This blog began because recently, while attending a Clinton Anderson clinic, I sat beside a woman for breakfast that had a wonderful story to tell me.  She was also attending the clinic, and we were wearing the same T-shirt – go figure.  Of course, horse people are always attracted to each other like flies, so we began sharing our horse stories. She and her daughter had recently rescued two quarter horses from a kill lot in Oklahoma.  She mentioned that they had a Facebook page,  and that I should check it out.  At this time, we already had eight horses, and I wasn’t interested in acquiring any more.  But of course…I couldn’t help myself!  Two hours later, I had rescued two ponies…That I didn’t need.

This began a downhill spiral, of complete obsession of this site!  I was waking up in the middle of the night to look at new horses they listed, on my phone throughout meals, while driving, sitting at my desk…I would even drive to the top of a specific hill on our farm where I get cell service to pull up their Facebook page.  I helped my friends rescue two others on the lot as well.

While leaving our farm one evening, I got a message from a customer of mine, asking “Summer, did you see the horse that was just posted??”  I immediately pulled over and opened my Facebook app.  The first picture was of this breathtaking paint mare.  I like paints, but for some odd reason, there is nothing prettier to me than a well muscled sorrel with chrome.  What was so intriguing to me was that within two minutes, someone bought her.  Once I was home that evening, I couldn’t stop thinking about the markings on this specific mare.  She was absolutely breathtaking!

The next morning, while attempting to wake up for work, the first thing I did was check the site again…Of course.  I opened that mare’s description again, and saw a few messages that implied she may be back on the market.  I quickly went through what pictures they had posted of her, along with her registration papers.  This is when things got real.  Smart Little Lena, Colonel Freckles, Skipper W…  Without even thinking, I sent the money!  I didn’t really think it through, but thought that if she was for sale again, and there was that much interest in her, I needed to own her!  This mares site was blowing up with comments from all over the world of people who had been following her.  Everyone wanted to know if she was back up for sale.  Within a couple of hours, I found out that I had in fact been the first one to send my payment, with many behind me who had tried to do the same thing…Thus beginning the blog of “Smart Lil Panda.”