Read the Success Stories for these former Bits & Bytes Farm horses.

 

The newest Success Stories have been moved to their own site: www.OTTBSuccessStories.com

 

* Horses with asterisk in front of their name were purchased as Prospect Horses directly from the track.

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Former Prospect Horse For Sale - She Calls Me Tater aka "Pretty" is now for sale

.She Calls Me Tater aka "Pretty" is now for sale.

What a difference a year and a half makes!

What a difference a year and a half makes! - March 2007

"Pretty" was one of our 25 Special Horses for Sale.

"Pretty" in November 2005.

 

Click here to see "Pretty's" Prospect Horse for Sale photos. She was one of our 25 Special Horses for Sale.

 

Bits & Bytes Farm Success Stories

Our horses > success stories > Pretty aka "Tater Tot"

She Calls Me Tater aka "Pretty" - Possibly For Sale

Former Prospect Horse For Sale - She Calls Me Tater aka "Pretty" is now for sale.
Former Prospect Horse For Sale - She Calls Me Tater aka "Pretty" is now for sale.

May 11, 2007

"Tater" recently visited Bits & Bytes Farm for a photo shoot with her mom Halliea Milner. Halliea is reluctantly offering this beautiful, well trained mare for sale. "Tater" has show experience and she is just five this year. She is unraced with no papers. "Tater" has shown to have talent for hunter/jumpers and eventing. This is an extremely nice horse and will make a very good show partner. Contact Halliea for more information. Click here to go to her Web site.

Former Prospect Horse For Sale - She Calls Me Tater aka "Pretty" is now for sale.

Former Prospect Horse For Sale - She Calls Me Tater aka "Pretty" is now for sale.
Former Prospect Horse For Sale - She Calls Me Tater aka "Pretty" is now for sale. May 10, 2007

March 26, 2007

Pretty aka She Calls Me Tater also won her Training Level Test 1 at the Sonora Farms.
Pretty aka She Calls Me Tater also won her Training Level Test 1 at the Sonora Farms.

Hey! I missed you and the crew at the Hunter Pace. We were pretty much on a schedule, so we weren't able to hang around for the ceremony or for you to return from the Pace. I just wanted to let you know that Tater was EXCELLENT - she lead most of the way and she was quiet and manageable the entire ride. She also won her Training Level Test 1 at the Sonora Farms show a couple of weeks ago!

Pretty and Halliea Milner at a dressage show where they won first place!

I will attach some pictures from it. In the one where we are saluting you can see her personality so well. She really is a goober in the best possible way! I am offering Tater for sale to a very deserving owner.  I don't have to sell her, so I will wait until the right person comes along, so if you have any one who is interested, tell them that they can contact me.  However, I am NOT anxious to see her go, rather quite the opposite, I have struggled with offering her or not offering her for sale, but have decided that I want something that has upper level dressage potential, and I am not sure that Tater has that.

Elizabeth's Note: Halliea recently purchased Show Master and she is torn between two horses. . . Congratulations on your BLUE ribbon ride.

March 3, 2007

Tater and her mom Halliea cleaned up at a recent horse show in Atlanta, GA.

Hey Elizabeth!
Just wanted to let you know that Tater did fantastically at the show last weekend. We hadn't jumped in almost six months, so when we went to the show we had to play a little catch up. She is such a good girl. We did the mini hunter over fences, the 18" division on both days. The first day was just crossrails and a little gate, and the second day was over actual obstacles - a roll top, brick wall, etc.

Since it had been such a long time, we trotted our courses on Saturday, and we ended up with a 2nd and 3rd o/f and a 3rd under saddle out of a field of three (to be expected since we were the only ones trotting). Not bad for such a small fry!

Sunday we decided to canter our courses. Tater was absolutely perfect with a nice, slow steady pace. I am a complete idiot and actually muttered the words, " she has never refused before" right before I went in for our first round. SO of course, I got my very first refusal out of her at fence 2. Still, we got 5th out of 7 for that round. The next round was without a doubt the nicest hunter course I have ever ridden. We did simple changes when we had to perform them, and towards the end she was tired and pulled a rail at the last fence. We still got 2nd place because it was so nice. Our over under saddle class was perfect. She tried hard even though she was tired, and to show her off I took the inside track. She worked so well. We got second again! After our class, someone actually came up to me and asked me if she was a dressage horse, which made me feel good. We have so many hours in that dressage saddle these days.

"Pretty" is living up to her name.

I lost count of all of the people that stopped me to talk to me about her and how beautiful she is. She has really come together.

Anyhow, I have attached a couple of pictures. One is just to show you how nicely she has filled out. The one over fences may be a little fuzzy, but that's the best that I could get.

Show Master says hi too. . . : )

Talk with you soon!
Halliea

Congratulations to Halliea Milner on the purchase of former Bits & Bytes Farm Prospect Horse for sale - Show Master.

February 27, 2007

She Calls Me Tater has a new BIG brother. Congratulations to Halliea Milner on the purchase of former Bits & Bytes Farm Prospect Horse for sale - Show Master.

