Debbie Phillips has a hearty laugh and a soft spot in her heart for her Appaloosa horses.

She grew up with an attitude that there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do. She believes her horses have that kind of heart, too.

When she visits her two stallions, Mighty MCloud and Ima MCloud, they lick her hands and her face as she smiles at them with absolute trust.

”They are like puppies, they are so kind,” she says. ”They give me unconditional love.”

The broodmares at Phillips’ Stoney Knoll Farms in Redmond know the sound of her voice. And the rest of the herd just watches curiously as she walks by everyday on her way from the house to the barn. The horses are Phillips’ business, but they’re also part of her family.

Because business has been going fairly well, her stallion’s shipped semen is populating herds all over the United States. And her stallions’ offspring are making a name for themselves wherever a powerful, athletic horse is needed, whether it’s in the show ring or in the mountains.

Phillips didn’t always feel the allure of the Appaloosas. She started out in San Diego, where she grew up showing hunters and jumpers by the time she was 11. Her mother sold Avon products to help her make it into the show ring.

For two consecutive years, major injuries forced her father to use the family’s vacation money on Phillips’ medical expenses. She soon switched over to western riding to please her family.

”My dad had a great love for horses,” Phillips recalls. ”But he wasn’t too happy about the accidents.”

The strong-willed Phillips rode western pleasure, trained stock horses and learned to show halter.

”I got extremely competent at schooling horses,” she recalls.

Phillips was hanging out with a lot of the top names in the Southern California horse industry in the early 1970s, learning from the different disciplines.

She learned some life lessons as well.

”Growing up in a man’s world of training horses makes you feel like there’s nothing you can’t do,” she observes. ”It was a man’s world. Now the horse world is opening up to women more than it ever has.”

Phillip’s strong spirit has always helped her reach her goals. As a teen she did modeling on the side, but also became known as an extremely talented horsewoman. It was not until she hooked up with her first husband, Bill Phillips, that she really became a fan of the Appaloosa breed. She admits she was a little bit reluctant at first to succumb to the charms of the spotted horses. Then she was completely won over.

Traveling around the West, at different stages in her education about Appaloosas, she worked on different ranches and developed goals of her own. She also developed ideas about what would make the best breeding program.

Phillips first marriage ended after seven years, but her devotion to the Appaloosa breed was really just beginning.

”I always wanted to win the Southern California Appaloosa Futurity,” she recalls.

Her now 21-year-old sire, Mighty MCloud, beat 56 other colts in his age group in 1983 and was the highest scoring colt over the whole futurity.

”Then we were on a roll and he won everything,” Phillips says proudly.

Mighty MCloud is a seal brown Appaloosa with black spots. His son, Ima MCloud, is a spectacular 17.2 chestnut with a snowcap blanket.

According to Phillips, bathing this big stallion is ”like washing a diesel truck because he’s so big and white. I have to get a ladder.”

Color patterns in Appaloosas are always a surprise.

”That’s one thing that’s so unique about Appaloosas,” Phillips observes. ”You never know what color pattern you’re getting when you breed.”

Now the walls of Phillips’ Redmond home are lined with pictures of her Appaloosas and their offspring winning in the show ring. And winning with different clients.

Phillips is impressed with the sweeping history of the Appaloosa breed and their versatility as performance horses. You don’t need to know Appaloosas to fall in love with their spots. And as Phillips points out, they are not a color breed. Even though spotted horse drawings have dotted the walls of prehistoric caves in different parts of the world, it was the Nez Perce Indians of the Pacific Northwest who bred the ultimate sport horse with spots.

Phillips believes she has the descendants of those great war horses in her pastures today. So when she picks up the Feb. 2004 issue of the Appaloosa Journal and points with pride to a picture of Ima MCloud, it’s not hard to understand why she feels ”glowing” when she talks about her herd of horses. ”Mac,” as he’s known around the barn, was the 3-year-old National Champion in Halter at the National Appaloosa Horse show in Texas in 1996. He also won the Reserve World Champion Title in halter in 1995. His offspring are making their impact in the show ring today.

”I want to raise halter horses that go on and ride,” Phillips states. ”They’ll go jumping, work cows, pack elk out of the mountains … there are not too many breeds you can do that with.

”Their heritage is unique. The kind of heart these guys have is incredible. I’ve never found that in any other breed other than this family of horses. The relationship you can have and build with that kind of trust and bond – they’ll give you their heart and keep coming back for more. Because you’re asking them to.”