miniature tales
Lauren’s
Big Win
By Tony Greaves
E
ver since my daughter, Lauren, was a
small child, she had always wanted an
outstanding Single Pleasure/Road-
ster horse. In 2007 I saw Silver Meadow’s
Phantom Storm sweep his classes in Single
and Roadster and thought he was the best
Miniature driving horse I had seen. I inves-
tigated who owned him and found that Don
& Mary Lou Knapp were his owners and
that they were actually customers of mine,
having bought a mare at one of the World
Show Sales. He offered to breed a mare for
me, but I thanked him and said that I re-
ally didn’t want to take a mare all the way
to Florida.
The first time Lauren saw Phantom Storm
was in World in 2011.
As he came into the ring we were sitting
across the coliseum from each other. She
called me and said, “Look at that fabulous
horse! I love him!” I told her the owners
had offered to breed a mare and she said
excitedly, “And you DIDN’T DO IT?” I
laughed and mentioned that Don was sit-
ting a few rows in front of where she was
sitting. She went down and introduced her-
self to him…long story short…we took two
mares to Florida.
The next year one of Lauren’s mares had the
anticipated foal, Little America’s Phantom
Knightfall. He was absolutely what we had
dreamed of. Great action, fantastic color and
spirit rarely
found in minis. We started showing him and
did well as a weanling, yearling and two-year
old. He tied for second in multi color one
year and had quite a few Top Tens and local
Supremes. But we knew that the best was
yet to come - he was THAT driving horse we
had been hoping for.
At that show, we sent him home with an out-
standing trainer and apparently he picked up
something at the show. A week later, we got
the call that Knightfall was dead in his stall.
Lauren was crying so on the phone that I
thought her fiancé, Martin Bauknight had
died. Finally, I made out the word Knightfall
and realized the truth.
Lauren had carefully watched all the Single
classes and had seen one horse that was win-
ning a lot and had even asked the owners
if he was for sale. After the heartbreaking
loss had lessened, she contacted the owners
of the horse that she had liked to see if he
was still for sale. The owners had decided to
keep him, but several months later she heard
from them and he was for sale again and af-
ter several weeks of negotiation, she bought
Lymrick’s Irresistible Force, also known as
“Guinness”.
After showing him and breeding Guinness
this year we were thrilled when he won
World Champion 32” & Under Roadster
at the World, adding to his 17 World titles.
The moment was made even more special for
trainer at the whip, Lyn Yung, who retired
with the win and made us some very happy
customers.
30 Miniature Horse World
WINTER 2017