EVERYONE say HI to NITRO, we are excited to welcome him as the newest member of the Promise Ranch family. His papered name is Tungsten, but Lori renamed him Nitro, because that’s the coffee I drink every morning 
, but also we thought it was a good name for an endurance horse. I flew down to Texas to meet him on December 9th and it was a nice fit for us both so he then went to the Vet for his traveling papers and then a trailer left from a show barn called Sahara Scottsdale a few days later to pick him and another horse from the same ranch, both of which had been in quarantine for 30 days, to insure they were virus free and able to travel. I had a PPE (Vet Exam) done on him a week earlier and he passed with flying colors, he’s a little pigeon toed on his front left, but the x-rays showed in a very comprehensive exam, that his legs were straight top to bottom, so he got the nod.
As some of you may know, I’ve been looking for a horse that could be first and foremost, a good buddy for Sandman who went into a real tailspin with some behavioral issues, when Masquerade, who was his best friend, and partner in crime, passed away last Christmas. We had Masquerade for over 20 years and for the last six years, he was Sandman’s leader and chief mischief maker, and together, they drove us crazy, but they were inseparable and Sandman was at a real loss, when Masquerade died.
A lot of my friends told me, during this search, that I was looking for a unicorn and that horse was probably not out there, but we kept looking and during that year long search, I think I rode 9 horses and PPE’d 5 including Nitro, so we were diligent and it was a time consuming process and my criteria were unwavering, but a combination of factors in addition to meeting the 8 search criteria, he got the thumbs up. I put multiple eyes on Nitro and these recommendations, and a few other anecdotal contemplations nudged me into the decision. His owner and breeder Patti Meier from M&M Arabians had him his entire life so he wasn’t moved from owner to owner as many young horses are and she cared about where her horses were going and did her own due diligence on us as well and wasn’t ready to let him go to us until we passed her screening as well. She is a very caring and professional horse person, and reminds me a lot of my friend and mentor Bazy Tankersley, so we knew Nitro was well cared for and we knew his entire back story and medical history and most importantly his training was “soft” and he was started late, as a four going on 5 year old versus young like most breeders start them, which gave his bones and muscles more time to mature and settle in properly. There was also a connection with his training to people I knew and trusted and the VETs who did his Prepurchase Exam and our Vet knew and trusted each other and finally, Chris Lewis looked him over for us as well and spent time with him and gave us her opinion. So we had a lot of eyes on him and the conclusions were all in sync and these were all important factors, but first and foremost, his brain is “calm”, no other way to describe it.
For example, when I first rode Nitro, I found him to be a “thinker”, for example, I rode him in a brand new saddle, that he was unfamiliar with and the saddle was also to big for me, so it wasn’t comfortable for him or I, but he was very accommodating, and even under windy conditions, more so than most horses would be in new ill-fitting gear. When I got in the saddle, he flicked his tail a few times, to show us he wasn’t that happy with the new saddle, but he wasn’t difficult and just wanted us to know he was uncomfortable. Two things struck me as unique about him, first, when I got in the saddle he stood perfectly still until I asked him to move out, even with the new rigging and a new rider, he was waiting for instructions. Secondly, he reached around with his nose in a very deliberate manner, and touched and smelled the tip of my toe in the stirrup on both sides, he first reached around to the left and then he reached around the right, this is quite unusual and a sign to me that he was thinking and asking for instructions. He did this several times, I’d dismount and remount, and each time, I got settled in the saddle, he stood still even though the wind was blowing pretty hard, he reached around to touch my toe in the stirrup, as soon as I’d cluck and coax him forward he’d move out and his walk was BIG, probably a 3 or 3.5 mph walk naturally head down on a loose rein and neck parallel with the ground and not head high like a classicly trained arena horse. For me, these were all very good signs that he has the natural inclinations both intellectual and physical to transition to the trail and some good soft basic training to be a good trail or endurance horse. Lastly, after dismounting, I left him on a loose rein and stepped back and he stood there basically loose, with no connection to me watching and waiting, not antsy or anxious at all. At that point, I reached down to pick up his feet and he gave me both front feet with a simple touch and not quite as good on the backs but standing loose, he was very comfortable even loose, when picking up his feet.
It was also interesting to note, that he got to Promise Ranch at 11:30 am, almost a year to the day, and at the exact time that Masquerade passed away, a year earlier. One other important note, the morning after Nitro got here, I was feeding the horses at 5 am, it was cold and pitch dark, Nitro had been laying down and got up, another good sign that he was comfortable in strange places, I went into his stall to give him a wet mash with his hay, but dummy me, I left the gate behind me, slightly open and not latched. As I bent over to put the mash in his rubber pan on the ground, I saw him look past me at the gate, he looked at the mash pan and the gate, and back and forth, and just slowly walked by me and out the gate, I reached over to stop him but he was past me before I could get to the gate, and then he was GONE, I mean he disappeared into the dark like a ghost, and I was panicked.
