DRIFTER’S TATTLE TALE | 12-YEAR-OLD AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE GELDING | ELIZABETHTOWN, KY

Drifter’s Tattle Tale, known around the barn as “Drifter” is a 12-year-old registered American Quarter Horse by Tee Two Drifter out of Stop It’s A Story. His lines trace to Tee J. He is owned by Kelly and lives at Wild Rose Equestrian Center in Elizabethtown, Ky.

Kelly sent me this little update the other day, and I could’t resist sharing what she said, “I was never much into pedigrees, so when I bought Drifter and received his AQHA papers I filed them without much thought.  Upon getting to know him further and listening to others comment on him, his goofiness, his height, and his general mannerisms, I thought hmmm, there’s GOT to be some Thoroughbred in his lines somewhere!  I mean, he’s 12 and acts like he’s 2…haha.  So, I pulled out his papers and plugged him into the pedigree website.  I clicked on Drifters great-grandsire on his dam’s side to look at THAT extended pedigree and, not only did I find where the Thoroughbreds were (about three generations back)  I also discovered that the great-great-great grandsire of Drifters great-grandsire was none other than…Man o’ War!!!!  Now I’m sure this is really no big deal, I’m sure Man o’ War is in a million pedigrees.  But it really explains so much about why Drifter is the way he is!  And he was already special in my eyes, but now maybe just a little more so…”

Drifter is a a bay roan and does all sorts of work with Kelly. They take hunter/jumper lessons but throw a Western saddle on for a quick trail ride. In fact, Kelly is thinking of switching over to Western full-time.

“I love this guy because he’s not a “deadhead” horse,” Kelly says of Drifter. “When he’s tied up in the barn he’s not just standing there falling asleep like others I’ve seen. He’s curious and he wants to know whats going on. He’s always looking around, not fearful but interested, sniffing at everyone that walks by, hoping for a treat. He likes to pick things up in his mouth and just hold them, brushes, hoof pick, hoof polish, you name it! He also has his own fuzzy chicken he’ll sometimes entertain me with!”

This “curious” fellow has no one favorite treat, but Kelly assures us, he’ll eat anything.

Kelly grew up riding but had to take a break from her equine career to join the Army. After 20 years of service, she was finally able to get back into horses after retiring from the military.

“My favorite thing about owning horses is the freedom you feel when you’re riding them and the peace they bring just being around them. They’re what I like to call ‘natural Valium,'” she said.

Kelly had been taking lessons on Drifter at Wild Rose for several months when she and her husband agreed it was time for her to begin looking for a horse of her own. Kelly tells us she let her instructor know she’s be interested in purchasing Drifter before a lesson one day. The start of the lesson didn’t go so well after that —

“We set off for our lesson, walking outside on the gravel path to the round pen,” Kelly told me. “To my right, a random gentleman was outside working on some vehicles, and stood up to stretch and take his shirt off. Well, I guess my boy didn’t like that much because he spooked. HARD. He jigged to the right and I jigged to the left, right off his side. Into the gravel. He took off in the opposite direction, without me! I jumped up, left arm and left knee all torn up from the gravel and shouted, ‘I still want him! I do! I still want him!’ And I did. A week later he was officially mine! Now, when I fall off him (always my fault) he doesn’t run away but stops and looks at me like, ‘Mom? Why are you down there?’ He knows I’m his person.”

Kelly said Drifter’s sensitivity makes him a wonderful ride.

“I got on him and he responded to the slightest leg pressure and I was like, wow! Previously I was riding horses you had to kick and kick and kick to get a response,” she said. “After that first lesson I told my trainer I wanted him to be my permanent lesson horse. No one else really liked riding him except me.”

Now, they’re together for good! Happy trails to Kelly and Drifter!