RIP my sweet Lilly -- Miss Phenomenal, aka Lilly -  There is a lot of story behind this mare and my undying love for her! Lilly was sooo super sweet,  she greeted you with a loving nicker everytime she saw me. She was born  and imprinted on our ranch. We sold her as a yearling and after several years we got Lilly back from her previous owner. We had to spend a year getting her back to proper health and weight. We added Lilly to our broodband, she had two foals for us, her first, was unfornutately a lethal white filly which had to be euthanized shortly after birth, then the following year she had a stunning bay filly who later went in training for competitive trail horse competition. Lilly was sold again in late 2013 to a good friend of mine, however due to family issues, she had to put Lilly back up for sale in early 2014. I had decided that Lilly was just too loving of a mare to be passed around, so I made arrangements to purchase Lilly back and bring her home for life. With just 5 weeks of saddle training, then having a month off, Lilly won over my heart yet again by proving to me not only does she love to be ridden, loves the adventure of going down unknown trails, kept up with other seasoned trail horses on 10-16 mile rides, did everything that was asked of her and even boosted the confidence of a 7 yr old timid rider! With only being pastured for most of her life, Lilly never spooked at anything, except..... for puddles of water. Lilly's bloodlines read like the who's who of Halter, she is a grand daughter of The Phenomenal, 13x World Champion producer, by non other than Kid Clu, World Champion. She also has on her 3 generation papers, Impressive, Impressive Return, Mr Impressit, Obsess Sonny Dee. Just off her papers are more and more World Champions!! Lilly had been tested N/N for HYPP, however we found out later that her daughter had tested positive. Since the filly's sire had no Impressive blood, we had Lilly retested and found out that the lab had made a mistake on the first test. Lilly never had any symptoms or issues with HYPP, but it was interesting to find out the lab that did her 1st test made such errors and went out of business. 
Lilly became my personal riding/show mare, with only 8 or so weeks under saddle I decided to take her to an obstacle trail challenge, I didn't know anything about it, but that was okay as Lilly and I set off on a journey together to learn and guess what? Our very first Obstacle Challenge we won 5th place! I was shocked and hooked! From there on, we entered into several trail obstacle challenges and did fairly well in 2014. In 2015, we became a force to be reckoned with, winning tons of ribbons, placing very well and Lilly had earned her Silver Life time award with ACTHA and had almost earned her Gold Life time award. Lilly also won me a super nice Buckle for Over All High Point in a buckle series not to mention many other wonderful prizes from various shows. We traveled all over Texas together in 2015, doing shows, did tons of trail riding. camping and met tons of new friends! We had nearly 1200 hours listed with APHA under saddle! I lost Lilly in November 2015 in a very unexpected and tragic trail accident. We had been trail riding and came across a deep and narrow ditch, it had been raining the days previous and it was slick, so all the people I was riding with and me decided to lead our horses across the ditch verses riding them across as we were worried the horses would try jumping it and slip. Well as I tried to lead Lilly across, she resisted, reared up and the ground beneath her gave away slightly and she slipped and fell in the ditch on her side. She tried to get back up, but slipped down twice more on her side, on the last slip, I heard a loud cracking sound, ( we thought she broke the tree on my new saddle), Lilly jumped out of the ditch and took off and a odd pace, she finally stopped and when I reached her, I saw a piece of wood sticking out her side, she was shaking but not bleeding much at all, her breathing seemed fine, but I was so fearful as it was in a bad place on her body, just behind her elbow on her front left side, pretty much were you would shoot a deer for a kill shot. I knew it was serious. There was no way to get a truck and trailer back to us in the woods we were riding in, so we unsaddled Lilly and hand walked her out several miles back to our trucks and trailers. We had called a vet in Kirbyville, he was sweet enough to meet us after hours at his clinic. He felt she was stable, but that in order to remove the stick she would need surgery and a specialist just in case it had punctured her lung, which he felt it had not since her breathing was so good and she was so calm. So we loaded back up and headed to Vinton, LA where a surgeon and his team was waiting for us. We lost Lilly during surgery. The stick had gone through her ribs in through her lungs. The damage was too much to repair. After the surgeon removed the stick, we found out how large it was, over 11 1/2 inches long and it went from 1 to nearly 2 inches in diameter and that was the part that was inside of her! I just lost it as I watched them remove it and lost it again as I watched my beloved girl taking her last heart beats. I will never forget Lilly and all she gave to me, all that she taught me and all the times she watched out for me! I know she earned her place in the Lord's pastures and is kicking up her heels and hopefully eating lots of peppermints! For those people out there who say breeding stock paints are not worth much, have never ridden or owned a special soul like Lilly!

Lilly's dam - 
Devine Obsession
Lilly's sire - 
Phenomenal Cajun
Lilly's grandsire - 
The Phenomenal
Lilly's grandsire - 
Impressive Return
Lilly's grand dam - 
Deelightful Obsess, Grand Winner that we sold to Mexico
Lilly's great grandsire - Kid Clu
Lilly's great grandsire - Impressive
What a difference just a few months makes after being back!
Lilly and her new 2012 filly!! 
Lilly (2013), still fat and very happy!
Lilly's 2012 yearling filly working on her ground training with her new owner.
 Lilly & me, when she was a newborn 
 Lilly, as a yearling
 Lilly in 2011 a lil bit after we rescued her back
Lilly (Feb. 2014) just after I got her back the second time and on our first ever ride in the National Forest.
Lilly (Feb. 2014) on our third ride in the trails owned by the papermill, overcoming her water fear!
Lilly (Feb. 2014) being loved on and ridden by my friend's 1st grader son who was afraid of large horses but Lilly won him over!
Lilly's 2012 filly!! 
Lilly in obstacle training, love this goofy girl!