Cowgirls in Art and Life

I love Terri Kelly Moyers art work. I always envisioned myself as one of these girls that she paints...and the secret is I still dream about it at a-hum, 50 something years old! I could always see myself dressed like this and recreating Annie Oakley and riding a black leopard Appaloosa! Do you think that comes from watching too many Dale Evans and Roy Rogers shows as a kid with my brother, or is it all those westerns we watched at night as a kid with our Dad? I really don't know... but I will tell you I was ate up with horses and cowboys for my whole life! It is something about the romanticized lifestyle of the old West.

I nagged my parents for a horse as a kid, every waking minute....I knew if I kept at it hopefully it would come true ...daylight to dusk...nag, nag, nag. My aunt and uncle were living in New Mexico and had an extra horse to feed and they called and asked if I could have it! Oh my gosh I am getting a horse... they were going to bring Wendy to me for my very own! I just did not realize Wendy was only a yearling and I couldn't ride her yet. Well the story of Wendy is interesting, she was a wild mustang caught as a very very young foal...I will leave that for another story later down the line, but the jest of this story is this. My dad had been looking for just the right horse for me already. None seemed to fit the criteria in his way of thinking. We looked at horse after horse. No, K that horse isn't right for you, you have no experience and I don't like that one. I thought any horse with 4 legs was a great horse (I was 11 yrs. old). Then one night we were sitting down to dinner just a week after Wendy had arrived and the telephone rang. Mom answered and said let me get W, it was a different uncle telling my dad about a horse he might come look at. It is a little registered 3 yr old grey Appaloosa mare that my boss took in trade for an unpaid propane bill. We have her locked in the fence at work and you will need to come quickly to look at her before he sells her. We jumped in the car the next morning and drove the 70 miles to see her. She was locked in the propane tank yard on gravel, and she was the most beautiful horse I had ever saw in my little eyes. Well the rest of the story was history because that little mare came home to our barn. She had been mistreated before and was not broke to ride, so the challenge for my dad was on, to get her ready for a dumb little girl who knew nothing about horses! My daddy could do it, he could do anything! Well he did do it, he was a great horseman, and come to find out Tequila hated most men....uh oh..........my dad did fine with her, but no other men could ride her without an incident. The story was some teenage boys tied tires to her to make her buck. She trusted women and girls, just not men. It was so funny my grandma wanted me to change her name because it was Tequila! My Grandpa had to call her Twilla so he wouldn't catch any slack from Grandma! I loved that mare until the day she died. She provided me with tons of great memories and gave me lots of love and kept me out of trouble! I will forever love my little Appaloosa mare and she still lives in my heart!

my girl Tequila Twist

Okay now back to the subject I started out about loving Annie Oakley.....Well low and behold awhile back I discovered I am related by BLOOD to none other than Annie Oakley on my mothers side! I do genealogy and I found out why I must be so obsessed, it is genetic! She was always my idol as a kid, she could ride, rope, shoot a gun better than any man, had cute clothes, beaded gloves with the fringe on them.....cute little fringed skirts, that has to be it! I am not related to the King Of England, it was even better for me...Annie Oakley is my cousin, the Queen of the American West! How lucky do you get?

Annie Oakley

but then I have also found some other "famous relatives" out there too... like:
Butch Cassidy
John Wesley Hardin
Doc Holliday
Clyde Barrow
John F. Kennedy

Theodore Roosevelt

Georgia O'Keefe

Emily Dickenson

Jane Austen

and

Jimmy Hoffa
so really which genes are my predominate ones?

Kind of scary isn't it?