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Born and bred a "city boy", this talented young man from Detroit learned to ride like the wind at an early age. Relatives he knew jumped horses and the horse bug soon bit him hard. Learning everything he could, George soon mastered riding. His new found passion was to become a life long love affair. This gift for animals was in his blood, as undeniable as the sun rising in the east.
Riding and jumping led him to showing, breeding and eventually owning more horses in more years than any of us would care to count. Owning horses takes care, patience, knowledge and money. George had most of those in spades. His brother Clark worked side-by-side with him as they traveled the Quarter horse circuit for several years together. Tramping from show to show, slowly acquiring all the points needed to attain the title "AQHA Champion". In 1965, their hard work paid off, and they had their coveted championship. An honor that they held dear for all their lives together.
"Miss Prunella", born in 1963 was the pride and joy of this great horse man. With her, he could almost do anything in the show ring. She lived for 29 years, a lifelong treasure giving birth to many foals through the years. Her blood-line lives still today, thriving in the flesh and blood of many future AQHA champions.
Here
is an example of horse dedication that any equestrian knows all too well.
George has owned and stabled horses since 1954. Feeding just 1 horse,
twice a day from then until now means that he would have made 35,040 trips to
the barn and back. And that is just for one horse. Through the years
he has had as many as 30 at one time to care for!
Many
a man of Mount Clemens, (where George called home for so long), remembers of his
historic re-enactment of Paul Reveres' famous ride to announce the dreaded
"British Were Coming!" in 1976. This was for the Bi-Centennial
Celebration of our nations' birth. He can still be seen in the hearts and
the minds of those folk, charging through the mist dressed in colonial
garb. "You should have seen those school kids' eyes light up"
they would say, when telling that story over and over again.
A close life long friend of Georges' named Jack Prescott is a living foot-note
to history regarding that event. "It was a Prescott, that actually
finished that storied ride for Paul Revere that night. A fact that is not widely
known by most historical accounts.
If it was in fact a Prescott that finished the ride that night, you can just bet that it was a Balch that cleaned up after his horse!
