Hello!

My name is Summer Davis, and I am thirty years old ( that’s a scary sentence to write!).

I inherited my love for horses from my mother, who grew up in Los Angeles.  When she and my father married, he purchased her a gorgeous black Arabian named Kallany – her first horse.  I was one at the time, and always thought he was the most breathtaking horse I’d ever seen in person….Still do.  Kallany honored us with his companionship until four years ago, when he passed away at the age of thirty-three.

Due to my Mother’s love of horses, we have always been fortunate enough to have them.  I started out with ponies, as most kids do, and received my first “real horse” on my twelfth birthday.  I vividly remember laying on the floor board of my dads truck, crying that I couldn’t live without a paint mare that we had just seen at an auction.  Being a “Daddy’s girl,” I rarely heard the word “no.”  She came home with us that same day.  When Kallany spotted her for the first time, he was absolutely smitten!  He thought she was the prettiest thing that he had ever seen!

Lucky for me, two months later, this same mare gave birth to a beautiful, very large, paint filly.  Talk about a little girls dream!  That mare – “Roxie” just turned thirty this year, and her filly- “Pringles” is now eighteen.  Both of them will be on our property forever.

I can honestly say that Roxie taught me how to ride.  We didn’t have a saddle that fit Roxie at that time, so I rode bareback every.single.day!  I would even get up and ride before school with a neighbor friend of mine, come home, and go out again!  I was 100% committed to that horse, and still am.  She knew very little about being ridden, and I can’t even count how many times she bucked me off in the first couple of years.  She had zero loyalty to me, and would always take off running home as soon as my booty would hit the ground.  She definitely taught me how to hang on, otherwise, I was walking myself home!  I continued to ride Roxie all through my youth, in parades, long trail rides and eventually I sorted cattle on her in our local “sortings.”

Kallany was our “reliable” mount and could be ridden Western or English.  I began taking dressage lessons on him after seeing the 1998 Olympics, where I witnessed Dressage for the first time.  I had never seen anything more beautiful in my life.  Kallany looked the part too – with his ebony black coat, and perfect markings.  The stable that I took lessons at, also trained Fox Trotters.  I began helping out all week long, mucking stalls, and exercising horses, for one lesson on Saturdays.  I started learning to train horses on the ground and under saddle, using all John Lyons methods.

I rode Kallany in Dressage until he was twenty-five, at which point he had to be retired due to a small growth on his hoof.  From that point on, Pringles was my Dressage mount.  She was very athletic, but CONSTANTLY injuring herself.  She should have been born into a plastic bubble!  Every other month, she was taking time off to heal from something:  cut legs ( because she always pawed ), pulled tendons ( from frolicking in the pasture ), stitches ( somewhere ), it was non-stop, and still to this day, she is currently recovering from a huge wound on her leg from who knows what!

When I graduated high school, I began working at a farm in Missouri who raised halter horses.  I was assigned three weanlings to teach basic ground manners.   This is where I fell in love…possibly for the second time.  There were three beautiful paint babies.  One was a filly – Lilly, and two stud colts – Jake and Gus.  Jake and Lilly were exactly what you would expect:  Flashy and large.  They had chrome in all the right places and were very friendly.  Gus on the other hand didn’t color out, so he was only registered as breeding stock.  He was very timid and I could tell that he hadn’t been handled much.  The breeder could tell that I was partial to the underdog, and offered to let me work Gus off in exchange for the other two.  He priced him to me at $ 2,500, which I never would have been able to afford without the opportunity.

Gussie introduced me to the wonderful world of Quarter Horses.  I fell immediately in love with this charming baby, and he quickly became my best buddy.  He accepted everything that I asked of him (much different than the fox trotters and Arabians that I was used to working with).  He was beautifully sculpted and the perfect gentlemen.  I showed Gus in local shows and eventually did riding and ground manner demonstrations, rodeo, queen pageants, ponied other horses from him, hauled him for expositions, and now he is my number one lesson horse.  Gus is the epitome of the perfect horse.  Absolutely consistent and always excited to try new things.  He’s the love of my life!  He is also the horse that I’m riding in the photo above 🙂

From that point, I was hooked!  I couldn’t get enough of Quarter Horses!  I wanted to know everything there was about them and all the things that I could do with them.  When my brother and I graduated high school, my parents offered us a trip anywhere in the world for one month.  I had always dreamed of  going to the Spanish School of Riding in Austria with my cash stash.  Unfortunately, none of my friends could go, so I had saved my money.  When I was nineteen, I used that “saved money” to purchase another foundation bred quarter horse – “Houston”.

Houston was a rock star from the beginning.  I never took her out where someone ( usually judges ) didn’t come up and ask if she was for sale.  She’s the most plain Jane horse I own, but absolutely breathtaking in the show pen.  She snorts when she canters, and has a huge stop!  Houston won me two horse trailers, four saddles, thousands of dollars of prizes, and multiple belt buckles.  She gave me the confidence to go into any ring and know that we were going to come out on top.  I loved her so much, we purchased her full sister “Sammy.”

Fortunately, I got to live out my dream of going to the Spanish School of Riding, just two weeks ago.  My fabulous boyfriend surprised me with tickets to their annual ball for my thirtieth birthday.  It was worth the wait!

When I was ready for college, my time with the horses definitely suffered.  I would still try to ride on the weekends, but with working full time and school, it was a challenge.  I was in and out of relationships, moving from one place to another, and if it weren’t for my parents and our farm, the horses may have had to be sold off.

When I was twenty-seven, I found myself in a stable relationship (One that is supportive of horses- which is a hard find these days) and a secure life.  I had a wonderful job and decided that it was time to turn my life back over to the only passion that has ever stuck.  I started riding more and trying to spend more time at our families beautiful farm.  Eventually, I decided that I wanted to start training again – just a couple horses at a time – after work.  The very next day after discussing this with my boyfriend, I picked up my first client.  From there the rest has been a whirlwind.  We’ve gone from eight horses to fourteen, from training horses, to lessons, and from just riding my own to investing in prospects.   It’s been the most fun that I’ve had in years, and makes me wonder how I ever survived without being completely overindulged in this lifestyle.

This story, though rather long, brings me to why I started this blog.  For the sole purpose of sharing my story with others that have horses missing from their life.  I want to give others the opportunity to follow a story of another “underdog” that I recently met:  “Smart Lil Panda.”  I will show you her progress from where I found her, to who she becomes.  I hope you enjoy the ride!