Royal Triple Doc "Roy"-9 Year Old Gelding
Roy was a horse people said to be a "stupid horse", will never learn anything, and will only follow other horses around. Roy was a lazy horse with many simple problems to be fixed. He didn't rein, side pass, rate, stand tied or even flex his neck. He would paw the ground when he was tied, and would break the lead rope every once in awhile. Roy was and still is strong, and he knows it. He also gets easily attached to other horses, so he couldn't bear to be left alone. He had arena anxiety, wouldn't stand still at mounted competitions and would almost run people over!
Before I got Roy in mid May of 2007, and he had been left in a stall with no exercise for at least a few months. It took me a couple of weeks to get him back into shape by working him hard one day and easy the next. I mostly did ground work with him in my round pen, and taught him how to flex and side pass. Then I started doing drills outside of the round pen that involved stopping, backing up, side passing, flexing, rating and lead changes for about two months. And every other weekend, I took him out to work cattle. By the end of July of 2007, I easily broke Roy to gunfire and shot at local monthly matches for a couple of months. We competed in our first big competition in mid September for the New Mexico State Championship. After a few stages at the State Championship, Roy was very smooth and consistent. It took us less than a year to earn our first National and World Championship title. Roy is now a two-time Western National Champion as well as a multi-time World Champion Shooting Horse, and is still running strong. He now even stands tied, can side pass at a lope, stands still and stays quiet and calm at competitions. He even rates well easy enough that he can be a Level One to a Level Six Shooting Horse. Roy also does well with leg cues, and has become a great rifle horse.
Dude, A 27 Year Old Gelding
I started riding Dude when he was 18. He was a lazy, spoiled, stubborn barn sour horse, who would spin everytime he didn't get his way. He also refused to back-up. It took me about eight months to fix him, and he turned out to be a good shooting horse as well as a kids' horse. And he now even backs up when asked to. In 2007, Dude happily retired at the age of 22 as a kids' horse on a small ranch in Wyoming with a family who LOVE him!
Dude's Mounted Shooting Accomplishments:
2007:
SASS New Mexico Ladies Overall State Champion
CMSA Rio Grande Stampede Ladies Overall Champion
2006:
SASS Reserve Junior World Champion
SASS New Mexico Ladies Overall State Champion
SASS & CMSA New Mexico Junior State Champion
New Mexico/Colorado Border Wars Reserve Junior Champion
SASS Arizona Junior State Champion
SASS Smoke in the Valley Reserve Junior Champion
Dakota, A 10 Year Old Gelding
Dakota was a lazy, spoiled barn sour horse, who would sometimes buck or rear up when you want him to keep moving at a lope. In late January of 2011, I started working him in and out of the round pen doing drills for almost two months. He took to gun fire quickly, and turned out to be a nice shooting horse. He has been competing in mounted shooting since late March of 2011. He is being ridden by a CMSA Mens Level Two competitor.
Lucky Four Buck "Miss Lucky", A 10 Year Old AQHA Mare
Lucky was given to me as an unfinished shooting horse, and is a "freight train" horse. She loves to run, and gets extremely energetic when in an arena. She has a lot of go in her, and is hard to rate. However, she is very sound and quiet on the ground; especially when you bathe or saddle her. I have been riding her for almost three months, and she has become my main competition horse. She is smooth and consistent, and has become calmer in the arena; especially at mounted competitions. Lucky and I competed in our first competition in July of 2011, and we won High Overall which moved me up to a Ladies Level 5!
Updated January 2012
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