, so today, I’ll tell you about my son’s horse that we have out here now. We call him Tuffy, though he has a really long fancy registered name, which my son forgets half the time, because he’s known him as “Tuffy” for many years. 
One of our dear friends, Tom Cain, bred and raised some of the top line quarter horses in California for many years. Tom was a friend of my Dad for many years and they’d met up at Fess Reynold’s place, where Tom worked in the 50’s (when those 8MM films were taken that I shared a few weeks back.) He lived about 5 miles from where we live now, and had 5 stud horses and about 30 mares. Over the past 20 years or so, Tom and my son, Mick (Little Bear’s Dad) got to be really close, and Tom taught Mick a great deal about training horses. This is a portrait of Tom’s life that I did last year, just after he passed away. The original is 12 x 14 and it is done in graphite (pencil). 
Tom was getting quite elderly and couldn’t do as much as he used to, so Mick helped him a lot and was able to learn so much from him. Tom raised some of the most beautiful horses, but they were priced in a range that was WAY out of our league, so even though Mick longed for one, he never expected to ever be able to afford one. 
About 16 years ago or so, Tom sold Tuffy (after Mick had helped green break him) to a woman that wanted a beautiful horse to train for Dressage work. They started him on that, and then she sold him and the next people wanted him to learn to do Quarter Horse Western Riding work. This confused Tuffy and, as with most ALL horses, if you ASK and show them what you want, they will do anything for you, but if you try to force them and they don’t understand, they start to fight back!
This is what happened to Tuffy, and eventually, no one could do anything with him, so his price dropped down to $2500 (about a quarter of what he originally sold for). Tom got him back, about 8 or 9 years ago, and made arrangements with Mick to take payments, and this beautiful golden boy came to be owned by my proud son. 
Mick worked with Tuffy patiently for a long time, and he could ride him and do most anything with him, but then when his job required him to move a couple of years ago, he brought Tuffy here. He isn’t sure if he will ever be able to afford to keep him where he lives now, but he also doesn’t want him to go to anyone who isn’t VERY experienced and willing to gain his trust, because you still can't move fast around his head, etc., so right now, he is being a good companion horse to my Cory. 
Tuffy is 21 years old now, but is still a gorgeous horse… one of those palominos that sheds out in the spring as bright gold as a a newly minted gold coin. His winter coat, which he is in now, is a slightly dappled dark cream color.
