Once there was a broodmare named Image living amidst the cornfields of Illinois. Image looked like an ordinary little red mare unless you saw her when she picked up her head, snorted at some horse-eating phantom, and went trotting off across the field. Then my goodness, what a hingey neck like a chess knight and the sporty way of going! Image was in foal to Glenknoll's MoreToSea. Not too many people had heard of MoreToSea, but he was said to have a big trot. And he was an "outcrop" medicine hat overo out of solid-colored parents.

One morning the farm owner looked into Image's stall to see if she had foaled during the night. Sure enough, there was the white rear end of a pinto foal sticking out from under the feed box. Then the filly stepped back and raised her head. The poor woman nearly screamed. The filly was all white except for chestnut ears, and some chestnut speckling under her neck, and over her chest and back. One eye was blue. Her neck looked low, short, and straight. Almost everyone agreed that "Blizzard" was an ugly filly.

I bought her and named her "Ghost Dance". Her neck did not stay low, short, or straight. When she picked up her head to look across the pasture for horse-eating monsters, she looked like her mother. I bred her to the Yorktown son, Union Town, and in 2004 got a filly who was colored a whole lot like her. I wanted to name the filly "Ghost Town", but the name wasn't available. Hence, the filly became "Dancing On Clouds", known in the barn as Deja, as in , deja vu.

Deja may not be everyone's taste, but she can trot up a storm. I hope to get her in the show ring, and watch the judges turn funny colors.