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You know I have heard that about greys, and then others say it's not true. But I did buy a grey one time from a local lady here. This lady is the queen of barrel racing in this area, when you see her drive up alot of competitors leave.

Anyway she called me up one day and said that she was selling her old grey barrel horse and wondered if I could use him in competive trails riding. I knew she had been offered $20,000 plus for this horse numerous times. He ran barrels like no other horse I had ever seen. She said she would sell him to me for $2000. I couldn't believe it. I got him and he was a great horse. He was not use to trails and it was going to take some time to get him use to having horses leave him, but he didn't get totally stupid over it. I kept telling my husband somewhere there is a hole in this horse or she would not have sold him for that. Well the first time I went to give him a bath I ran my hand down the back side of his tail bone and it was as lumpy as an old mattress. Took him to the vet and he said melanoma, and it had alread spred to his sheath.

I had had several calls from barrel racers trying to buy him from me, it was the talk of the barrel racing community that the horse had been sold to some "trial rider" like what a waste. I called one back that I knew and asked her if she still wanted him. She said how much I said what I gave for him. She was like dumb founded. I then proceeded to tell her why. I said I can't sell him without telling you first he has melanoma. She went ahead and took him, but he was never right. Had trouble keeping weight on him supposedly from ulcers, but I always wondered if it wasn't the cancer spreading. She finally sold him as a junior barrel horse. Last I heard he was still running. I had a friend who had a pony that died of that and it wasn't pretty. They waited a little too long in my opinon to put him down, and I didn't want to have to be in a position of making that decision when the time came. So I sold him.

Since then I've had people say I should have kept him, that he still had a lot of good years left. But I've got no regrets. The lady I bought him from swears she didn't know. Who knows. I'm just glad I didn't have to be the one worrying about it.

Becky

Oh, melanoma in grey horses is for real. I think it's from overexposure to the sun with a lack of protective pigment.

We discussed it quite a bit with the vet, and I've heard the same from several other vets as well. The decision about when to put her down was a tough one.

I'm still looking for a pic of my other favorite former horse, the chestnut QH ex-racer. My daughter was on his back at 18 months, with all of us anxiously hovering (and the horse in question standing there looking utterly bored).