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Swapped For Bones His departure from the ranks of dairymen is typical of the decision reached by more and more farmers who can’t Find a reason for continuing their backbreaking labor as they get older. “It was just my wife and myself at the time. I thought “What’s the use of working myself to death?” My arthritis got so bad I could hardly get down to milk the cows. My doctor warned me that if I didn’t stop. I’d end up running a wheel chair in and out of the barn.”
But farming was Bill Weaver’s life’s work. It was what he knew best. So he bought the little 45 acre spread in Estes and switched from holsteins and jerseys to thoroughbreds.
The Weavers weren’t novices in the horse business. Both Bill and Peggy were riders when they were younger and there’d always been ponies and horses around the place, mounts that were Aown and hunted by their daughter Dee.
“I started riding when I was eight and I've been riding vigorously ever since,” Dee said. She breaks, trains and shows, now working primarily with green youngsters. “Young horses are about all I ride anymore. I wouldn't know how to ride a horse that already knew what he was doing!” she joked.
First thing every morning, she’s in the saddle at Duchess Fannon's ring near Amissville, breaking a twoyear-old. Then it's back to the farm for a few turns on Chilly Host, a classy colt that the Weavers are hoping will bring top dollar. He took reserve champion as a yearling at the Warrenton show and third place last year in the prestigious Upperville horse and colt show. "He’s something kind of special,” Dee said, pointing with pride at a wall full of ribbons won by Chilly Host in halter classes. “He’s never Finished out of the ribbons," she added.
If the handsome youngster hadn’t- Attracted a buyer , before the next show season. begins. Dee intends to put' him in performance classes: With that in mind, his schooling has intensiFied. Daily lessons now include a little foot-and-a-half jump that the show hunter prospect takes at a trot. Without a training ring. Dee works him in a circle next to the barn. He moves smoothly, easily and calmly with none of a high spirited colt’s usual shenannigans. On a brisk, windy afternoon, a two-yearold just taken from his warm stall will use a leaf, a shadow, even a parked car he’s seen
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