A Bad Egg or A Top Notch Chicken?

So, let me tell you about my least favorite, favorite broodmare.... her name is Streakin For Dinner but we just call her Tiki. My mom bought her sight unseen off of DreamHorse.com when she was just two. Her ad said she was just standing around being neglected and was looking for a new home. I think she paid $800 for her and had her shipped from Colorado. When she stepped off of the trailer she truly looked like she had been neglected... she was skinny, scruffy, big eyed, and had a pretty large set of ears that made a floppy sound when she shook her head. She was never a trusting mare and always acted like she didn't need people. She was difficult to catch, but once caught, was pretty agreeable.

When she was 4,  I did everything I'm willing to do with unbroke babies. Saddle, put a bit in their mouth, do some ground work, pony them out off a broke horse, and haul and tie. We had a few pretty exciting moments but overall she took it pretty well. I had nagged Gabe to get on her but he was busy. I was getting tired of waiting and I decided I'd give it a try myself. Sidenote- colt starting is NOT my thing, I'm not good at it, I don't enjoy that step in the process, I know my limits. But as it was, I was going to get things going my damn self! I didn't really set myself up for success on this day, that should be of note. I got on this mare in the middle of a rather large pen. I'd set up the barrels in this pen to practice at one point, it wasn't exactly small... I get on her, and that goes alright. Of course, I can't really get her to move out, so just a slight cluck and a squeeze with my heels and up comes her head, her breath draws in and even an inexperienced colt rider like myself knows what's coming next, is not good. Oh, shes moving out now! Bucking, I'm thinking pretty good, but I have no idea. I do know I'm coming off and land on my butt in short order. A little miffed that I've been unhorsed, I can't even remember the last time I've been buck off... I dust myself off and gather her back up. I don't want her thinking this is acceptable! So back on I get... in the middle of the same pen. Now, in retrospect it's easy to see the many mistakes I made, I'm sure you can too, let's not get judgey...😂 Just like deja vu, we literally replay the exact same scenario, ending with me landing on my butt yet again. I suddenly realize, THIS is a bad idea. I'm hours from help and I'm home alone with my 4 year old daughter, maybe I'll leaving the colt starting to Gabe.

 I come home from work one day and she's caught and saddled. Gabe tells me he couldn't catch her so he roped her and she flat checked out. He got her saddled but she was never the same. She wouldn't even let me hardly touch her. I've never had a horse do that to me. She never came back around like she was. We did try. Sent her to a trainer who didn't get much done with her. She bucked off my mom, who I told not to get on her. She ended up requiring a minor surgery from her sudden dismount.

 So what now? She was very athletic, her papers said she should be a barrel horse, and we felt her 'mental' shortcomings had been man made. So we took a chance and bred her to one of my favorite studs at the time, CalibsLackaCash. She had two babies by him, a sorrel with a blaze stud colt and my gray filly, Laynee. She turned out to be a great momma! We bred her to On A Gator and she had a gray/bay stud colt in a snow storm and he did not survive. We were supposed to breed to First Down French that year but ended up having to use the re-breed to On A Gator. The sorrel filly with a blaze, we call Wren, was the result. The next year First Down French's swimmers went bad so in a last minute switch, we bred to TKW Runaway Fame. Yet another sorrel with a blaze filly, that we appropriately named Switch, was born. So far, I really like all of her babies. Laynee is the only one I've ridden but I very much look forward to riding Wren next year. Shhhhh 🤫 I really like that one a lot!

 I've gotten so much grief from Gabe about Tiki. How we should get rid of her. Hell, after chasing her around trying to catch her for years, I've considered it myself. You have to come up with a different tactic everytime to catch her, she is very smart and can totally read your play. She acts like shes never been touched in her life until you get a halter on her, then she's a dream to handle. She also has, what we call, the Tiki Toss, where she flips her nose in the air in her would-be captors direction. It's basically the horse equivalent of flipping the bird. I believe sometimes God uses horses. And I think he has used this mare to teach me, my mom, and even Gabe quite a few lessons. It has yet to be determined how things will end up but we are very close to finding out how they are going to start! And that, I'm excited about!

Originally posted on Facebook on 11/29/19