About Gambler| Photo Album | Online Studbook | Foal Gallery | Video Clips | Stallion Service Contract
Return to Westwood Farms

Gambler's Tequila Sunset
Golden Gambler x Shaker's Fancy Sensation

April 2009

"Sunny" was a custom ordered foal for Vicki Thomas in Florida. Vicki was hoping for a palomino colt to take over as her smooth gaited trail horse when she retires her aged gelding, Dusty. That's exactly what she got! Sunny is a big, strapping colt, and the morning after his birth, he was gaiting circles around his dam displaying a beautiful running walk.

"He definitely got the best from both his sire and dam. The cross worked extremely well. I really believe Gambler definitely helped Fancy's weaker spots in this crossing. And I noticed Sunny can do Gambler's running walk and Fancy's stepping pace. Pretty cool! In order, Sunny flat foot walks, running walks, stepping paces, canters and gallops. I'm not sure if Sunny does the fox trot though; I have not witnessed it yet. Sunny is definitely gaited better than his dam!!! And that's really all I wanted when I bred Fancy to Gambler (besides a palomino colt)...a well gaited mount. Getting that beautiful color was just icing on the cake!! I'm almost tempted to cross Fancy again with Gambler ... the results were so good." - Vicki

"Yes, he is gorgeous, and he's so well-balanced; it blows me away. I can't believe how big he is at 3 months; that's what I was thinking; definitely bigger than mama.

Another good thing is he's not biting so much anymore, but he sure is mounting every horse in sight. I discovered that if you let him into your space, he would do alot of the biting behavior, so I stopped allowing him to approach that close. He's only allowed to get within 2 to 3 feet of people, if he gets too close, I push him away and say "No" forcefully." He's learned to stop that far away and wait for me to approach. He's very smart. If I want to interact with him, I approach him/I cross into his space and he's cool with that. When I do approach him from the front, I will reach up from below and secure his head by placing my hand on the bridge of his nose to keep him front biting...it's the same action you would do when you approach a horse with a halter, you reach up to secure them before you handle them. It works quite well with him.

Last night I went out to the pasture to check Spirit. Sunny was about 50 feet away. He nickered to me. It was so cool. I called his name and clucked, and he gaited up to me nodding his head the whole way until he was about 5 feet from me. I approached him and gave him a good neck and rump scratch, which he loves.

I'm big on voice commands, some of which I couple with hand cues that will translate to leg clues when I train him to ride, so he's already moving his haunches over with hand pressure on his sides where your legs would be, and crossing over his front legs when you put pressure on his neck where the reins would be. He also backs quite well by saying back and using your thumb to press intermittantly very lightly on his chest. Very smart little guy. I picked all his feet up and held each one for several seconds. All this with no restraint, just my voice and whoa."

March 3, 2008 - Sunny continues to amuse me with how his personality and little quirks mimic his mom's. For instance, he is real big on food just like Fancy. No surprise there, and his first response to you coming out to see him in the pasture is to see if you have any treats. He does this by walking up to you until he's about 2 feet away, he stops and stretches out his neck tilting his head sideways so that his quivering lips are almost touching you at arms length...a the head tilt is very similar to how a dog tilts its head when it hears strange, interesting noises. Just hilarious. It is exactly what Fancy does.

Saturday, Sunny and Lucky "helped" me shovel the manure hill they've made near the water trough. My old gelding is very clean by nature; he'll pick a toilet area and use it religiously. Unfortunately, he picked the area right near the fence and the water trough and has "taught" the colts that this area is to be used as a toilet. They have been very obedient in that respect and as you can imagine in only a couple month's time it has grown to quite a pile. As I was removing the pile shoveling it into the truck bed (it would have taken a gazillion wheelbarrow loads), Lucky and Sunny both took turns inspecting the pile in the truck bed and basically getting in the way standing on the pile I had just raked together to pick up or standing down wind so that the wind blew some of load onto them when I slung the shovel up. Lucky wanted to get into the truck (I had the windows down) and had to shoo him away. They were very helpful!! - Vicki

SHAKER'S FANCY SENSATION
MFTHBA #97-53658
RHBAA #975081