Successful Matches

'In Praise of the Older Horse', by Vanessa Quartly.
As a coach, trainer and horse breeder, over the last 35+ years I have had the opportunity to ride a lot of horses. I have also had the chance to work with a lot of people, from very green, or very young to older and more experienced riders. It is through these dealings that I have discovered a very interesting fact. A very useful part of the Equine population has been largely ignored. READ MORE....

Mandy Bunney (7 years old) aboard her match, a 9 year old 14:2h pony named Stoney. Stoney was a high performance western horse until he got hurt with overwork. After some time off and some good farrier work, Stoney came back in fine form and started his new life as a Pony Clubber and show pony which he now has many wins in. He and Mandy still enjoy the odd team penning and sorting when time allows. Both are tenacious and ready for any new challenge; these two are a great pair!

This is Mandy's 12 year old brother Lee with his new partner, Pet's Royal Fancy, a 12 year old 14:1h Arabian mare. Fancy was a seasoned team penning horse, winning a National Top 6 in 2004. She also excelled at the pony shows in hunter pleasure and western pleasure. When Lee got her, he decided to turn her into a jumper for pony club which he did with much success. This year he has started ranch cutting and is doing very well. Lee and Fancy are a great match as they compliment each other personality-wise. Fancy is sensitive and will try almost too hard to please you. Lee however, is quiet and patient and knows just how hard she can be pushed without upsetting or disappointing her. He's good with the girls – after all, he does have a red-headed sister!

Joan (pictured left) purchased Slate, a 10 year old Quarter Horse gelding from me about 2 years ago. He had been a pasture ornament standing in the field for about 5 years when I came across him. He had been trained at one time but the person who owned him had ended up with him as a board bill. He had his own horses to ride and just never got around to either riding or selling him, so I brought Slate home. We started him over as he had some definite “trust” issues, which lead me to believe that, sometime before his last owners, he had been misunderstood and handled roughly. He soon came around and turned out to be quite a pal! His favorite thing was riding out on the trails. He made a perfect match with his new owner Joan, as she was gentle and asked only that he be a good trail buddy as he did not have a lot of technical training. He is the kind of horse that you can leave for 6 months, then just go catch and take on a trail ride and it's just like you rode him yesterday, which suites Joan fine as she works and can only ride occasionally throughout the summer.

I also found a pretty good match horse for her husband Allen (pictured right). The horse we found for Al was a chestnut Quarter Horse named Barney, who's life as a ladies’ trail horse was a huge disaster as this was an ambitious, high-energy animal who is also a little on the hot side. It turned out his forte was as a team penning horse, where his energy and fast reaction time came in very handy!

This is Superstar Skip, an 8-year-old reg. Quarter Horse gelding. Skip was a typical “fish out of water” character. He was a foundation-bred (cow-horse-bred) Quarter horse gelding that “hated” cows! The last owners tried to convince him that he should be a cow pony, to no avail. His very ambiguous attitude was mistaken for willfulness. He was also not very technically well-trained for his age. Furthermore, when you watched him move, all you could think was “English horse!”

I purchased him and started him completely over, working in hunt seat. He took to this like bees to honey! Within 3 months I took him to his first show as a bona fide Hunter Pleasure horse. This was a rather large (and tough) open show, where he showed his true talent by winning 2nd in a class of 17 all-breed hunter pleasure horses! He topped the day off by placing 3rd out of 13 in Reg. Q.H. Halter (mares and geldings). Shortly after that, a friend, Darlene Brouwer of Brouwer Performance Horses, called me about him as she as she had seen at that same show. She said that she knew of a very nice lady who was looking for a pretty, gentle English-type of horse that she could ride hunt seat and trail ride with. This was right up Skip's alley as he loved to do both (no cows, hurray!). Shortly after, Carol Stark of Canmore AB became the proud new owner of Superstar Skip, who finally has a chance to live up to his name!

Skip is also used for dressage and he goes back to stay with Brouwer Performance Horses for a couple of months in the winter to continue his training.

Myself on left standing beside Joanne Apps and her perfect match, Reg.7/8 Arabian, 5-year-old Pinto mare Myra.We are at the top of the mountain just behind where Joanne lives in Enderby, British Columbia. It's kind of a funny story how we found Joanne's horse. She had decided that she definitely wanted an Arabian and a mare. Joanne is a pretty experienced horse woman, as she used to ride a lot when she was a teenager and later on became one of the most successful Miniature horse breeders in Western Canada. Although we had a very good idea of what she wanted, the horse-finding gods were not with us. We looked at over 100 horses both in Alberta and B.C. but just could not seem to find that perfect one!

Then one day I ran into my next door neighbor, none other than the very well known (in his day) Arabian breeder, Charlie Hubscmidt. He had told me earlier that he was now retired and was no longer breeding his own horses, but it so happened that he ended up with a pretty little mare who was originally bred by Charlie, sold as a weanling, and when misfortune hit the owners, they had to sell all of their horses. They had this one left and Charlie, being the responsible breeder that he was, offered to take her back, even though he had no idea what he would do with her. Well I went right over to see her, called Joanne immediately and said “We have your horse!” Although she had not had as much riding as Jo would have liked, her wonderful, sensible demeanor led her to take a chance on the mare and finish the training herself. Because of their two very complimentary personalities, this usually not-so-good idea worked like a charm. They got each other from day one!

Here is 24-year-old purebred Arabian Ozzy, with his new owner Justin Latimer. I found this horse at an Arabian horse sale. People did not want to take a chance on him because of his age (then 23 years old), but I thought he was a pretty neat old guy so I brought him home. After some research I found out that when he was was a young horse, he was shown internationally in both cutting and reining events. So, I put him back on cattle. He loved it! I even used him at the Canadian Team Penning Nationals in October of that year. We came in 21st out of about 180 odd teams (my fault, I couldn't find the third cow - histerical blindness!).

However, because of his age and the stress on his joints, etc., I thought that it would be better to find him a more age-appropriate career. Enter Caroline Latimer. Caroline needed a kid's horse for her two children and Ozzy fit the bill. He now has a very good life with the Latimer family.