Sunrise's Smokey Black

'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.