 Ahh yes, my sweet, beautiful and loving Mare, Belle. Belle was bred and raised by Debbi and Brian Leville of Foxy Rhythm Ranch, of Livermore Ca, now located in Stockton, Missouri. Sired by Lonesome Hills Desperado and born to the dam Pistol's First Lady, this mare is truly one of a kind, and I do not say that because I am biased, even though I am LOL!  In my career as I rider, before I was a trainer, I was lucky enough to ride this mare's Sire, Dam and grand dam on the sires side, which was Lonesome Hills Dove. As a youth rider I rode Pistol's First Lady, Belle's Dam, to winnings more than once, including 1994 youth high point, 1994 costume high point and several youth and open division high points throughout 1994 - 1996.  Belle will always have a home with us - she provided for me as a fabulous show horse, and still does. I have ridden her to winnings, and high points in the two gait ladies, two gait open, costume, two gait western pleasure, trail and three gait open. My youth riders have ridden Belle to winnings, and high points, in two gait youth, two gait youth country pleasure, two gait open, two gait trail, two gait western pleasure, 3 gait open and three gait western pleasure.  Besides the classes in the show ring, my youth riders, including Rebecca Valentine and Morgan Peterson, have ridden belle to winnings and top placements in Jr Rodeo barrel racing, single stake and pole bending. Belle has carried her youth riders through short distance endurance rides, placing in the top 5, and has even competed in open cross country jumping events.
I adore this mare. She is picky, she is on point. Belle is a fast learner, she has patience and demands to be clean. This mare can do it all, if you only ask her in the right way, and I could not ask for anything more in what I feel is a top quality, versatile, Missouri Fox Trotter.
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I have personally never met a horse quote like Surprise. She is sweet, she has a personality that is one of a kind and I bet if she could fit in your pocket, she would try to climb in there!  Surprise was bred and raised by Debbi & Brian Levillie at Foxy Rhythm Ranch of Livermore California and now located in Stockton, Missouri. Sired by Lonesomehill's Desperado and out of the dam Missouri Sunrise, Surprise has some great breeding and nice big movement!  I have owned Surprise since 2006 and she has a forever home with us. Besides myself, Surprise has been shown by 3 of my past youth riders and has earned herself a lot of blue ribbons and a couple of local high point awards. After an injury that required a long rehab period, I began using Surprise for my lesson program and I never imagined that she would be so great for the kids. Carrying riders as young as 6 years old, Surprise loves her job as a lesson horse for beginner riders.  Surprise loves her home at our Santa Rosa location - she enjoys leisurely afternoons begging for treats and gets spoiled rotten by our new team of youth riders!
'Smoke' came to us somewhat by accident.
In September of 2009 she was brought to California from Missouri and she was brought to me the end of that same month to be trained and posted for sale. I was told that she was 'green broke'. Smoke was 3 years old and I remember her being such a sweet horse. Well, I determined that she most likely had not carried a rider for a very long time, if ever, because as soon as I set my weight on her back she bucked me right off! We went back to the basics for a couple weeks and started over again as a true 'green' horse. Smoke was to be worked for 30 days and then posted for sale After the 30 days, I had already fallen in love with her and negotiated a purchase of her, for myself - she never did get to be posted actively for sale. Shortly after her purchase, and in January of 2010, I had a bad riding accident off of a clients horse and was out of commission for several months with broken bones and muscle damage. I was worried that Smoke would suffer from not being ridden - thankfully my youth riders at the time, Rebecca and Morgan, helped me keep her in shape from the ground and a little bit of saddle time. I was released by the Doctor on April 10th of 2010 to start riding and just about 10 days later was able to debut this very special horse in the first horse show of her career, at the Monterey Springfest in Monterey, Ca. I was still very sore, she was new to this whole show thing and we still started the year off with a blue ribbon! We are so happy to have found this lovely horse - she is a favorite in the barn and has a forever home with us here at Irish Hills Equine.  Morgan Peterson began taking lessons with me back in 2007. Being a good friend of a friend was sort of how we were luck enough to get Morgan. I had only one youth rider that summer - I was so busy with several projects and just had not had a lot of youth riders taking lessons that year, so it was a perfect time to take on a new rider.
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