PARKER COUNTY —  

“Before long,” Lea said, “I got married and had kids and did all the things that go along with that lifestyle. But in my ‘wanter,’ I wanted to be where I had been as a kid. Not where I was at the time. I missed the horses.”

Her longing to be involved again with her equine friends motivated Lea and then-husband Mike Milner to become involved with racehorses. But her father, an ever-present inspiration in her life, reminded her that racing was a king’s sport and not what he had trained her to do. Said Lea, “I knew he was right. I wanted to be the one on the horse, not the jockey. So we eventually sold all our thoroughbreds, except one. But she was big and difficult and not really appropriate for riding.” 

Lea wanted a horse she could trust around her grandchildren, and one that would not become too difficult for her to manage as she aged, herself. In other words, Lea wanted a horse that would be so much more than a working animal. She was looking for a companion. Enter Silky.

“I bought her sight unseen last February [2009] based on her papers and the qualities I was looking for,” Lea said. “She was only 7. I wanted a horse that will live with me the rest of my life. Not one I’d have to put down or see go in the ground. I wanted a bond.”

When Lea acquired Silky, the Palomino had had no training, something Lea quickly realized she would need assistance with. 

“When I was a little girl, training a horse wasn’t all that important,” Lea said. “Silky and I had a lot of bad habits to unlearn. She had to unlearn bad habits she had picked up with people before. I had to unlearn how my father taught me as a teenager.

“In the old days, you jerked the horse around. The bit was the master and the horse followed. It was like having a jalopy to get you around, and it didn’t have to be all that pretty as long as it got you where you needed to be. Today, we’re in the Lexus age. You need to be able to tell your horse to parallel park and do it with just a few key movements of your feet and hips. No more jerking the horse around and tearing its mouth up. This is wonderful for me because I’m such an animal lover. It’s so much better for the horse. Horses are not dumb animals; you have to learn how to communicate with them. I like the loving aspect, the verbal commands, the gentle way.”

To get this kind of training, Lea sought the help of Darrel Rundell at Alamo Stables to assist her in making Silky into the life-long companion she dreamed of.

“I told him I wanted her finished out so my grandchildren could inherit her, and so I could continue to ride her as I get older,” Lea said. “I said I want Mylar balloons in front of her, headlights in the eyes, any kind of distraction she could ever encounter, so that she would not shy. We started taking her to every show we could so that she could get accustomed to parking lots, trailers and people.”

In addition to all that socializing, Lea had Silky trained for halter, showmanship, western pleasure and trail. And something remarkable happened. The little Palomino began to show a pioneering spirit equal to that of Lea’s, and it was decided that Silky would debut her new manners at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo in January 2010. 

“I was scared to death. I felt like the poor girl on the block,” Lea said. “You see all the beautiful women in their gorgeous outfits and their beautiful horses that are all dressed up, and you just feel like, ‘What am I doing here?’ It’s like you put on your best boots and your best hat and go out, but everyone else has on their top of the line Luccheses. We felt so humbled by the grandeur and the expertise and the absolute finish that each of these horses brought to the stock show.”

Humbled, perhaps. But definitely not hampered, in spite of the fact that most women in Lea’s competition classes were many years her junior. Silky competed both in the Palomino and the Quarter Horse competitions, with Rundell at the reins for western pleasure and trail, and Lea in the arena for halter and showmanship. 

When the dust settled, Silky came home with a jaw-dropping 10 ribbons. An impressive show for a green horse that had never set foot in the arena before. To Lea, the results were more of a personal statement than a sporting accomplishment. 

“Tommy Lucia has always been one of my heroes,” she said. “His horse does all these wonderful tricks. At the end of his show, he takes his saddle and blankets off and shows you that the horse has a deformed spine. His message is don’t ever give up or stop pursuing your dreams. If this wonderful horse can do all these things with its handicap, how much can you do?

“Age can be considered a handicap. But in all of this I’ve been able to accomplish in less than a year all that I dreamed of and that my dad dreamed for me.”

Lea optimistically states that with this year’s results, there’s no reason the pair can’t “blow the doors off the stock show” next year, but she is quick to point out that Silky is much more than a hobby for her. She is currently searching for a stallion with which to pair Silky. And what this feisty sexagenarian does know for sure is that Silky will be her companion in life, no matter what the future holds. 

“I’m building a retirement home with a Dutch door in my laundry room that opens onto a two horse stable outside,” Lea said. “Like Mr. Ed, my horse is going to be able to have her head in my laundry room, which is right off my bedroom. 

“As I get older the weather won’t be a problem because I can walk out in my pajamas to be with my horse. I can spend the rest of my life with her, and if I get wheelchair bound and not able to walk out there with her, she can be with me in my laundry room.” 

Dutch doors and future wheel chairs aside, this pair has no intention of slowing down anytime soon. Always one to find strength in her own family, Lea takes great pride in the fact that one of her great grandfathers was still on a horse at age 98, and a great uncle wrangled rodeo stock into his 70s. No wonder she seems to have a double helping of spunk. 

“Knowing my relatives could do those things and that I have that kind of heritage … well, if they could do all that at their age, I can make my dreams happen, too.” Lea said.