Horse Profile-Autumn Day

I first met Autumn one Sunday afternoon in September of 1981. I had a friend visiting me that weekend. My friend C.W. and I were sitting in the truck waiting for my Dad to pick up some tack and supplies from our old friend Jerry. We had stopped at his place on our way home from church. Dad told us that Jerry had a horse that he thought mother would like to see. The horse was on a layover. She had been picked up in Ohio and was on her way to a performance horse sale. She would be leaving soon so if mother was going to see the horse she had to come over to Jerry's place right away.

Mother came and Jerry got the horse out. She was a 15.3 hand six year old blood bay mare with a small white spot on her forehead and a white snip on her nose and a short tail that only came down to her hocks (had a goat chewed off the end??). She also had a white stocking on her right hind leg. Jerry asked mother if she like the mare. Mother liked her well enough to have Jerry's helper saddle the mare up and ride her around the driveway. Mother asked Jerry if the mare trots (she wanted to be sure that she wasn't gaited) and he said he didn't know let's see. So he yelled to the kid riding the mare to trot her up the drive. The kid gave a squeeze and Autumn trotted up the the round drive way. Mother bought her on the spot and they loaded the mare onto the horse trailer.

So we brought the mare home and tried to think of a name for her. Dad said we should name her Autumn since it was fall when we bought her. So her name became Autumn Day.

Autumn had obviously been handled and was well halter broken. We weren't sure if she was broken to saddle but we knew that she did not react adversely to the teenager riding her when we went to see her. So we figured that she had been ridden a little. However it was obvious that she had very little training. It was always frustrating to me that I did not know any details about Autumn's life prior to coming to Jerry's place. I wondered why she had been sold and if she possibly knew how to drive. She had a mysterious indentation on her hind quarter close to the top mother always thought that it was an old injury. So I wondered how she had gotten hurt.

Mother began riding her right away. Autumn's training went well. Mother enjoyed riding her and thought that Autumn was a very sensible horse. It wasn't long until mother started jumping Autumn over small jumps. Autumn loved to jump! She probably never refused a jump during her early training.

About that time we started to have horse trials at Gusty Wind. The farm wasn't as big as it is now but Dad built jumps in the Buscie boy field and in the 30 acre Thompson field that we leased at that time. Mother took Autumn in our first event. She took her in Hopeful. The height limit was two feet and she did a walk-trot test. Autumn was a good girl. She finished the horse trials with no jumping faults on cross country or stadium. I don't know what her Dressage score was but we were all very happy with Autumn's debut as an event horse.

By the time I turned thirteen Autumn had been in training for quite a while. So when I decided I wanted an event horse that I could take to Pony Club mother, thought the best horse for the job was Autumn. She knew that she could trust Autumn to keep me out of trouble. (Believe me, Autumn spent a lot of time taking care of me!)

Autumn was my move up horse. I had ridden ponies before that. The last pony I had was Valentine and then I started riding Autumn. I had competed Valentine in Hunter and Dressage. I also evented her at several pony club rallies.

Autumn was always fun. The best thing about riding her is that she loves to jump. If you even remotely point her towards a jump she starts to go towards it! So all I really had to do was to point her at the jumps get in position and wait. She took care of the rest. At the first Pony Club rally I took her to the parents of the other pony clubbers kept wanting to know if she was for sale. (Which she was NOT!)

My adventures with Autumn are some of the best memories of my teenage years. My happiest times where when I would gallop her through the fields and soar over the jumps. She loved those time too. I evented her at a lot of places around western Pennsylvania including Erie Hunt and Saddle Club, Basset's Horse Trails, Moriatie's, Winterfield Stables, JD Acres, at home, and at many pony club rallies. It was very rare for us to have any jumping penalties although we had a few.

