This week on Barrel Horse World Flying O Ranch’s trainer posted some pics of the four year old gelding of theirs that she’s riding…..which brought the response below from the owner of one of his half sibs in Tennessee.
“OMG. You wanna see double? Here’s a video of his big sister. I’m her proud mama. And they are absolutely identical twins. Same diamond, snip, and pretty little head. She really is a natural too. The ONLY trouble we had training her was that she literally picked everything up too quickly. She wanted to GO GO GO. We’d train a little, throw her out a little, train a little, throw her out a little. She learned everything so easily that she was begging to go on to the next step. Maybe she could have handled it? But we were always taught to let those good lessons sink in for a while before moving ahead. Enjoy him!!! We are trying to trade for brother Handsome right now. Included a link below. This was sister winning a darn tough rodeo this summer. She lost a little time on the 3rd barrel but she still won easily. Gears gears gears — we’ve never seen a pattern big enough for her to run out of more gears! And she runs 19 second poles. BTW — she’s also paying for my daughters college! Full scholarship. Rodeo team picking up everything not covered by academic scholarship. What a blessing she has been. And knock on wood — she’s tough as nails! “
Here’s a link to one of SaraBeth and Zippin’s videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj01dR7zJSA
And here’s some of the ‘’rest of the story:”
Simply Zippin wasn’t hauled to Tennessee just because everyone thought she’d make a great barrel horse……there was a spot to fill in the trailer, and she was a green broke filly that was almost ready for a new home, so she hopped on the trailer and headed south on a chilly fall morning in 2005! That’s how much just pure coincidence caused what happened next!
Unsold when her owners left for home in North Dakota, Simply Zippin was just waiting for the right people to come along. She’s a plain sorrel filly, not a lot of flash, pretty well bred, but not spectacularly so, and only green broke……But Chris Thompson and her daughter SaraBeth decided to take a chance on the filly—-and, to use an old and well worn phrase, the rest is history.
Trained slowly and well, Simply Zippin took to barrels, poles, and rodeo in SaraBeth’s capable hands like it was the one and only thing she’d ever wanted to do. This duo started winning, and people started paying attention to the ‘plain sorrel little horse from North Dakota.’ Through the remaining years of SaraBeth’s high school rodeo career, Zippin became one of her favorite mounts……they ended their high school career with a trip to both the High School National Finals and The Little Britches Rodeo National Finals. Way to go SaraBeth and Zippin!!! But the best part came when the scholarship awards were announced! The plain sorrel little filly from North Dakota gave SaraBeth a ride to University of Tennessee at Martin, Tennessee! Congratulations from Flying O Ranch to SaraBeth Thompson and Simply Zippin on their many accomplishments. We wish you nothing but the best in these exciting college years.
See more great prospects on the Flying O Ranch website at www.flyingohorses.com