11/11/05 Shamrock

Shamrock Shamrock was an all-around ranch and rodeo horse. I'm Jeff Kane; I'll tell you about her right after this. I was lucky enough to get Shamrock as a high school graduation present from Mom and Dad. Oh yeah, you guessed it; she was born on St. Patrick's Day. She was trained by a good family friend, Dean, who purchased the brown thoroughbred filly as a yearling. Dean used Shamrock as a ranch horse for her early schooling and then moved her to arena events. Rumor had it that Shamrock could introduce Dean to the ground on occasion, but I never knew her to do any bad dancing. Shamrock was a true all-round horse; if you needed a good horse for ranch work, a kid's horse, a team roping horse, calf roping horse, or hazing horse for bulldogging  saddle Shamrock. We used her in college rodeos and while she wasn't a top rope horse she was steady and her calmness saved a good friend from a bad wreck. In a freak accident he got tangled in the calf rope as he dismounted to tie his calf and ended up looking the mare right in the eye while still caught in his rope. Shamrock didn't stampede or panic, she just looked at him as if to say  untangle yourself, finish your job, and I can get back to my hay. After college, my brother used her in high school rodeos before her semi-retirement on the ranch. Before full retirement she was a baby sitter for two special friends of mine. Shamrock had two colts  one became a steady team roping horse and the other has stories of his own you'll probably hear later. I'm Jeff Keane.