Xena and Tracy Davis

Xena

Xena (aka Xena the Warrior Princess.) Xena is we believe our oldest equine competitor but never too old for second chances- right??
She is a gorgoeus 15 YO TWH cross who has been in rescue for a couple of years. She came to Volunteer Equine Advocates with 2 other horses from a breeding/training facility, that must have gone downhill. They either could not find the owners or the owners did not want them back. Xena got her name because of the television show, “ Xena, the Warrior Princess”, she was a wild child, with long black hair, and a fiercely independent spirit. She gained back the weight she needed but was still emotionally scared. VEA rescued them because of neglect but also believed to have been a lot of abuse as well. She was hard to catch, extremely head shy, and pinned her ears every time you touched her. While It used to take an hour to catch her out in the pasture; now not only can she be caught right away but she sometimes even comes up by herself. She now leads, ties, and is overall good for the farrier. She still pins her ears all the time but now allows her ears to be touched and her favorite spot to be rubbed is up on her forehead, which melts your heart, considering where she started.
This girl has a lot heart and given the chance to trust and learn how to be a willing partner she will give all she has. She will always have a ton of spirit and attitude which can be good and exciting. Given her breed she wants to please but she still has walls up, so trust will be key as not to make her feel threatened.
We are excited to give this older gal who has had a rough time a chance to show that old can be better and with the help of her trainer knock those walls down and become a safe, confident and willing mount and partner.

Tracy Davis

Tracy is 27 years old and lives in Ooltewah TN. Her love for horses started when she was 7 years old and watched the movie “Black Beauty”, Tracy was in love!! After that, everything was about horses, but her parents couldn’t afford for her to take riding lessons or get a horse of her own and figured that it was probably “just a phase” Tracy was going through and she would grow out of it. But 10 years later she hadn’t grown out of the “phase” and became a volunteer at Hidden Hills Farm in Ooltewah TN! AND loved it!! Tracy helped out with all the barn chores of cleaning stalls, feeding, watering, dragging the fields, even helped put up hay(once!!). She got free riding lessons as payment for her hard work. She learned the basics of how to stop, go and turn and not fall off!!
After working as a volunteer for a year, Tracy got a part-time job as stable help at Caylor Stables a Saddlebred barn in East Brainerd! There she cleaned more stalls and fed more horses, but also was introduced to natural horsemanship groundwork and that was where her journey to build a relationship of communication and trust with the horse really began! During that time, she bought her first horse, well pony and quickly learned that she needed help! Kick to go and pull to stop was not going to work with him! He was smart and a quick thinker and had more tricks up his sleeve than she did and he knew it!! Tracy knew she needed to have a better understanding of riding and horse psychology in order to effectively communicate with him and help him be a better pony and herself a better horseman. So she started taking Centered Riding lessons from Liz Johnson and those lessons completely blew her away and opened her mind to a deeper understanding of how we communicate with the horse through our entire body when we ride and even in our groundwork, and how our thoughts, our focus, even our breathing can influence the horse positively or negatively. As her knowledge and skills grew, Tracy joined a local pony club and attained a D-3 rating and showed in several local schooling shows, mostly huntseat and jumpers, would love to compete in eventing but unfortunately time and finances have not been on her side. She sold the pony(would have kept him if she could’ve, they helped each other so much) and bought her once-in-a-lifetime horse, West, a thoroughbred cross, who is probably the most sensitive and opinionated horse she has ever worked with but she wouldn’t trade him for anything! He is a jumping fool and he continues to teach her so much!
Three years ago Tracy decided it was time for her to start sharing the knowledge that had helped her so much, so she started teaching riding and groundwork lessons and some horse training also. Her primary focus is low level dressage and jumping with a good balance of natural horsemanship groundwork mixed in. She is familiar with the methods of Pat Parelli and Buck Brannaman, along with several others, she has chosen what she likes best from each of them to create her own style of horsemanship! Tracy is a student of the horse and she will never claim to know everything there is to know about horses and riding, she will always be a student first, teacher second. Tracy’s goal is to help each of her students build a solid relationship with their horses on the ground and in the saddle based on good communication, leadership and trust! Same thing also applies to the horses that she has trained as well, clear communication, leadership and trust are essential in training horses no matter what breed or discipline. Check out Tracy’s FB page Davis Equine Solutions!!