EQUIS
Equis wasn’t always a lady but she got the job done. She was Bob’s number one guide horse in Belize. She carried lunch, ropes, cave lamps, a first aid kit and Bob through the jungle. She didn’t weigh 1,000 pounds and was under 15 hands in height. During one of our first weeks in Belize, Bob went out into the overgrown pasture to round up the horses. This was before we began feeding them and so taught them to be waiting in the corral in the mornings. This particular morning, Bob was little concerned with snakes and wasn’t too keen on the size of the brush he was wading through. One horse spotted him and came up to investigate. Impressed with her outgoing nature, Bob slipped a macate around her neck and jumped on her to go find the others. Together, they rounded up the rest and from that day on, Equis became Bob’s special horse. She bucked every time Peter got on her back but behaved herself reasonably well for Bob.
CALYPSO
This is a terrible photo of Calypso but is the only one we have. Calypso became Camille’s saddle horse shortly after we arrived in Belize because he was only four and already had a history. He reminded us of Jesse even though he wasn’t always a gentleman with others. He kicked Humberto and Aaron and bucked both Sam and Bob but never misbehaved with Camille. We never figured out why.
We had to sell Calypso because he was making a nuisance of himself by breaking down fences and mounting the mares. He had been gelded but didn’t know it. Although he never bucked with Camille in the saddle, he was too risky for the dude string. We couldn’t afford to keep a personal saddle horse and since he had good breeding and was only 4 years old, we sold him. We were able to get $300 Belize Dollars (or $150 US dollars) for him which is top dollar for a horse in Belize.
ANGELA
Angela was Bob’s other guide horse. She was only four and very sweet-natured. The wranglers called her “Nalgas” because she had a big behind. She was quarter horse bred and had the characteristically “apple-bottomed” hindquarters. She got very sick (we think she foundered) and the ranch owners ended up giving her away. Pure-bred horses don’t do well in the harsh environment of Belize.
MARLEY AND SPOCK
Marley worked harder for men than she did for women so we scheduled her accordingly. If she lagged at all for Bob, all he had to do was pick up a twig and then she moved SOOO nice. She reminded us us Jesse, the Wonder Horse. Big, pretty, strong and lazy.
Spock frightened tourists with the sounds his stomach continually emitted. They thought there were tigers (Belizean for jaguar) in the bush! He bit Camille so hard on the wrist (it was her fault) that the wound oozed for days. This prompted us to get all of the horses vaccinated for rabies which was a bit like closing the barn door after the horse has been let out of the barn. Nevertheless, Spock was reliable in many other ways and more than earned his keep.
NIKKI
Nikki became Camille’s favorite after she had to ride her back to the lodge from up in the Pine Ridge one afternoon. The tourist who had ridden Nikki up there was unable to finish the ride, so Rolando drove Camille up in the Trooper and she and the tourist traded seats. It was such a wonderful ride home on Nikki that Camille decided to use her as her guide horse from then on. She responded to my slightest inclination even after years of packing heavy riders over rough terrain.
WRECKS
Wrecks was Peter’s guide horse until he nearly killed him with one of his notoriously fierce gallops. Peter knew two gaits: walk and run. The tourists loved it even though none of them would treat their horses at home that way. Peter would gallop the group for at least a mile and then stop and tie all the horses to trees while the tourists went for a swim. One afternoon, we drove to Big Rock Falls with lunch and found Rex standing tied to a tree, drenched in sweat and panting. Camille hiked down to the falls and asked Peter to come up and walk his horse while Bob unsaddled Rex and started walking him.
SOMBRA
Little Sombra. She didn’t weigh much more than 800 pounds. She was a beautiful little horse. Sombra means shade in Spanish. You can see the notch in her left ear where a machete caught her. We called the vet but he didn’t come until a week later. By then, we had done what we could do with penicillin and larvacide. Sombra was a nervous animal, but quick and big-hearted. We decided not to let any of the tourists ride her and then made the mistake of giving her to Peter as a guide horse. Peter was hard on his horses. He only rode two gaits – walk and run. Poor little Sombra.
THE LITTLE ONES
Within a month of our arrival at MET, two new horses hit the ground, bringing the herd up to 22. We wouldn’t have believed it possible that two mares in that skinny herd we inherited were carrying foals. We named Mariposa, the yellow filly after a butterfly and Sol, the bay colt Sol after his star, which was a big as the sun.
We later learned that Calypso may have been the father of either or both foals as he was gelded as a four-year-old. The stars on foals are always large in comparison to their little heads because, while their head grows, their star remains the same size.
We kept the mares in the orchard and fed them three times a day until they had foaled and their foals were weaned. We sold both foals rather than feed them for 5 or 6 years in the hopes of adding them to the dude string. Sol was sweet and Mariposa was not.