06/17/2023
♥️ HEZA TRIBUTE ♥️
A little about this guy...
Tribute is a compilation of so many dreams❣️
His mother, Sheza Trinity Gem, is the match up between my best girl Shezahourglass Chunk and Rebels Gem Dandy. His sire, Fire N Valor, is the match up between a mare I picked up from a kill pen and rehabilitated and a very nice, young Firewater Flit son.
Sheza is my first horse I earned and trained completely. She has won thousands in jackpots, high school rodeo, NBHA, and tons of other rodeos. She is courageous, a bit snarky and independent, and has the biggest heart of any horse I have ever had the privilege of riding ♥️ I trained her initially through feeling and the love of a young girl for a powerful and kind horse. Later, she endured all the training styles I explored with the grace of a wise teacher...very clearly letting me know what wasn't working and growing with what was working. I rode her hard and look back at the things I did that should have killed us both, but by the grace of God, I was protected by Momma's prayers and blessed with Sheza's true heart 💜 I have so many memories with this girl and many more to come! She is finished raising babies and will be my main girl to ride for fun until she can't carry me and then she will continue to be my best friend and possibly a great friend for other little girls.
Gem was a lone, skinny horse standing in a scrubby paddock at a place I went to pick up hay. The first time I looked into his eyes, kindness with a bit of loneliness looked back. While waiting for the seller to arrive I explored Gem a bit more discovering he was still a stallion. Boy was I NOT looking for a stallion! Or even a gelding for that matter. I had just recently begun building a horsemanship program at an at-risk youth home. Our herd was all mares and a stallion on the property was a big ask. We lived on the same property and kept our personal horses there as well. In fact, Sheza was an integral part of building that program and touched hundreds of lives in her new role teaching youth the joys of riding!
When the owner arrived he found me walking around the paddock with Gem close beside me. I had been exploring some John Lyons and Monty Roberts bits of knowledge to get a better picture of his character. He was 'hooked on' to me before I even asked! The owner just stood at the fence and watched with a smile. We had not met in person, just spoke over the phone so me going into a paddock of a horse I don't know, especially a stallion, on a property not mine who's owner I didn't know well was completely out of character and just rude. Thankfully, the owner was great and gave me some back story... Gem had recently been acquired by him from a not so gentle gentlemen that had under fed and unfairly treated Gem. His current owner didn't really need a stallion, but couldn't stand by for the rough treatment of Gem, so he made a deal for Gem a month or so before. He said Gem had put on a couple hundred pounds but still needed more. He did breed a couple of his older grade broodmares to him, but otherwise didn't plan to have a stallion around. I asked to buy him...
I didn't have an extra ten dollars to my name, but he agreed to do 12 monthly payments of one hundred dollars and let me take him home that week. Gem was seven I believe and he got a big green pasture of his own away from the other horse areas and close to my house. I spent hours trying all my new groundwork methods learned from an old VHS set of Clinton Anderson's that I found in the old training barn on the property. Gem was so forgiving and took each mess-up on my part with consistent confidence. I started riding him when he was eight and he had never been ridden before that. He took it like a champ and has been ridden off and on for years. He isn't fancy broke as I ran out of time to train a lot when I started back to college that same year I started him under saddle. He sired a few foals and one of those was Trinity during a break in racing for Sheza while I was going to college. We castrated Gem at the age of eighteen I believe, before moving to Missouri because the property wasn't set up to keep a stallion separate and it made hauling out much easier as well. He took to the gelding life like a star! After moving I was able to ride him more and he was Seth's guy to explore trails on until we decided to sell him to another lady to grow with. He did well with her and a young girl also leased him and gained a ton of confidence. The owner ended up offering him to another family that I hope he will live the rest of his days with! At 24, Gem is faithfully packing around kiddos and their mom as well as a few other beginner riders.
Trinity was a bit spoiled and well loved on by all the kiddos at the youth ranch as you could imagine, but she has always loved people! She will leave the herd and come get loved on...of course she loves food as well! She still has a mind of her own with her little snarkiness, but overall is just a personable horse to be around. I started training Trinity to ride when she was three, but she had an accident that cut her back leg pretty bad. It healed up and we started training again at four. However, after a couple rides she was injured again. We are guessing she was kicking with both hind legs and hit the barn boards. It ruptured the tendon sheath on both hind legs just under the front of the hock. Vet thought she may be sound for light riding eventually, but not competition. So we bred her that next spring. She had a gorgeous bay roan filly by a son of A Streak of Fling, Sheza Calypso Fling♥️ Following this we bred her two more times but she lost the foal each time between 7-8 months. She had the preventative vaccines, but with some research we decided to do a 90 day treatment for EPM. Bred her that next spring and Tribute was born without any problems 11 months later. Trinity will be bred back this year and will start back riding next year if she is able. Otherwise, she will give us many more beautiful babies to share with others.
Da Smart Roanie, aka River, Tribute's grand dam, was born and raised on a Kansas ranch and through some bad luck ended up at a Kansas kill pen where a nonprofit group was able to redeem some of the horses to prospective private owners before they were shipped to Mexico for slaughter. I wasn't really looking for another mare, but I saw her and an Arab gelding, Cisco, that we decided to get for a lesson horse. She came in sick with a respiratory infection and very underweight. With some TLC and a bit of affection she gained weight and gained trust. This girl was in rough shape, but such a fighter! She had always been a broodmare, so we decided to just breed her once she was healthy. Her first foal with us was Valor and such a looker! She ended up losing her second foal around six months, but the next foal was a sweet red roan c**t. Sadly, she had a gorgeous filly this year that had extremely constricted tendons on her front legs which caused irreparable damage to River when foaling. We tried to save them both, but we ultimately lost them both this spring😞 River gave us a beautiful stallion that we will be keeping in our herd as well as her buckskin grand daughter we had this year.
Famous Firepower, aka Shaggy, is Tribute's gorgeous grandsire. Although his competition career was cut short due to an injury, he has some impressive bloodlines to pass on to his get and grand-get! He is by a great barrel stallion, Firewater Flit, and out of a mare by Dash Ta Fame, a giant among barrel horse sires! I have three of his get and two grands of his that are all showing great athleticism and although a little more cautious to bond, they are connecting and learning like champs! We will be riding his oldest babies this fall and I can't wait to build his legacy into our foundation herd❣️
As you can see, Tribute is the culmination of years of building a foundation for a versatile partner! His dam carries the legendary lines from Impressive as well as some foundation racehorse lines and the amazing matriarch to our entire program Sheza...my own personal legend! Sheza carries foundation ranch horse and racing lines that may not be as well known, but are known for the steadfast nature and sound longevity. His sire carries the great cow horse, Smart Chic Olena, along with some great cutting horses and ranch horses. His sires side also brings the legacy of barrel horses such as Firewater Flit and Dash Ta Fame along with a gorgeously long mane and tail! Lol. On another note, all of our stock are five panel N/N♥️
Heza Tribute is the first fruit of a breeding program that I hope endures through time💜 As such, after visiting with his new owners, he will be our first fruit offering ushering in the next generation of amazing horses building dreams with their people. He is a dream come true for Jenny Trask and I hope to fulfill more dreams in the years to come❣️
We will be offering a few more great horses with their own stories later this year, so keep watch on our page!
