Who she was…
Sugar is a purebred registered American Quarter Horse mare. Sugar was bred to compete in the sport of cutting, which is when the horse has to herd a cow without help from the rider. Cutting horses are incredibly athletic, quick and agile like cats. Sugar began her competition career with Yellow Creek Ranch (you can see the YCR brand on her right hip). Unfortunately, Sugar’s young body couldn’t take the physical strain of all the hard stops and turns and she had to be retired at 3 years old. After her early retirement, Sugar was then used as a broodmare to produce other young cutting horses. Sugar was then sold to a local cutting and reining farm to continue her broodmare career. When that farm closed, Sugar was sold to Barakah Heritage Farm (we went by a different name then) to be part of the riding program.
Who she is…
With regular bodywork, Sugar is able to stay pain-free and work with people for both ground and riding lessons. Sugar is still very maternal, and we hope someday to breed her and let her keep her baby forever. Sugar has been a fantastic teacher horse, for both guests and staff. You can read about one of my learning experiences with her here. So often we forget that ego and horses are not a good combination, and she quickly reminded me of the error of that approach. Sugar is featured in several other blog articles as well.
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