My 2nd husband Jim was a watercolor artist and painted many Western scenes. He needed some resource material about paint horses, so we decided to go Iowa Park, TX (about 40 miles from where we lived in Vernon) and visit the greatest paint horse in history, Yellow Mount.
When we arrived at the Flying W ranch, one of the Williamsons' famous paint cars was in front of the house. I think it was a Cadillac, and it was painted like a paint horse. It was wonderful.
Then the Williamson’s took us on a tour of their house, showing us all the trophies and awards that Yellow Mount and his stable mates had won over the years. We saw the famous painting of him done by Orrin Mixer that was used in the American Paint Horse Association logo.
Then we went out to the stables. They showed us all the horses and I fell in love with one in particular. His name was Hopeful Spots* and he was a racehorse.
When we got to Yellow Mount he came right over and begged for treats. What a horse. It wasn’t just his beautiful markings and his gorgeous head, it was his demeanor. He knew he was special, you could tell by the way he walked out of his stall. You knew you were in the presence of greatness. He was about 18 years old then, but looked like a youngster.
It was bizarre to see the real horse when I had the Breyer’s model of him at home.
The Williamsons were wonderful, very friendly and obviously proud of their legend. They chatted with us for hours. It was a day I’ll never forget.
* I named my beloved Dalmatian Hopeful Spots several years later.