OUR HORSES

15.2 Hands, 1100 lbs., liver chestnut, bred and raised by us. Zen is sired by MW Mister Z, who we still own and is shown below. She is out of Donna Dolche a registered Oldenburg by Domiro, who is by the famous Donnerhall and out of a Pik Bube Daughter, which is a really nice warmblood cross. Donna’s dam was a thoroughbred that is a producer of show jumpers. Donna was bred for jumping and left our place to become a hunter. Zen is the last foal we bred and raised. We did all of her ground work and Travis Braden rode her the first 4 months. Her young horse training is now coming along nicely and consists of basic dressage, trail riding and working in our obstacle course.  Her favorite thing to do is trail ride, but she would make a really nice western dressage horse. She has smooth gaits and her trot is easy to sit. She goes easily on the bit and is responsive to light aids. Going calmly over small jumps seems to be easy for her too. Zen went on her first overnight camp out trail ride in the fall of 2020. 

15 hds, 950 lbs. We purchased Shooter as a yearling from an Arabian race horse breeder that had sold us 2 other horses. Shooter is very closely related to MW Mister Z and one of our best endurance horses, Mister Z’s full brother Doctor Z. He is sired by Czubuthan, the leading sire of race horses of his time and out of a daughter of Samtyr who has a chapter in the Arabian Legends book. Samtyr was the fastest son of *Sambor++, who is listed in nearly every polish race horse pedigree. Shooter is full of personality, if anyone enters the pasture he gallops full speed towards you. He loves treats and attention. He also gallops full speed to the barn at dinner time. In the pasture he can outrun every horse, including Doctor Z, Mister Z and a 15.3 hand horse called Fleet, a multiple stakes winner that raced on the track for 6 years. We never took him to a competition, but he has years of frequent trail riding. He prefers to lead and never spooks. He will walk along with the group, but is always ready to spring into action. We have taken him to overnight camping trail riding trips to Robbers Cave and Pole Canyon. He has also been team sorting. When Shooter was 4 yrs old he stuck his head under a pipe gate to reach green grass and set back suddenly fracturing his atlas and axis vertebrae. He was stalled for 8 months and it eventually healed completely. We were still able to train him and he is very rideable. However, we do not use strong rein aids or expect him to flex at the poll or carry his head in a certain position. He is very responsive to seat and leg aids. He will crow hop if his custom saddle is not in the correct spot or if he hasn’t been ridden in awhile and is excited about getting to go on trail. He is a blast to ride for someone that likes a personable, energetic horse that loves people and loves to work. 

15.2 hds, 1050 lbs, Grey Arabian, sired by Czubuthan out of an imported Russian mare. We purchased him off the track. We watched him run his last race at Sam Houston race track. He was a stakes winner and raced for 3 years. He was pretty tough to ride as a stallion, so we froze semen because we liked him so much and then gelded him. He was difficult to retrain. It took us a year to get him to stop “leaping out of the starting gate” whenever you asked for canter. He also had one major accident after the next and 2 colic surgeries, which always seems to happen with the favorite horse. Hank called him the million dollar horse, due to the vet bills. He was Selena’s favorite horse of all time. Mainly because he always nickered for her anytime she was in sight and was always enthusiastic about everything he did. He gave you 110% every time you rode. Unfortunately he was so intelligent that as soon as he understood what you wanted, he often thought he knew a better way to get to the end result. In endurance he was impossible to rate and ran away in every ride, one ride he galloped for 10 miles before he could be brought down to a trot. We spent many hours trying to train him to be manageable at a ride, but unfortunately no matter what, in his mind it was a race and he was determined to win regardless of what the rider wanted. So, I decided to buy and compete on his full brother, Dr Z, instead who turned out to be the best endurance horse I every owned. I decided to try dressage with Mr Z. He was really athletic and the patterns challenged his brain. The first clinician, Sherry Guess told me he could do upper level easily. The 2nd clinician, Pamela Fowler Grace, rode him for 5 minutes and told me he could do Grand Prix and that was before we were ready for a training level test. We did a year of schooling shows because he initially thought we should outrun all the other horses at the show, in addition to big leaping spooks and bucking in frustration when he thought we did something incorrect. Thanks to Mary Mahler's coaching, we eventually showed at Sport Horse, Training Level and First Level with scores in the mid 60s. His best scores were the lengthenings of course. Our first show was my first time to show in the Open as a trainer and I was nervous about the switch from Amateur to Open. In his first class, he tied with the Regional Champion for first place and Mr Z won the tie because his collective marks were higher. If his rider hadn’t gone off course we would have won without the tiebreaker. So, I owe him that boost in my confidence. I was never nervous at a show again. I was never able to practice the test at home because he always memorized the patterns. Unfortunately, before we could show at 2nd level he tore the deep digital flexor tendon. It healed with scar tissue and he is now lame at the trot.  His intelligence is amazing. I have a million Mr Z stories. Cindy Mettes bred him to her 2 FEI endurance mares because she said he was the most athletic horse she had ever seen. She has a filly and colt by him.  The colt, Bantam Z was just awarded Arabian Horse Assoc. Distance Horse of the Year for 2021. He also won the NATRC Presidents Cup. I bred him once to a warmblood mare and now have Zentina, who is listed at the top of this page. I occasionally give him bute and take him on a walk trail ride which he loves, but he is now officially retired.