Why Painted Horse?
Typo and Larry Jones at the Upperville Colt & Horse Show
One of my first memories of riding was being led around on a pinto pony when I was about 3 years old. I vaguely remember the farm in Indiana, but a black-and-white photo I found many years later in one of my grandmother’s photo albums solidified that moment in time.
When I found that image, I realized that’s probably why I’ve always had an affinity for pintos and have always dreamed of having one.
As a young adult, I was finally able to begin purchasing my own horses, but being “financially challenged,” I had to focus on horses that I would be able to train and resell in the hunters. And, back in the 1990s, there were few pintos in the sport, so I chose grays and bays instead.
Finally, the time was right, and I began searching for a pinto sport horse prospect. After nearly two years of scouring internet websites and classified ads, I found my dream horse (ironically, on DreamHorse.com!). His name was Roosevelt (show name Tyypo), and I purchased him in 2008 when he was a yearling.
“Teddy” became even more than I imagined. As a 2-year-old, he won in the hunter breeding division and was best young horse at some of the top shows on the East Coast. He concluded the year with a reserve championship in the 2-year-olds at the Sallie B. Wheeler National Hunter Breeding Championships in Warrenton, Virginia.
He competed successfully on the line as a 3-year-old, and then began his performance career as a 4-year-old. Unfortunately, he succumbed to neurologic Lyme disease early in his 5-year-old year, and I was heartbroken.
After his death, I quit riding for four years and focused on my career, photography and judging horse shows. When I began riding again in 2016, and eventually purchased another horse, it wasn’t a pinto.
But, again fate intervened, and my best friend found me a very special pinto when she was looking for a horse for another client. She knew he wasn’t the right horse for that client, but she felt this horse was meant for me. So, in April of 2021 I met Joker, and he joined my stable.
I established Painted Horse LLC in the summer of 2021 to showcase the special young horses that I’ve been developing the past few years. My focus isn’t to buy and sell just any horse; but, instead, it’s to find unique horses of any color and match them with just the right person.
Back in 2007, I was that person looking for a unique horse. I wasted a lot of time traveling to try horses that were advertised one way and turned out to be another—smaller, larger, untrained, lame, a different color, etc. My horses will be advertised as they truly are. Not every horse is right for just any person, and I won’t sell a horse unless it’s the ideal match for both horse and human. If you choose to call about one of my horses, you can ask any question—and, rest assured, I’ll have questions for you, too!
And that’s the story of Painted Horse LLC. My goal is to find the ideal human for each of my horses so they can become someone else’s dream horse!
