Adam's American Paint Horse Filly, Buffy

This is a picture of me with my yearling filly, Barlinks Tuf Buffy. It was taken on the day Buffy made 14 months old, during the LPHC's 1998 Cajun Spring Fling Paint Horse Show in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I have another picture from the same day, on this page, too.

I've showed Buffy in all four levels of 4-H shows in 1998. Buffy won her class in the first smaller show. Then at the Southeast District show Buffy was the Reserve Champion. The last honor this young filly has won in state competition was to be named the Reserve Champion Paint Mare in the State of Louisiana. That's great especially when you consider she was only 16 months old at the time! Babies usually don't place in the Championship because they are so little. Buffy took first place in her class, 1997 Yearling Paint Mares. There were 12 fillies in that one.

Buffy won a regular size blue rosette and a Louisiana State Show hat pin for her class win. She won a huge rosette for the Reserve Championship. It's over two feet long and it has gold fringe on the ends. She also won a beautiful 3-D plaque for the Reserve Championship.

I was thrilled to have qualified for the next step, the Southern Regionals in Little Rock, Arkansas! (Only 10 Halter Horses from each state qualify!) We made the trip there in August and Buffy and I placed fifth out of 18 mares! We had a great time!

I showed Buffy in a few open horse shows in Baton Rouge, and she was undefeated every time!

Buffy and I also hit the Louisiana Paint Horse Club's show circuit and won the honor of the 1998 Year-End High Point Yearling Mare! The trophy buckle from that is beautiful! It was a wonderful way to end the show season!

So far in 1999 we've shown in two 4-H shows. The first one was a very big show in Baton Rouge called the Capital Area 4-H Horse Show. Buffy not only won her class, but she won the top honor of "Overall Grand Champion". All of the first and second place halter horses of each age division, each sex, and all breeds, went into what was called the championship class. Of all of these class winners and runner ups, Buffy was chosen as the Grand Champion! That was great!

My parents recently gave my little brother, Ross, a yearling filly, Blazy. She's a chestnut overo. We went to the Lafourche Area 4-H Horse Show and Buffy, who's now a two-year-old, placed as the Grand Champion Paint Mare. This was Ross and Blazy's first show and Blazy was the Reserve Champion Paint Mare.

There's a new article about me and Buffy that our County Agent put in our local newspaper. It came out in the April 1, 1999 issue, but I haven't put it online yet.

Here are some (mostly over compressed) pictures of my Paint filly, Buffy, since she was a foal. She was foaled on February 26, 1997. My mom and dad owned her mother, Triple Grand, aka Trixie, for most of her life. They bought her as a three-year-old, and she had already been foundered. (Really sad!) We took excellent care of Trixie and she was happy with us. We did whatever we could to make sure she didn't suffer. She had five foals, with Buffy being the only filly. Trixie foaled again on February 12, 1998, just 5 weeks before her death from Congestive Heart Failure. (Trixie's death was related to her foot problem.) All five of Trixie's foals have been painted, including the baby, Rusty. (We raised him on Foal-Lac and love and he's just fine!)

I've been able to be with Buffy since she was a newborn. I was at school when she was foaled, but I got to see her as soon as I got home. She was only 3½ hours old. My mom and dad had promised me that I could pick any one of the 1997 babies for myself, and I chose Buffy. I'm glad I did choose her. She's not only beautiful, but she's a big sweetie! (And she's totally rotten! She can't stand to see me work with another horse. She gets soooo mad....and we think it's funny!)

Buffy is also bred great. Her Dad, Dee Link, is a World Champion Paint Halter Horse and both of her moms parents are World (or National) Champion Halter Horses, too. Her mom, Trixie, was only shown at one big-time show and she was the Grand Champion Open Mare and the Grand Champion Amateur Mare! (Halter classes are like beauty contest.)

Barlinks Tuf Buffy	Dee Link	Barlink Tuff Times	Tuffys Two Spades
			Miss Demeanor
		Buffy Dee	Cutter Red
			Ryans Snuffy
	Triple Grand	Triple's Titan	Triple's Image
			Sands 234
		One Hundred Grand	Sonny Go Grand
			Seven S Belle

Buffy should grow to be a pretty big horse. Her dad is huge. He's 16.2 hands tall and really wide! Horses are measured in hands with each hand being 4 inches. So that makes him 5'6" at the withers. The withers of a horse is above their shoulders, and where their mane ends. That's the place where a horses height is measured.

For a Paint Horse, Buffy doesn't have a whole lot of white. She does have a spot on her belly that will end up being about the size of a Jr. Football. The painting that she has that you can see is on the inside of her right front leg. You can see it clearly in the picture above.

The following two pictures were taken from a distance and enlarged so they're not the clearest pictures in the world. I was working with Buffy. You can see the rope in the pictures. Buffy was 12 months old here. I usually work with her in an area that's specifically set up for exercising horses. It's got a softer surface so they don't hurt their legs. I usually put splint boots on Buffy to protect her legs,too.

I showed Buffy in an open show on April 18, 1998. All of the mares were together in one class and Buffy won it! She beat some nice mares, even some that were grown! I had a blast!

I also showed Buffy in my first showmanship class. I didn't know what I was doing, but I'm going to learn. Only one other kid entered the showmanship in my age division. He's very good. Needless to say he won it, but I did learn a lot! My mom's friend, Ms. Trisha, is a very good Amateur rider that knows her stuff about showmanship. I'm going to watch what she does! That should help!

Below is a picture of Buffy that was taken by the LSU Lakes, near the John M. Parker Coliseum. We were there for a big eight-judge P-O-R.

Buffy will be shown in the Youth, Amateur, and Open divisions in the big class "A" APHA shows from now on.