The American Saddlebred: 12/28/12 Buddy, the best Saddlebred ever

So after leasing my dear little mare for about a year and a half, I started thinking about buying my own Saddlebred. One of my girlfriends introduced me to Dr. Elrod. At that time, he’d been raising Saddlehorses for over 40 years. I didn’t know it at the time, but he had judged at Louisville and Lexington Junior League. He was an amateur who could show like the pros, and he was a breeder with a depth of knowledge like no one I’ve ever known. Over time, he loaned me some of his books, and got me started on my longtime hobby of studying bloodlines.

One of his first questions directed to me was to ask what my Dad did. I replied that my Mom was a widow, but she was a librarian. Years later, I wondered if that had been my first ever credit check. Did I pass or fail? I’ll never know for sure, but Dr. Elrod sold me my $600 horse on January 1, 1974. He allowed me to make payments. I was a college student at the time and it took me until April to pay him off. Buddy was a bargain at any price, but my $600 horse had 17 Hall of Fame Broodmares in his 5 generation pedigree.