I found Santee when I accompanied a couple of friends to an
auction on a spur of the moment whim. I had no intention of buying a
horse at that time and sat on my hands for the entire auction. Towards
the end of the auction, three arabians were run through the arena. The
same man bought all three of them and I couldn't believe how cheaply he
had purchased them. One of my friends knew the man and told me that he
was a killer buyer. I couldn't stand by and let all these beautiful
horses go to a slaughter house. I could only afford to buy one from him
and I decided on the four and a half year old mare, since she was still
young enough to train and have a few foals. I could only give the man a
down payment on her, until I got paid again and he took her with him
until I could pay the balance.
A couple of weeks later, he delivered her to my place in Schuyler. I had
managed to track down the person who consigned her to the auction, and
it was then I found out what I was up against. I had picked the only
one of the three who wasn't even halter broke, who in fact had never
been handled in her life. Before I started on her training it was important
to rename her. Her registered name was CL Parti Tyme and I just couldn't see
myself going out in the pasture and yelling, "Here, Parti, Parti". My first
husband was a Santee Sioux from northern Nebraska, so I named her Santee
in honor of his memory.
We proceded through the usual ground breaking portion of training without
a hitch and I thought we had it made. I spent a week on just putting weight
in the stirrup and stepping up and down off her. She behaved like she had
been doing it all her life. The first time I turned her loose from the post
though, I was in the middle of a rodeo. We bucked all the way around a five
acre pen and into a low muddy corner where I finally took a header. I came
up with a broken collar bone, but it could have been much worse, I might have
had a broken neck if I hadn't landed in the mud.
I tried sending her to a trainer, but without much sucess. Consequentely, it
was two years later before I got a Wyoming cowboy to buck her out for me. We have
been getting along very well ever since and now she has had two foals by Zakly that are
about as perfect as you can get, and is currently in foal with her third by Zakly, that
is due in April of 2002.
We have gone on a lot of trail rides together since then, especially since
we joined the Spring Creek Saddle Club. I even took her on vacation to
the Black Hills last year and we went riding through the forests up there
for four beautiful days.
She had a bay filly named X Zakly Magic in 1997 and in 2002 had a bay colt that
I named RJR ExZaktamente.
