My Grandma and William Shatner
A horse can bring joy, happiness, and unconditional love into a person’s life. This was certainly true for my grandma who in 1963 laid eyes on her first American Saddlebred horse and it was love at first sight. By 1967 she and my Grandfather had moved provinces to buy a 40-acre spread in the heart of Saddlebred Country in Western Canada. 4 years later Dan, a beautiful liver chestnut foal was born.
Dan grew up to be 16 hands with an exquisitely handsome face and delicate inward-turned ears. He quickly became a star on the show circuit winning numerous championships and trophies along the way. As Dan aged, he eventually became too old to be used as a stud and was gelded when he turned 11 years old. But that didn't stop him from continuing his show career.
When it was my time to enter shows, my Grandma generously let me ride Dan so that I could experience what it felt like to win a class with him. I remember being so nervous but excited all at the same time! We worked hard together practicing our walk-trot-canter pattern until we had it perfect. When the day finally came to show, we won our very first class ever!
After I moved on to University, Grandma continued to show Dan and won many prizes including two William Shatner belt buckles. William had gotten hooked on Saddlebred because of his second wife, Marcy and he sponsored Western Pleasure classes. After turning 26 Grandma started Dan on his final career as a pasture ornament. When his time came to cross the rainbow bridge Grandma was devastated and she would never speak about him again. Until 10 years later, when she too had retired from riding, and she decided to make a shadow box of her memories of Dan. She put some pictures, ribbons and other mementos of Dan in it and wanted to put both her William Shatner belt buckles in there, but sadly, one was missing. Grandma really was very upset and really wanted that belt buckle to balance out her shadow box. So she wrote William Shatner, or his people and promptly received a replacement belt buckle. Once the shadow box was complete it took pride of place in her living room and was ceremoniously pointed out to everyone who came for a visit.
Grandma passed away at the age of 94 and was fondly remembered by many people in the American Saddlebred Horse Association of Alberta. I had the pleasure of attending their 50th Anniversary Gala in 2022. Of course, I got visiting with some people I hadn’t seen in 30 years. One such person was Raylene and we started talking about my Grandma and I told her all about the shadow box. Raylene and Grandma had been writing letters to each other and Raylene was shocked to find out Grandma had written William Shatner because Grandma had not written William Shatner, but she did write Raylene and Raylene sent one of her William Shatner belt buckles to replace the lost one. Did we ever laugh!
My Grandma lied to me! Doesn’t that just make the story so much better? If you see me wearing a silver belt buckle it is this very one!