December 25, 2006

Hey! I thought that since I hadn't seen or talked to you since the Imti clinic, that I would drop you a line and let you know how Pretty aka Tater is doing. I have had Tater for right over a year now, and WOW what a journey this past year has been! Originally, as you know, I purchased Tater as a resale project. She was a gangly, unbroken 3 year old with no muscle and even less patience! Everything was a learning experience for her.

Over the last 12 months I have gradually brought her along - bringing babies along seems to be something that I do way too often! : ) From learning to lead, to learning to lunge, to our first Hunter pace, she has always been interesting. I have always said that I am not a trainer, just someone who likes projects - and Tater has been my favorite one so far. So much so that, as you already know, I have decided to keep to event and show her myself. I still have to break THAT news to my husband. . . LOL (who, by the way - NEVER knew that I bought her in the first place - about six months ago I told him I was training her for someone else. . . Fortunately for me he is not completely stupid and he has figured it out, but he doesn't really mention it, he just goes about like it has always been that way.)

I have the most incredible mare, See Spot Jump, so Tater has some very big shoes to fill. See Spot Jump is 10 years old, and I have had her since she was a yearling - you can imagine the attachment! Tater takes this challenge very seriously - she is absolutely the most loving horse that I have ever met. She has her moments when she decides to be a mare, but overall, she is doing incredibly well. She is extremely bold to the fences - I have never had a single refusal from her. Of course, I am used to RIDING, not passenging, so that may make a difference. Still, she has yet to say no.

Her dressage is coming along fantastically. We will be ready to clean up Training Level (dressage, not eventing) in the spring, once show season kicks off again. Her canter has always been her strong suit, but she is really learning the meaning of round and forward. If I didn't have 5 horses, she would probably be coming along much faster, but she gets as much time under saddle as I can find for her.

Just the other day, we had to get rid of the "herd bound" antics that she goes through. When we go to shows, she decides that she isn't going to walk away from her buddies - so I decided to work on this at home. All of the horses were up at the barn, and we went out in the pasture to work alone. I have to tell you, she was not a happy camper. I almost got chunked once, which is a rarity for me. Thankfully, my go-go-gadget super glue seat came through! : ) Since I have the whole week off between Christmas and New Years, I have decided to torture her with that exercise every day this week. We will see how it goes.

We are going to an Anna Jane White-Mullin clinic in the spring. It should be very educational. She is the lady that wrote Judging Hunters & Hunter Seat Equitation. I know that most of the horses that you market are for the eventer, but I do think that it is EXTREMELY important that horses spend some time in hunter training before they go to eventing. It just makes them more balanced, cadenced, and easier to control in my opinion.

Either or, I will be getting pictures of her for you this week - so be looking for them! You & Barry have a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Best Wishes!
Halliea

October 7, 2006 - Clinic with Imtiaz Anees at Bits & Bytes Farm

Pretty aka Tater Tot at Clinic with Imtiaz Anees at Bits & Bytes Farm. October 7, 2006

Pretty is now named Tater Tot - October 7, 2006

Pretty is now named Tater Tot - October 7, 2006

May 24, 2006

Pretty at a show with Halliea.

Hey! I thought that I would update you on Tater's show last weekend. She was fabulous, as usual! This time we rode in the very scary covered arena, and even though other horses (ones that are supposedly calm breeds - paints, draft crosses, etc.) were spooking, rearing, bucking, and bolting, Tater worked like an already made show horse!

The show was huge; our division was about two times larger than normal. It was a really good test of where we were because we had so much competition. As I said, Tater performed excellently placing VERY well with two third places and one fifth place, which put us one point shy of Reserve Champion.

I didn't even have time to feel disappointed about missing the Reserve, I was too busy being ecstatic by her performance!

I am sending you some pictures of us for you to see as well. Next month, on to the fences!

Thanks!
Halliea

Tater performed excellently placing VERY well with two third places and one fifth place, which put us one point shy of Reserve Champion.

Pretty and Halliea Milner at our Easter Dressage show.
Pretty and Halliea Milner at our Easter Dressage show. Pretty is for sale.

Tater Tot and mom Halliea Milner

"Pretty" aka She Calls Me Tater aka Tater Tot was an unregistered, unraced, unamed three year old filly who was one of our 25 Special Horses for Sale. Halliea might now consider selling Tater Tot to the "Perfect Match". Could that be you? Click here to contact Halliea for pricing and current training details.

Click here to TELL A FRIEND about Pretty.

Here is what her new mom has to say about "Pretty" aka Tot:

March 30, 2006

Pretty is now called Tater Tot

Hey Elizabeth!

Tater Tot aka "Pretty" has been absolutely fabulous! We have been consistently working on our flat work and we have added some over fences training to our regualr regime. She has been going over ground poles with ease, and she has been trotting and cantering cross rails & small verticals.

Tater Tot's very first fence at 2 foot!
Tater Tot's very first fence at 2 foot!

