Fletcher Creek-the next horses

In my quest for horses for my Riding Stables, I scoured all the ads in the papers and the Advertiser from Creston  was one source as well as any other paper I came across.  Finally I heard about several horses being sold in Nakusp.  A fellow there had used horses to transport people to the hot-springs and he now had had enough and wanted to sell his string.  By the time I got there he had only four horses left.   I tried them all out and most seemed suitable except for a liver-chestnut named Sirocco.  The fellow drove a hard sale and wanted them all to go so in the end I bought four new horses.  They were Sirocco. Nahanie, Scout and Monty.  These last two horses were a grey and a sorrel while Nahanie was a red roan(that looked more pink)  I bought saddles and various tack with them and now was the proud owner of five horses, as well as my own horse Trouble.

  Now I needed a trailer to haul these horses and as my partner I lived with did not want to lend me is trailer I found I had to buy it.  In due course the horses were at the farm.  



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My requirements increased as I went and a glance at an old chicken coop on the farm led me to thinking it might make and excellent tack building.  Irma didn't care and we hauled it down to a corral where I would run my business from.  I put new shakes on the roof and left the roosts in for putting the saddles on.  Worked like a hot damn!  Much later when I was more established, my brother would phone

me and ask if this was "Joyces' Chicken Coop?"  These planning days were fun and most exciting!

  My next trip to look at horses was over in Trail.  There, I went to a place called Buck Haven. Large iron gates with a buck deer on them made me think I had come to a very fancy place indeed.  The people were very nice and we soon went to look at the horses.  One was a three-quarter Arab mare and the other her daughter, a half Arab mare.  The older mare was not in great shape and it sounded like the people had been unsuccessful in weaning the gown up foal at the proper time.  She had given too much to the foal and it had cost her in weight for her own body.  the younger mare was however so pretty she actually took my breath away! She was called Sandy and the older mare was Gypsy.  With one look I was pretty sure I could not afford these animals and said as much.  The people however did want to sell them and apparently to me! A price was eventually agreed upon(much less than these animals were worth on the market) and with the inclusion of two Eamore saddles, a deal was struck and I went home with two more horses.  It seems to me we had a hard time loading the older mare and I was there for some time while they called a friend to help, but eventually I was on the road and travelling very slowly with my precious cargo.  Many a driver must have cursed me but I was not at all experienced with hauling a trailer and horses at all!