Minx's story Part 1

I'll eventually get around to Farley and myself, but I thought I would start with Minx (the Standardbred).


I don't know a lot about Minx's history. According to the partial lip tattoo that she has, her registered name is probably "Linda". She raced as a 4 and 5 year old, but not extensively. She had some top 3 placements but won very little money. Probably she was ~6 years old when picked up at Cal Expo racing track. I've only heard the story third and fourth hand, so I'll try not to speculate too much, but this is what I do know. A women, briefly a part of CHAS was impressed with the Standardbreds we had, so went down to the local track and purchased (I assume) the most beautiful horse she saw.

CHAS uses Standardbreds to pull the cannons and fill other roles in battle reenactments, parades, funerals, etc. Our Standardbreds are carefully selected for temperment because we are working with the public. We give no notice to looks what so ever. In fact, sometimes the uglier the better. That way we can give them names like "Beautiful" and "Good-lookin' ".... To give the breed some credit - they are sane, WONDERFUL horses. I would like to think that our CHAS horses are very good ambassadors to their breed. However, just like all breeds, there's always some wackjobs. (and from my experience, aren't all the beautiful ones a little not right in the head?)

Minx does not look like a Standardbred. She's relatively petite for the breed, black and has a full tail that drags the ground, a forelock that goes to her nose, and a mane 18" long. She has a small head for a Standardbred that is softly dished and a huge eye. She also has PRESENCE. I can't ride her down the street without being stopped by cars asking for pictures. In short, she looks like the female version of the black stallion.

It quickly became apparent that the women had over-horsed herself and she gave the horse to the man who owns the ranch where the CHAS horses are. SOMETHING happened when she unloaded off of the trailer, I still can't get the specifics, but that SOMETHING earned her the name "Devil Horse". She ran on 40 acres with the other horses for about a year. In that time no body touched her. She wasn't friendly, was rather aloof, and made it clear she would rather not be messed with. I think most of us assumed she was unbroke. She was so much smaller than the other horses so she looked very "young", which just perpetuated this idea. In the CHAS tradition, she was given the name "Gal". (all girl horses have a "G" name, the boy horses have "B" names). In March of 2006 I had a special opportunity.

I don't have pictures for this section because it was before I came along. However, if you would like to check out CHAS's website, you can view pictures of our horses and their creative names!