We are on six acres at the end of a street surrounded by desert and large homes on large lots, so a LOT of open terrain to walk into, and as you can guess, this is a horse owners worse nightmare for their new horse whose unfamiliar with his new barn to get loose, I ran back up to the house to get the truck and inform Lori, who threw on her boots and ran to get his halter and a bucket and some feed to shake to entice him to return IF we could find him. We have perimeter fencing that of course was not closed at the gates to the property and he somehow found his way to those gates and then out to our lightly travelled street and I heard him clip clomping down the street toward a major road about a mile and a half away, newly heightened panic set in and just as I was going to drive out on to the street, I heard him nickering to a neighbor’s horses who were a mile away, and then a few minutes later, he reappeared at the main gate, walked right up the back drive which he had never been on before and up to the barn and along the run thru the desert and into the barn and then found his own stall, nudged open the gate that was partially closed (again amazing) and walked right back into his stall and stood there waiting for me.
AMAZING, as we have no idea, how he found his way back to the barn as he came back down a road and thru the desert and on to a driveway that he’s never been on before, but somehow found his way back in the dark and right into his own stall. Keep in mind, he had only been with us for 15 hours, we were stunned, just amazing. He was acting like nothing had happened, none the worse for wear and tear, other than, and this is another KEY point, he had a very large Cholla cactus ball stuck on his nose, maybe twice the size of my fist, dangling from his nose, probably very painful. He let me put the halter around his neck because I couldn’t get it over the Cholla so Lori ran and got a comb with large wide teeth and he let me comb the cholla off his nose, keep in mind, these are very painful deep barbs and then on top of that, he let me tweeze out the barbs, all of this with new people he did not know in the dark, with a flashlight shining on his face. Head down calm and just incrediblly chill, most horses would have not returned or gone bucking into the desert or both with the cholla stuck on their head. Lori and I looked at each other, smiled and said, “wow, what a horse”, our first day and first morning with him and it was like he was channeling Masquerade when he came trotting back to the house and right into his own stall.
Lastly, and one other nudge to me to take him, his trainer and his owner Patti worked with a well known trainer Travis Braden from Texas, Travis is the son of my friends Brad and Joyce Braden, who were interestingly the horse handlers for my ride across America in 1989. I rode 3000 miles in 150 days and Brad and Joyce travelled that entire distance with me and spent their days helping me care for the horses, and manage the logistics of the ride, they managed the media, helped me move and break camp, driving the trucks and handled feed and food for us, you name it and they did it, and they were instrumental on the team and their help was one of the reasons, I finished that ride. Nitro’s trainer was known by Travis as a trainer who was “soft’ with the horses, and Travis worked with the owner Patti as well, but most importantly, if Travis liked the trainer, I liked the trainer, it was the final nudge we needed to make the decision to fly down and ride him and then bring him back. Oh and one last nudge, the Vet who did the PPE on him in Texas was Cliff Honnas who was well known by our Vet Anastasia while he was a tenured professor and practicing Equine Orthopedic Surgeon at Texas A&M University, he was straight forward, candid, matter of fact “ole school” , he answered every one of our many questions from ease of handling, to ex-rays, to blood work, teeth, etc., just very professional, communicative, easy to work with and we could not have had a better long distance experience with a Vet team and exam.
Long story short, he’s in our barn and he and Sandman are running around like they are best friends now, chasing the balls, and kicking and bucking, and Diamond even gets along with him, all is good again, at Promise Ranch.
Lori and I are excited to have him and I want to take this opportunity to thank his owner Patti Meier for putting up with me and my 1000 questions and Anastasia from Chapparal, who conducted multiple PPEs for me over this past year and then reviewed several other exam results and was so patient, thorough, and diligent, Chris Lewis in Texas who looked at a few horses for us and also looked at Nitro and put up with dozens of text message and calls over the year and provided her candid and sometimes painful opinion as a endurance rider and trainer was very useful in our decision making. It takes a VILLAGE to find a horse today it seems, and it’s complicated by social media and especially so when your looking for only “one” special horse and when you are only getting one horse, you gotta be right or as right as possible. Lastly, I want to thank all my riding buddies who put up with my multiple questions and hemming and hawing queries, and random thoughts, Mary Jane, Aileen, Susie and Brad, Barb, Tracy Fink, Ida Hammer, Lancette, and Sarah who rode a horse for me in Minnesota, Kim Lipko and Glenn Morgan who checked in often and our trimming professional Samantha Erdmann and on and on and on, the endurance riding community is amazing and these riders always have your back.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Enjoy the ride, 2026 is gonna be a good one!! From Promise Ranch, Diamond, Sandman, Nitro, Shadow, Lori and Lucian Patti Meier, Mary Jane Fridley, Susie Kramer, Lori DiLoreto Spataro, Sarah CarlsonIda HammerChris LewisGhostdancer