I never met my great Aunt, Fortune, so I'm going to let my human Mom tell you about her in her own words:

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I've always been very proud of that horse. She was only a half Arab, her mother didn't even have a name, the papers just said 'Pinto Mare'. Fortune was born and raised in Idaho, came down here to Los Angeles as a 4 year old to be sold, and I saw her at the dealer's. It was love at first sight! I was really looking for a much bigger horse, a Thoroughbred/Quarter cross maybe, but the moment I saw that little scrawny horse completely hidden under this HUGE blanket, there was no other horse for me. I rode her for a few minutes, then I made a deal and they brought her up to where I lived at the time. She was SOOOOO sick, the poor girl, every time she coughed she'd lose bladder control. By the time I'd pulled her through we were best friends, and we remained best friends for 22 years, until the day it became necessary to send her to horse heaven. I'll see her there again some day.

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Fortune and I often went shopping together. At the time I didn't have a car, so I'd park Fortune at the mall while I went shopping, and she'd carry the packages back. I even took her to the movies once. Well, I went to the movies, Fortune waited in the parking lot. I've taken her camping in the mountains, ridden her in the riverbed, and got stuck in quicksand a couple of times even

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Fortune gave me 9 foals over the years, all by Fershan.

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Fortune never gave me any firsts in the shows, but my little half-Arab mare never came home without at least one ribbon. I showed her in halter, western pleasure, gymkhana, and later park, and the neighborhood kids showed her, too. We've gotten lots of seconds, thirds, etc, but never the blue. One of my personal triumphs was at a big Arabian show in Pomona. That was in '71 (oops, I just gave away my age). We only got a third in Half Arabian Park, but the first and second both went to professional trainers and fourth went to the 1970 National Champion Half Arabian Park Horse! This horse, Roi, a half-Arab, half-Saddlebred, happened to live right next door to my horses, so I knew him well. He was trained and usually shown by a professional saddlebred trainer, only this particular time he was shown by his owner.

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Fortune never had the benefit of a trainer, I taught her myself. She was a true all around horse, all 14 hands 1 1/2 inch of her. She was the granddaughter of Image, who was the son of a desert-bred Arabian, *Mirage, and a Crabbet mare, *Rifala ( also the dam of *Raffles ). She was the going'est horse ever, yet she was always sweet and gentle with the kids. 'Training' her to show park was just a matter of letting her do her own thing, all I had to do was collect her a bit. And you couldn't beat this horse on the trails. Always there, always ready to go, but I could ride her anywhere with nothing but a rope slung around her neck.

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Fortune was mostly a combination western pleasure and park horse. She was capable of showing western and park on the same day. She could also jump a bit, about 4 feet. She was a pretty good gymkhana horse, she was lightning doing barrels. She also knew how to pull a cart. She knew a bit of dressage, could do flying changes like a pro and a pretty creditable sidepass. She also did some reining, you should have seen her skid stops! I gave both english and western beginner and advanced lessons on her. She was also a bit of a trick horse.

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Life isn't quite the same without her. It's been many years now, but she'll always have that special place in my heart.