The picture of her over the plank was her very first fence at 2 foot! She was a super - star! I am just more and more pleased with this mare every ride. She has never stopped, even when we added decorations - she could care less! She seeks the middle of the fences, even when she is being lunged, proving that she will be an honest jumper.

She seeks the middle of the fences when jumping.
She seeks the middle of the fences when jumping.

Her flat work is coming along fantastically as well. She is starting to learn to carry herself a little more, which is hard when you start out without the muscle! She stretches down and reaches for contact - I am really excited! Her canter is by far her best gait, she has a slow, steady, ground covering stride that is fun and easy.

 

I never have to worry about her running away - she is just as quiet out in the pasture as she is in the arena, maybe even MORE quiet out in the pasture, if you can believe that. Even though I like three phase stuff, I really think that Tater will clean up in the Hunter ring. She has that typey look and she is so laid back!

Her canter is by far her best gait, she has a slow, steady, ground covering stride that is fun and easy.
Tater Tot's canter is by far her best gait
.

Tater will clean up in the Hunter ring.

I plan on showing her for the first time on April 8 at the Rolling Hills show (a local hunter show) in some flat classes. Like I said before - even though she could probably go and do the baby fences, I prefer to take the slower route, and will hold off on that for now. But we will definitely be prcaticing over the different mini-fences while we are there! : )

Tater Tot aka "Pretty" is growing fast and turning into a beautiful filly.
Tater Tot aka "Pretty" is growing fast and turning into a beautiful filly.

She continues to put on weight and muscle, even though she could use some more. It is just one of those things that is a matter of time, unfortunately : ) I lilke my horses fat, so hopefully with the new spring grass she will be gaining more weight every day.

Anyhow, I will update more after the show. I hope that everything is going well for ya'll! And tell people to swing by to try Tater Tot- she will steal their hearts!

Take care!

Halliea Milner

February 14, 2006

When you asked me to send you an update on Tater (formerly known as "Pretty") I had to think for a moment on just where to start. There is so much I would like to share with you about her. I guess I will start on her temperment. She is simply the sweetest horse that I have ever encountered. She would literally crawl in your pocket if she could; she follows me around the pasture six inches behind me. She stands for the vet and farrier, and even lets me clip her ears without any sort of twitch or restriction!

"Pretty" is now called Tater Tot

I took her to a show last weekend (the first Rolling Hills Saddle Club show of the year) and although I didn't show her in any classes, she was a super-star in my book. For a horse that has absolutely no experience travelling, she loaded on my VERY small & dark two horse like she had done it every day of her life, and when she came off the trailer at Wills Park, she just looked around calmly and I lead her to her stall. No screaming or acting crazy when we first got there - just  very alert.

I worked her there and I rode her around in the dark under lights. No problems at all, she settled right in to work. We worked in three of the four arenas at Wills Park, even walking and trotting in the Hunter Ring with 15 horses running and jumping and with scary-looking jumps everywhere - she didn't take a single look at anything. I even had a few people ask me what I was asking for her - they knew that I had been working on a project for a couple of months - to which I smugly replied, "she's not for sale. . . yet."

She is calm, sweet and willling. So calm that people were asking me two or three times, "Are you sure she's a TB?!"  She is gentle enough for a timid rider, and patient enough for a beginner (under a trainer's guide - this horse has too much potential!).  She is currently confidently lunging over small crossrails, working on bending at the walk and trot, working on her free walk, and confidently trotting over ground poles. She lunges and round pens perfectly at the walk, trot, and canter, with or without tack.  She is able to ride in the pasture alone or with company.

All in all, I am so totally pleased with this mare!  I am excited at her bright future, and I hope that the other prospects are half this wonderful!

December 28, 2005

Hi Elizabeth!

I wanted to drop you a line to tell you how well Tater Tot is doing (formerly known as "Pretty", Tater Tot just seemed to fit : ).

"Pretty" says good-bye to her real mom, He Named Me Katie.
"Pretty" says good-bye to her real mom, He Named Me Katie.

I haven't taken any new pictures of her yet, mostly because she is about two inches higher in the back than the front - gotta love growth spurts!-, but she is growing and filling out well. When I got her she needed a few groceries and some ground manners, so that is what we have been working on - I am kinda slow in my training; I want to get her muscled up a little bit before I get on her.

"Pretty" meets her new mom.

She has accepted everything in an admirable way - she stands quietly to be groomed and blanketed (blanketing was scary at first!). Tightening the girth? No problem. Accepting a bit? Sure! This mare has a wonderful attitude - she accepts anything that you throw at her without a second thought.

She is known around the farm for her sweet personality - she would much rather be around people than her horsey buddies : ) And the best thing - this is important because I bought her sight unseen without a prepurchase exam - she has been vetted to be 100% sound for ANY discipline.

I am so very pleased at this prospect mare that I have purchased from you!
I encourage other experienced riders to check out your prospects, especially from this breeder, and hopefully they will find themselves as nice of a project as I have!

I will keep you posted, with pictures to come soon!

-Halliea Milner


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