About CC Performance Horses:
I didn’t come from a well off rodeo family or grow up around ranching, I had the opportunity to visit my grandparents ranch every few months and ride whatever they had bought from the horse trader. My dad sold his first horse for his first car and my mom knew just enough to get herself hurt, my grandparents taught me how to hang on and saddle my own horse but it took awhile for them to let me have the reins.
My parents found a nice English riding lesson program when I was 7-ish and I believe that lasted maybe a year, I had the opportunity to lightly show (literally was follow the leader over some ground poles), learn the cues for different gates and go over small cross rails, make some new friends, and over summer camp learn the basics about the horses anatomy. Sadly my instructor passed away from brain cancer and the whole property & the horses were split up and sold..
I remember going to visit my grandparents and not realizing as an 8 yo that not every horse was trained with the same cues... I had learned to canter by “step right, kick left” I had no idea at the time this was for a certain lead, my knowledge wasn’t that quite advanced yet! and I was testing my cues out on one of their geldings and he just broke in two. I didn’t come off but I had blisters from hanging on to the horn so tight and my sweet mother jumped out in front of the Bronc & luckily he stopped at least long enough to get me down.
Just like most that had the opportunity to grow up around horses, so many memories and mishaps growing up and learning with the horses.
I was the very definition of back yard rider and I enjoyed not having an itinerary and just being with my horses. Although I always had my grandparents horses to hurt myself on, in 2005 my dad had a barndominum built closer to home and soon after, my grandparents bought me my own horse that I got to pick out and try myself.
The horse trader and her let me get on this brand new to me horse bare back and in a halter! When they weren’t looking he was giving me all kinds of heck, crow hopping and what not. I knew immediately he needed to come home with me. That was my Pretty Boy! He was 7 at that time when I was 11.
When I turned 15 I was craving to learn more and get back into jumping, my dad drove me to different facilities when we pulled into 4c stables. While the manager was showing us around we all noticed her employees on their phones texting and goofing off, she looked me right in the face and seriously asked if I wanted a job. I looked at my dad who had a huge smile on his face and nodded (since he’d have to drive me still) of course I couldn’t say no. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into!
That opened a door that could not ever be closed... I worked there for around 6 months: feeding 40+ horses, cleaning 10+ stalls, waters, barn isle, etc. I would’ve kept on but she lost 4 boarders all at once and I was the last hired. I also took a horse with me... that was Seven (my blue eyed dragon), the first horse I ever purchased.
Seven was way too much horse for me - a green broke cutting reject that went all kinds of wrong. She was fractious minded, waspy, feisty, high strung and confident in the worst way. That’s when I started dabbling into horse training... I knew I had some learning to do if I wanted to make this work. I couldn’t find anyone to fully commit to helping us - so the easiest, most well understood method for me at that time was the Parelli Method!
Who I subject every horse on our property to learning all of his games, ya know, just so I could get extra good at it. Seven and I literally did the one rein stop, IN OUR TOM THOMB SNAFFLE, in the round pen for 6 months. Anytime this mare got her head with a loose rein, she wasn’t walking anymore.. She went 0 to 100 faster than I could even blink and had no face.. so this worked for us.
Pretty soon I wanted another barn job, I loved the hard work and all I had ‘collected’ and learned from my last endeavor. I was still pretty young being only 16 so the next stable I emailed and explained I was looking for work.. at the time “they weren’t hiring.” That was Paws for a Reflection Ranch. It must have been meant to be because at that same time, I was in an elective special needs class that was soon to be (unbeknownst to me) taking a field trip to this very place. When I met Melode there, literally just stepping off the school bus, she understood me better and I was hired almost immediately. I worked there for over 4 years! What a blessing that job was.. Doing all the same types of chores as my prior job but add in pigs, goats, and other critters; including leading summer camps, assisting in riding lessons, desensitizing and conditioning their horses, helping with their ranch events. I had a blast working for them and coming in pretty shy, really grew overall as a person and horsewoman.
Within a year of working at Paws, believe it or not I wanted more... more knowledge, more experience, more responsibility, more work.
This time I found a private facility formerly called Round About Stables but now is known as Cedar Haven Stables. At the time, Amy mainly had just her own horses there and a handful of boarders. This was an English riding facility and I did anything extra I could for money and knowledge; lunging/riding horses, grooming, taking jumping/dressage lessons etc. I also worked there for around 4 years and made life long friends.
Between those jobs I lightly got into rescuing horses; anything that needed me from Craigslist horror stories to auctions to the strays picked up and held in the county holding pens. I even adopted one mare from Happy Horse Haven, who I never felt was "mine," but with time came clarity that all along I was instead to be "hers," and that's my Aiyanna.
I would hang fliers on entry gates; anyone with horses relentlessly had fliers taped to their gates by an anxious and driven teenager. Offering basic horse care to help fund my rescue efforts - feeding, exercising, riding lessons, grooming/baths etc. where I had almost too many clients to keep up with.
In 2013, I started feeling very unsettled and really wanted to expand and change but I wasn’t sure what. I started with applying to Tarleton State University and moving myself (and my horses of course) to my grandparents ranch in Hico, where it all first started.
Six years later, I now have a very selective and small breeding program, as well as, a training facility in the works. I'm still building and learning and am always under construction in every aspect.
My goals and dreams are way out there and at one point, were NO doubt unrealistic. But being realistic is the surest way to mediocrity.
I know full well that God is the source of energy in my life.
All I have and all I do is because of Him.
