A Classic Smasher ~ In Memory

"Smash" was purchased at a AQHA consignment sale in Bowling Green, KY by myself (Mary) in 1995 as a 2 year old. I was 14. He was an "add on" to the sale and not even in the sale catalog. I had circled 20 plus horses I wanted to see as my Mother and I had traveled 10 hours to purchase our perfect horse at this sale. When I spotted Smash I could hardly make myself even look at the others. He resembled the mare I used to run barrels on and was even bred like her going back to the infamous Easily Smashed. His eye was as soft and kind as one could imagine and he stood quietly tied in the corner of a paneled stall. The seller allowed me to ride him even though she only had 30 days on him and made us quite aware that he was very green. I crawled up on his back and did not want to get off. All kinds of folks approached me wanting me to canter him and ask him to do things because they were interested in him. Momma did her best to diverge their attention..trying to sell them a mare stalled close by. She told me not to do what they said because they wanted to buy him. Fortunately the seller agreed on a price and we bought him before the sale. We did not have a truck or trailer and had to leave him there boarded until we could make it back to pick him up.

The adventure to bring him home is a story in itself, but after our new to us 70-something model pickup broke down on top of the mountain we borrowed a truck from a friend and were able to finally pick him up and bring him home. He was hardly two years old and hindsight it simply amazes me how well he took care of me. I had ridden my whole life and barrel raced the last few years, but none of that had me qualified for training a young QH /TB cross! But Smash took care of me just the same, it was if he knew I had good intentions even though I really was very naive regarding training a horse from scratch.

My intentions had been to barrel race Smash, but he was only 2 so it was going to be a while. We did lots of trail riding ring work and simply everything I could think of. Every single day after school I would live at that boarding barn doing all kinds of stuff to this amazingly tolerant horse. Once he reached 4 and he was old enough to really start to work on barrels it became apparent that he was really not the natural barrel horse after all. They are all different and it simply was not what he was wired to do. Selling him was out of the question, so I decided to do what it appeared he wanted to do and would be successful at. We started with Western Pleasure and he took to it fabulously. He become very competition at the local shows winning many championships for me, even though I was still really learning as we went. Not long after I decided to try our hoof at Hunter U/S and turns out he was just as good at that. We went on to hunters over fences, Showmanship, Dressage and some Eventing. Everything I asked of him he did his best to do for me. He never said no.

In the midst of Smash raising me other individuals started to notice our relationship. Some from the boarding barn, some at horse shows. People began to ask me to work their horses, they said they wanted their horses to be like Smash. So at 14 yrs old I found myself riding horses for folks as my part time job. It evolved into lessons as well as showing horses for others. This continued on for years and Smash remained my close assistant...or maybe I was his assistant, that's probably more like it. I would still show him myself, but gradually started having him teach others to ride and even show. He was always so in tune to me, I could ask him to walk or trot or whoa and he would do as I said even if his rider was saying the total opposite. He was beyond intelligent.

In 1999 after I graduated high school Smash moved with me down to Florida where we stayed at a QH Hunter Jumper training facility south of Ocala . I apprenticed under a Trainer down there and would ride Smash out in the huge pastures of cattle in the late afternoons when we I was done. Everywhere I went Smash went as well. We then moved back home and continued to do lessons and go to horses shows for quite a few more years.

Up through 2006 Smash taught many children to ride and carried many children to yet another blue ribbon. I so craved to be able to give Smash a luxurious retirement....with a huge, lush green pasture and no worries in the world. In 2006 I made a transition in my training and began focusing more on horse training and less on lessons. It was the perfect opportunity for Smash to begin his well earned retirement. He lived out his days in his own lush pasture surrounded by his friends until he passed in the summer of 2010.

I did not expect to loose him so soon, I wanted him to enjoy his pasture for many more years. He had worked so very hard for me I wanted so badly to give him that. He developed Cancer and it gradually progressed to the point that his quality of life was declining. The decision to help him to the other side was the hardest I have had to make. If it was not for my love for him there is no way I could have done it, but I owed it to him. He gave me everything he was and I owe everything I am to him.

I currently train and show my own horses for a living. I am surrounded by 20 head of amazing equine talent on a 35 acre farm in the middle of nowhere.. It is literally my dream come true. Smash was the catalyst for it all, without him, my life would have never fallen into place as it has.

During the time he had gotten sick I had begun training a Wild Mustang for a National competition. I had felt like my Mustang had something going on in her ears for quite some time, but was not able to determine just what. She would shake her head when I rode her and hold her ear to the side at times. At this point she was beginning to trust me, but was far from the point of letting me really dig all in her ears to check them out. Only a couple days after Smash passed I had her in the cross ties of the barn. I was brushing her preparing to ride when a ray of light dropped down under the eves of the barn. The angle of the light literally drew a line directly to the Mustang's ear. The inside of her ear simply lite up, it was incredible. I was able to see deep into her ear canal as I never had before and discovered she had a severe infestation of Spinose ear ticks! They filled the base of her ear. It was simply surreal that moment when the light was directed just perfectly to help me discover what was wrong. There is not a shadow of a doubt in my mind that it was Smash's guidance. He he always taken care of me and guided me through life. I am thankful to say that I still feel his guidance now and am so appreciative to have been blessed with such a once in a lifetime partner. He was my friend, my trainer and my mentor.

I remind myself that he is living out a better retirement than I could have ever offered him and I can not wait to be able to see his soft kind eye once again.

Below is Smash modeling for portraits for Tom Sapp