Horses in farm family's blood
"Horsies! Horsies!" the little boy squealed from his perch on his parents' coffee table Thursday, pointing a chubby finger at the television screen and bouncing up and down. "Look at the horsies!"
His dad smiles knowingly. As the manager of one of the largest Russian Arabian horse ranches in the world, Isaac Taylor is just as excited about horses as is his 2-year-old.
"It's like a sickness, being a horse person," he said. "You have to be around them or you just feel empty."
Isaac Taylor, 27, can't remember when he first caught the bug. He has been showing horses since he was old enough to walk and vaulting horses since he was 10. He claimed his first national title showing Arabians when he was 17.
"Isaac could just eat, drink and sleep horses," said his father, Rickie Taylor, who founded Taylor Ranch in 1991. Of course, the Provo man admitted, so could he. It's obviously a generational thing with the Taylors.
"You just have the kids do what they can," he said. "When they're Joshua's age, it's 'move this rock over to that place.' They learn as they get older. You're growing kids, not employees."
Isaac Taylor is tired of mucking stalls. He hires help to do that now, but he doesn't foresee a time when he won't get excited when a growing horse starts to show promise or a mare gets ready to foal. He knows the name of each of the 85 horses on his ranch and can list the bloodlines for most of them from memory.
The Taylor family's passion is evident from their remarkable success in the horse-breeding industry. Isaac Taylor just sold a horse to the princess of Jordan.
The Utah ranch was once home to the U.S. and Canadian National champion, Muscat, and to Nariadni, a Russian Arabian recognized as one of the most beautiful horses ever to have lived. Strangers still stop by the ranch, Isaac Taylor said, to visit Swedish and U.S. national champion Aladdin, who whiles away his days in a pasture just south of the Taylors' home.
Isaac Taylor calls the 32-year-old stallion, who was worth $37 million in his prime, "Laddie." When the old, partially deaf horse can hear his owner calling, he comes trotting across the pasture to say hello.
"Some say that dogs are man's best friend," Isaac Taylor said. "I think horses are man's best friend."
E-mail: estuart@desnews.com
Recent comments
Ah, another expert on Russian Arabians. Will you call the newspaper...
Mac Duff | March 22, 2008 at 3:54 p.m.
The mare in the photo is emaciated and has a very unhealthy looking...
Duff | March 22, 2008 at 4:04 a.m.
