Mounts & Mares The Tingles and their horses

KAREN WALENGA PHOTOS BARB AND BURT TINGLE outside their hay barn with Oreo, a two-toned paint horse.

By Karen Walenga

Once seasons change in the Santa Cruz Valley, and Arizona's heat becomes more temperate, you just might spy a handsome quartet of horses moseying and munching away in their spacious outdoor environs in an East Sahuarita neighborhood.

Horse lovers Burt and Barb Tingle share their 10-acre Sahuarita Heights property with their chickens and four horses: Oreo the two-toned paint horse; a brown and white gelding named Ranger; a dun-colored mare called Sophie; and bay mare Bayley, a registered quarter horse.

“They're good horses. I like having them,” Burt says.

There's no doubt that 12-year-old gelding Oreo is the alpha horse around here. This beauty has no trouble chasing off the others if he chooses to, and Burt enjoys riding this physically tough horse he's owned for seven or eight years.

Brown-and-white rescue horse Ranger is about 22 years old, loves getting a bath, and could have been a roping horse, Barb says.

Her choice when it comes to riding is 11-year-old Sophie, who sports distinctive soft white socks and the same coloring as a Palomino, except for her dark mane versus a Palomino's white one.

“She's a sweet, meek and mild girl, friendly and calm and similar to Bayley,” Barb points out.

“I try to keep her gentle. Kids can ride her,” Burt says of Sophie, who gets rewarded with treats that include apples.

Then there's Bayley, one good-looking horse. This brown beauty with a white blaze on her face is Burt's best handling horse. He can just give her a “click” to go and a “whoa” to stop, with no need to use his spurs.

Their pattern together is five walks left and right, followed by five trots, five gallops or five lopes left and right, he says.

Burt does use spurs with Oreo because the rider “has to

BURT TINGLE with his special pair of engraved silver spurs presented to him by colleagues in 2009, the year the Sahuarita High School football field was named after this assistant coach and longtime math teacher now retired.

be boss over the horse. They got to do what you want them to do. You're the alpha,” he says, noting that Oreo handles better without a bit.

Bayley is Burt's favorite because she always listens and behaves really well, while Oreo is his favorite to ride because he's fast and likes to run.

“I like to ride fast horses,” Burt notes. And while Oreo likes to do things his own way, “when I get on him, he does things my way.”

The horses' quarters are a bit west of the couple's two-story home in Sahuarita Heights, and both Burt and Barb are animal lovers and longtime horse people.

Burt grew up around horses in rural New Mexico, and one of his brothers is a professional horse trainer in California. Barb also grew up around horses with her family in Sahuarita Heights. She recalls riding bareback on Apache, her pony, when she was 6 or 7.

“I enjoy being with the animals,” Barb says. “I cut up cabbage and feed it to the chickens. Being around animals is a good experience,” and she's happy to give the horses as much interaction as they want.

“I enjoy being out in the barn caring for them,” she says.

Inside the Tingle family's hay barn there's plenty of feed and room for tack, including a spade bit that Burt is fond of and one very special pair of spurs. They were presented to Burt by colleagues in 2009, the year the Sahuarita High School football field was named after the assistant coach and longtime math teacher at the school. Engraved on those silver spurs are his name and the words “Congrats to you 2009.” Burt is now retired.

Feeding and grooming the horses is a lovely way to spend an early summer morning, says Burt. At 77, he reckons he has pretty much been around horses all his life, as has 55-year-old Barb, a kindergarten teacher.

“She's an animal person and likes horses, grew up with horses,” Burt says.

With morning chores for the quartet completed, Burt heads for the shade of his covered back porch on a warm summer morning.

What would he say his four-legged buddies bring to his full life?

“Horses bring happiness for one thing, and satisfaction, and fond remembrances of younger years,” he says.

RANGER THE GELDING, a brown and white rescue horse, enjoys breakfast and shade, along with paint horse Oreo, the Tingle family’s alpha horse.