by Pam Fowler-Grace

My usual daily routine of riding one training horse after another was in full swing. I had my next mount tacked up in the cross-ties when the phone started ringing. People were calling me from different parts of the country - one call after another. They were all very secretive about who, what, and why, but were asking a barrage of questions about my Grand Prix Appaloosa gelding, Pay N Go.

Finally, I found out what was going on when Paul McCartney's secretary called and told me how much he would like to have us perform at the memorial service he was having for his wife, Linda, in New York . Evidently, they had people scouting all over the United States for the most exquisite, finely trained Appaloosa they could find. I guess they all found us at once. After several conversations with Paul's secretary, Helene, who is also a horse lover, she said that Paul wanted to talk to me himself. There were a lot of people milling around Rancho Texcelente, where I received the call, so I ran home to have a quiet place to speak to him. Paul and I spoke for about twenty minutes and he personally invited me to perform at Linda's memorial. He was the nicest guy, very easy to talk to. Paul shared some very intimate and cute stories about how he and Linda loved to ride together and how she loved Appaloosas. She had an appaloosa stallion that she always rode and Paul said that when they rode Linda never wanted to get off. He said that he knew the performance by Pay N Go would be her favorite part of the service. Paul asked me if we could enter the church and do a, Spanish walk down the aisle toward him, Pirouette in the center, formally salute the audience, and Spanish walk back out. I said "no problem". As Helene had requested prior to our conversation, he asked that I not tell anyone, especially the press about this until after the ceremony. Then he proceeded to tell me how very much he appreciated what I was doing and thanked me very sincerely.