Why Walking Horses?
Our family’s love of horses runs generations deep. One of my favorite stories while growing up was about Nel, one of the work horses that our family kept on the farm when they lived on Old Rag Mountain (now part of the Shenandoah National Park). My grandmother was a young girl when Nel was born. She wasn’t a purebred anything, just a big plain grey mare from good working horse stock. Grandma was the horse lover of her family, and spent a good deal of time with Nel and the other animals on the farm. When her father decided to sell Nel, Grandma was heartbroken. She cried and pleaded with her father not to let the mare leave, but such was life on a farm. Nel was carted away to a new home several counties away. My grandma was devastated. She missed Nel terribly, so bad in fact, that she thought she saw Nel outside of her window several nights later. Actually, she did! The mare had escaped and journeyed all the way home to her family! While Nel had to be returned to her new family, the stor
