Z Slash Performance Horses

12/08/2024

Here's a repost, but after watching all the futurities this year it really makes us excited for next year! Here is what we have coming up! Please contact us if you are looking for your next prospect! 🤩

| |

12/08/2024

It was the best run of the night! It was hands down the run that should have won and win they did!!!

11/30/2024

Woohoo!!

🔥 225.5 🔥 for JASON VANLANDINGHAM and BERRY FIRST SMOKE for owner Billy Wolf in the NRHA - National Reining Horse Association Open Futurity Section Three Prelims! Sired by FRUS Resident Stallion A Vintage Smoke 💨

11/22/2024

As we head into the World's Richest Reining, let's check out the reining leaderboard for The American Performance Horseman! These standings include results completed as of 11/20 for NRHA Professionals in aged events, Level 4 Open classes only.

1️⃣ Cade McCutcheon
2️⃣ Casey Deary
3️⃣ Fernando Salgado
4️⃣ Trevor Dare
5️⃣ Andrea Fappani
6️⃣ Brian Bell
7️⃣ Jason Vanlandingham
8️⃣ Manuel Cortesi

July 19, 2025, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, TX, Teton Ridge's The American Performance Horseman takes place with the 8 top professionals in cutting, reining and reined cow horse. Be sure to follow along with updates to the reining leaderboard throughout the rest of the year!

11/12/2024

Truth!!

11/11/2024

Can’t wait to watch the first foal crop at the NRHA Futurity! Good luck to all! 🖤

Handing over the Reins to the next generation...
Counting down the days to the NRHA Futurity in OKC!
We've got a very exciting group of horses showing, and there could be one that runs to follow in Coles' TRIPLE CROWN foot steps!
Thank you to the owners, rider and breeders and good luck!

11/08/2024

We are really excited for our filly, Happy Holly Rey (Hickory Holly Time x Smooth D Rey)! Holly is headed to her new home in Arizona to begin her journey to the ! One of the best things about this business is meeting other people that share our passion for horses and the industry. The process of selling this filly has been a fun one and we are grateful to have met brother's, Dillon (Erin Ziomek) and Dakota Wurm! Thank you for making the trip up to Hayden, we look forward to following the journey!

10/19/2024

Woohoo! Excited to watch! 🤩

10/18/2024

LOVE seeing our Z\ babies growing into great horses. This beautiful filly also shined in the show pen a month ago, at the CRCA show in Douglas, earning her first check. We are looking forward to watching this her in the upcoming year. Very grateful to our friends for trusting our program!

Send a message to learn more

08/26/2024

In honor of national dog day, here's a couple of our filly "Ditto" showing her moves with our corgi, Pippi. Ditto is as sweet as they come and loves attention. She is so good minded and very trainable. By One Fine Vintage x Little Tincie Lena, she is available for your consideration.

| | |

08/25/2024

I don't think this guy can take a bad picture! He has such a presence and seems to always know where the camera is 😆! His personality grows everyday and we fall more in love with him. With his look, confirmation and breeding this boy is sure to be a great one! Zak 34 x Hello Katie (by Dual Rey). He is looking for a performance home, please message for more information.

| | |

08/25/2024

This boy is HANDSOME and he is shedding out dark 🤎🖤! We would love to see him go to a performance home. By A Vintage Smoke x Smooth D Rey (by Smooth As A Cat stallion ). Please message for more details.

| |

08/19/2024

Too good not to share!

“That horse was started at 2?! It’s gonna break down by the time it’s 10” something I see on every sale ad of a young finished horse.

Why does the industry start 2 year olds instead of 4/5 years old? So many reasons!

A 2 year old is a SPONGE! They want to learn they take in everything. They come along quickly with short work sessions and crave the right answer. They are less likely to buck and test the waters. They build bone density and in my experience tend to be stronger long term. Now, I’m not saying ride them Into the ground, no good trainer is. That will ruin any age horse. Short rides, or even starting in the spring and putting them out to pasture and bringing them back in the fall. They retain it all!

The people screaming to not start until 4-5 I tend to notice this main common denominator. THEY DONT START THEIR OWN! So let’s p**s off the trainer instead, since they’re not brave enough to do it themselves now. If you wait till 4-5 and start your own more power to you that’s your personal choice you probably worked that c**t since it was born. Most c**t starters will all agree the 2 and 3 years olds are where it’s at and not the unhandled 5 year old.

If you have ever started an older horse, they tend to be more stuck in their ways. For good reason. You just took a welfare horse that has never had to work a day in their life and said “time to go work for a living” when they’d much rather be fat and happy in the pasture. They tend to be lazier, balk the system, and just overall more difficult. Every older horse I’ve started had WAY more issues than the 2 year olds and I’ve seen more 2 year olds showing successfully into their older years than ones that were started later. I’ve seen more go lame, or just not have a brain cell to work with.

From an overall ethical standpoint here’s one to sit on. You take that 2 year old start them, give them a great education they are pretty exceptional citizens by the time they are 4. You have set that horse up for his life. He is more likely to go onto great homes because he is gentle and broke and probably shown by now.
Now, this is what I see happening ALOT with 4-5 year olds. They haven’t started them yet, so maybe they try themselves and got in way over their heads with their strong 15 hand toddler. Now they have an outlaw. “Well let’s just wait longer since they’re already 5” *another 2 years go by, now a unbroke 7 year old. Dumped at sale, “cheap project”, need experienced trainer, etc.
Even if they do start that horse by 4-5, broke by 7 with little life experience. Now, you missed the major shows or more than likely don’t show that horse or just settle and the horse never amounted to what it could have been 90% of the time.

I can’t tell you how many projects we have bought at 8-10 years old green, unbroke, or WILD. Why? NOBODY STARTED THEM AT 2 and set them up for success. You know where they were headed? No where good, because someone waited ”for the good of the horse” and never got around to it. That saying has put more horses in the kill pen than someone lightly starting their 2 year old ever has.

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk, I could write a book on this, but we don’t have time for that - written by Cassy Davis

*Pictured one I started at 2.

08/18/2024

Hard not to love this horse! We are excited for a Call Me Mitch foal in 2025!

Call Me Mitch has proven himself both in the arena as a competitor and now as a sire. Siring champions at major events everywhere. Call Me Mitch is passing down natural cow sense and ability that will excel in the western performance arenas and/or any direction you choose to go.

https://stallionregisterdirectory.com/listing/call-me-mitch/