I think the most memorable experience that I had with Autumn happened at Pony Club. Pony Club camp was held at Moriarities' Farm in Saxonburg. Suzanne and I both attended Autumn and her pony, chocolate. Mother had worked very hard to prepare us to be ready for camp. She made sure that we each had a good mounts, she made sure we could care for our own horses and tack them. Since we live so far from Saxonburg, Suzanne and I stayed with the Spatz family. Their daughter Amy was also participating in pony club camp. At Moriaties we rode two sessions. It was a hot summer day so during the lunch break some of the pony clubbers were swimming their horses and ponies in the pond. I decided that I wanted to swim Autumn. The fact I couldn't swim didn't seem like a problem to me because I thought all horses can swim (a common misconception). So I thought that I could just hold on and let her do the work. Suzanne (my younger sister) tried to stop me from going in but I was sure it would be alright. When I rode Autumn over to the pond she didn't even want to go in, but I kept pushing and squeezing..and finally she went in. Then I kept trying to get her over to the deeper part because I wanted to feel her swim. Her feet did come up off of the ground a few times and the feeling of her swimming underneath me was very exciting. Meanwhile up on the bank Suzanne was having an absolute fit. She actually went and got the camera. She took a picture because she didn't think mother would believe her if she didn't have a picture as proof. That picture came outvery nicely!

When we got home the first thing Suzanne told mother was about how I took Autumn swimming. (In fact I think she might have told her on the telephone that night when we got back to the Spatz's house). I knew I was in trouble so I was pretty scared. Mother said that we weren't putting off swimming lessons any longer since she couldn't trust me to stay out of the water.

So the next summer we started swimming lessons. I found myself the only 16 year old girl in a group of 8-10 year old. The director rescued me out of the situation and arranged for mother, Suzanne and I to take private lessons from a wonderful instructor named Louise Waters. I am so glad that I learned to swim it is my favorite sport other than riding.

At one point we wanted to breed a mare to our stallion Long Legs, who was a four year old Throughbred/Hannoverian cross that was born at our place. We had decided to geld him and wanted to at least get one baby from him. We decided Autumn would make a good mother. So we bred her 3 different times, but it just didn't seem to work. So we didn't record the breeding dates. Later that summer Autumn often seemed short of breath. When the vet was out to geld Long Legs (and Mischief Maker as well) he asked if we had bred Long Legs to any mares. We said yes he was bred to one mare but the mare didn't take. The vet asked, "which mare?" Mom told him "That one right there" and pointed up the the field. He said, "bring her over here" so we did and he examined her. Much to our surprise she was in foal. He thought she was due in June.

Autumn was pastured with several geldings (the original Buscie Boys). On April 31, Dad went out to feed the horses and looked up into the pasture at Autumn and saw 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 legs! He thought how is that possible so he looked again and sure enough it was 8 legs! Autumn had foaled in the field with 4 geldings present and the foal was dry and standing up when we found her! So that is how we got April Morning! (I thought we should have named her April Suprise but no one else liked the name).

I left Autumn and April alone for a while, but I really wanted to start riding Autumn again as soon as possible. So once the baby was old enough to eat we weaned her a little bit so that I could take Autumn out and ride her lightly. However we did not fully wean April until the proper time.

I started attending college the summer of my 18 year old year. I lived at home and continued to ride Autumn. However as my college education progressed I had less time for riding and my emphasis switched to Long Legs. So Autumn started giving riding lessons during my college years. Incidentally, it was during my college years that I started giving the group lessons and getting more serious about teaching riding.

After graduated from college I wanted to continue my eventing career with Autumn. However I found that her breathing wasn't as good as it used to be. So I was satisfied with riding her in some Dressage shows and allowing her to teach lessons.

Autumn is a favorite of many riding students. She is happiest when she gets to go on a trail ride or jump. She has competed every summer since 1995 in our home horse shows with students on board. She has taught children that now themselves have graduated from college how to jump. Now she is finally slow enough that I can sometimes teach people to canter on her. She still jumps but I do not expect and high jumping from her. I think horse camp is her favorite time of year because she gets to have adventures with the kids (like jumping in the bottom ring, trail riding, and cross country). I have to keep her work interesting or she gets cranky.

However her favorite time is when she gets to run with the herd out to the 60 acre pasture field. She is one of the "boss" mares in the group. She is very firm, but she is not mean with the other horses. She and April have been pastured together for most of their lives. It is common to find them standing together in the field. We intend to keep her the rest of her life.