The Story As It Stands

Welcome to my new blog! This blog is to tell the happy story of my 5 year old half arabian (half paint) gelding LL Serfer Dude, better known to his friends as Tango (and lovingly by a few as Lishy--short for Tangoliscious). He is currently 16.1hh and a handful and a half but I love him! He has a small following online (a fan club if you will) that I am writing this for. That way I can keep all of his adoring public advised of his progress:)

The first order of business I suppose, is to tell the story of how I came to own this lovemuffin of a horse. It really amounts to a lot of luck, and a small initial investment, that has in essence become my biggest (and best) investment of my short life.

Tango was a bit of a surprise to all of us. We bought his dam at the Enumclaw Auction. She was just a scruffy, skinny, lame horse some horse trader ran through the auction one December. I had finally talked my parents into picking up a broodmare and we had travelled to the auction hoping to find a good deal. Boy did we! Satin didn't look like much, but she sure had a nice head and great disposition--we knew she must have some quality to her despite her overall iffy condition. She was very well bred with her sire being Street Legal (a son of Mister Norfleet) and out of a mare who was a granddaughter of both Sonny Dee Bar and Impressive (N/N of course). So after a bidding war we took our scruffy, skinny, lame but impeccably well bred and well behaved broodmare home with absolutely no fuss or muss!

We got Satin home and promptly clipped, bathed and groomed her. She looked like a new horse! Even if she was still a bit ribby. And we had a photo shoot! Please ignore my pasti-ness...we are from WA after all!!

We decided since we already owned her, and were planning to breed her in the Spring we might be smart to get her vet checked to be sure she was sound for breeding, and to find out why she was lame. When the vet went to do his rectal to be sure she was breedable, he told us he had good news and bad news, she was definately a candidate for a broodmare (soudness wise) but that we weren't going to be breeding her this year. I assumed he had meant that she had some sort of uterine infection that needed to be treated. But, no, he told us she was 5 months in foal, and the foal was healthy and HUGE. Oh goody!

We were SO not ready for a foal yet! We only had two standard 12x12 stalls, and our pastures were fenced with New Zealand hotwire...not very safe for a mare and foal! Time to get busy! We had her vaccinated for everything as it was obvious the trader we bought her from had no clue, which we figured meant nobody else did either! My stepdad and I laid out a 12x24 stall and a 12x36' paddock off of the opposite side of the barn, to be sure we had a safe place to keep Satin and her impending foal. And I did a lot of reading. A LOT. Got a foaling kit put together, and contacted a local gal since I'd never foaled out a mare before, and wanted back up if necessary.


Fast forward 4 months and the wait was on. She was OVERDUE 2 weeks. Two tortorous weeks of listening to a baby monitor, and tip toeing out all hours of the night to check on her. She took to laying down and groaning and pushing at exactly midnight and 4am every night for the last week of her gestation. We WENT CRAZY! Finally at 7:00 PM on March 4th, 2004 my little mule (OK not really....but thats what I thought I had at the time his ears were so big, and his muzzle and eyes were even mealy!) was born. I was His first order of business was to kick my helper in her chin while she was treating the umbelical stump with iodine. He was HUGE! The colt (who had no name yet) was 43" tall and 131lbs. He weighed more than I DID! He was cute, but definately gawky and mule-like.


He grew and grew and grew and I worked with him and decided one (fateful?) day this grade, ugly colt needed to be mine--we got along so well! He was a goofball, and was going to be big. So at least we had that going for us. I made arrangements to buy him from my parents from my parents for the measly price of $500 on payments (well, I was only 19 after all!) I purchased him and set about getting the information I needed to get him registered. Tracked down all of Satin's previous owners and asked if she may have been exposed to a stallion. An owner about 6 people back said yes, she had. Her arabian stallion K A Serabba from OR. The cover dates matched the foaling date, and DNA testing proved he was Tango's sire. The stallion owner gladly signed the transfer paperwork, but the woman who owned Satin at the time of breeding would not sign the papers, as she believed she was entitled to the foal, as she had lost the mare in a trade deal without knowing she was in foal. Tough luck lady! You missed out! Eventually at 3 years old we got him registered.

In the meantime he had grown up into a big strapping gelding and had been started and even ridden by myself in a few lessons. He was started by a local woman who started racehorses, and trained dressage horses. He had turned out to be pretty calm, and level headed. The photo to the right was my first time on him--very green as you can see, but he was very good for me, and gave me the feeling that someday he'd be a great riding horse. After he was done being started I sent him to a trainer who specialized in arabian and half arabian horses who were geared toward western disciplines. He had a gorgeous natural jog, but the lope just wouldn't come along. We showed him some western, but he was just never in the top placings because he was so big, he couldn't get his rump under him. He went to some local shows and did reasonably well but he was just never going to get to a level where he was going to be competitive at the national level. He sure was fun for me to ride though! Big enough for my long 37" inch legs, and just a big doofus:)

We took him to the Scottsdale Arabian show in 2008 and he came home with two Top Tens in sporthorse in hand half arabian geldings (ATH and Open). With a 2nd and a 3rd, he was near the top of the scores! He also did well in the huge HA Western Pl Jr Horse classes. Unfortunately the were so huge, he got missed and although he was well behaved we came home with only the Sporthorse ribbons--but hey WE GOT A TOP TEN JACKET at Scottsdale! He came home and we rode him some more, and I had some lessons on him and we showed him some more and then my trainer got a great job offer in California so she had to leave. I brought him home and a friend and I made a go at keeping him going that winter and were unable to do so successfully. We decided to focus on the Sporthorse stuff for awhile and get him fit for Sport Horse Nationals. We worked on him in hand and got him mannerly and fit and he looked stunning by the time the Nationals swung around. So since we had qualified, we made the drive to Nampa, ID.

We showed in the in hand only, Open and ATH. He placed 11th I believe overall in the Open (just out of the Top Ten) and 12th or 13th in the ATH. There were around 35 horses in both classes so it was an impressive showing for a western pony!

Come November I decided to try and find someone to lease Tango so he could remain in full time training, without me paying. I took him to a well known local trainer for evaluation and he thought he had a client who would be interested, but that he needed some fitting and riding. The client ultimately passed on him, but after a few months he was going much better. One day while riding him, the trainer trotted Tango out some and realized he might make a nicer hunter than a western horse. His assistant saw it and decided she'd like to lease and campaign him as a hunter for the show year. It was an unexpected (but nice) surprise!

Josie (the assistant) and Tango went on to sweep their first show with 3 firsts (in the Junior horse and Novice Horse). They qualified for the Region 4 Champion show in one show! They went on to show at a Region 5 qualifier and placed 3rd and 4th overall in the Junior horse. He qualified for the Region 5 Championship show too. He went Top 5 against VERY nice National level horses in both Region IV and Region V. He was about as steady as a junior horse comes, and none of us could have been happier with him. Josie and he had a fabulous year and it helped her to get her name out there.

And that brings us to today. Tango is now home with me and solid as can be, and we are having a blast taking lessons with dressage trainer Lindsey Anderson. We plan to show him in Main Ring Hunter this year, and to focus on the Sporthorse since this is the last year Nationals will be in Idaho, so we are going to make the best of it. I plan to do sport horse in hand, sport horse under saddle, show hack and training level (and maybe first, depending how we come along). I'm really enjoying having my baby back, and I think he missed me too. Watch for updates on our progress as we try to learn dressage!:)