High Rock Arwen, 2006 BLM mustang mare adopted in 2007 and sold to her proud new owner in 2009. Arwen was the flightiest and most feral of the mustangs I've adopted to date and was gentled without use of halter or drag rope. Look for future articles on her gentling process. Arwen's dignity was respected and she was presented the choice to become a domestic horse through target training at liberty. Her new owner is doing a wonderful job with her and I'm so proud of both of them. Photo is of their first parade in 2010.
Champagne Marvel SVF, 1995 Tennessee Walking Horse gelding. Marvel was a stallion for a short while and sired two Half-Arabians, Dixie Lee Walker and Champagne Barnabas, out of my Arabian mare Athena. He also sired a colt nicknamed MochaMotion out of a Half Andalusian/Morgan mare before he was gelded. He now lives on the coast with a devoted owner who loves him dearly.
Twin Peaks Nikki, BLM mare who failed her first adoption and was confiscated back by the BLM as a yearling in emaciated condition. Initially, my intention was just to halter train her and rehabilitate her as a BLM volunteer and return her to be adopted out, but I got attached and wanted to be choosy about where she went, so adopted her myself. Her eventual sale brought new friends into my life who told me I was the inspiration behind them getting their own property around 10 miles north of here.
Zhakari, an unspotted Spotted Saddle Horse LOL! Zhakari was my first gaited horse that I bought as a weanling in 1994. He is the proverbial been there, done that and got the t-shirt horse. He's done a bit of everything from winning trail trials to horse shows. Now his principal task in life is as a reliable parade horse.
Coyote Joe's Rawhide, 1999 Missouri Fox Trotting Horse gelding. Rawhide came to me after winning just about everything he could in the show ring, but he did not really seem to like that job. He was at first uncertain about being retrained into a trail horse and had his E-Ticket ride moments [for you youngsters, E tickets once were the fastest and scariest rides at Disneyland]. He eventually decided he liked being a trail horse and went on to become the CSHA R2 Trail Trials Champion in his division in 2006. But my proudest moment on him was when I pulled him out of the pasture in 2008 after six months off and he went on to win first place at the Meadowbrook Trail Trials, posting the best score out of all divisions.
Dixie Lee Walker, 1999 Half Arabian/Half Tennessee Walking Horse mare. Dixie is named after my mother whom I used to tease about naming a horse after. She is being conditioned for endurance racing. She completed her first Limited Distance ride last year and is well on her way to being legged up for more serious competition this year. Dixie is the dam of the Friesian Sporthorse, Dixie's Dark Lunar Magic, who still lives at the ranch as does Dixie's retired Arabian dam, Athena. See buttons to the left.
GOG Angel, palomino mare, purchased untrained by the owners of Zhakari and sent to Four Square Horse Training to be started and trained for parades. That is Zhakari to her left and their proud husband and wife owners mounted and carrying Old Glory. Angel, after a full 60 day foundation start on the ranch, spent an entire summer going from one trail trial to the next getting exposed to all sorts of things. Her owners describe her as an awesome parade horse, and they saw her at her first trail trials where we "won" the hard luck award for racking up the most penalties at Taylorsville in June 2008, but hey, what else can you expect of a horse on her first trail ride, first camping experience and first competition experience? Trail trials grows them up and if I'm going to get dumped let it be on pine needles and not asphalt! Parades, by the time she got to be in one, were no big deal! Angel, by the way, is the half sister of GOG Graceful Lady, currently for sale. Both of them came from the breeding program of author/inventor/clinician Brenda Imus and traveled across the country from New York to California.
