I haven’t really discussed much of my horse history with you guys, so I thought what better time to start than now. While my history itself is a bit of a mishmash of stuff loosely put together to resemble the “normal” history people might have, I still value my adopted history no matter how it’s put and held together.

I had my first horse experience when I was no more than just a toddler, Annie had taken me out to see Nugget a friends horse, and the relentless horse bug bit me that day. Annie always found a way to give me my first in saddle experiences with her son Bart’s horses Dixie & Dandy. However, being in the foster care system I definitely had no access to horses, but my love for them never wavered.

Obviously some time passed and I was adopted (!!!) and horses were now a part of my family history!! I grew up learning all kinds of horse related things on my own at this point in time, but learning family facts, horsemanship secrets and more was just amazing to me.

I was now not just Sara the inexperienced equestrian, I was Sara of the same family that bred “the Sultzer’s Pintos”!! Okay okay, to me, this is so cool and fascinating. I hope you can bare with me while I fangirl about my own family history for a bit.

Back in 1941 my great grandfather Clarence Sultzer set out with a goal to breed typey horses for a specific set of disciplines to then show and sell made horses. It started off with a sweet mare and progressed into a full scale breeding operation. As it was advertised, “Black and white tobianos of Saddlebred type, very stylish, refined and very intelligent horses of Clarence Sultzer of Hy View Horse Farm”. These horses were parade mounts, saddleseat trained, breeding stock and more.

Hy View Horse Farm was based in Montebello California, and it was owned and operated by Clarence during his active breeding and showing years. To this day yearbooks, tack, other family items and more still hold space in the attics and basements of the barn dating back to at least 1938. That being said, back in the 1950’s, this was a hot spot for quality horses on the west coast.

As time went on, peoples need for show horses dwindled and Clarence got older, my grandmother, and two great aunts moved off and got married and the last of the Sultzer’s Pintos was Top Spot. Unfortunately, he passed away on 9/11/2020 leaving the family with no other blood relatives from our original bloodlines.

When we started selling off a bit of our breeding mares and stallions a woman in Oregon picked a few up and kinda keeps up the Sultzer bloodlines on her terms. The horses aren’t the same typey refined smart cookies Clarence bred, instead they were sometimes solid colored quality saddlebreds like any other one you might find.

That being said if I ever have time, space and a decent amount of money to invest; I would ask her if I could buy a mare from hers that’s closely related to the Sultzer horses and I would restart the bloodline. If Metropolitan Stables ever did take off and I needed some supplemental income out of it, breeding quality horses like my grandpa Sultzer did would do just the trick.

I also have a side goal of turning a spotted saddlebred into a dressage or eventing star, but that’s for another time. I hope you guys have fun unearthing these horses he bred with me through online research. I’ll be creating a sort of family tree through these posts, and I’m so excited to share with you all the things I have found in my deep dives.