When I had been a Morgan horse owner for a mere year, I was asked to become the newsletter editor for the Rainbow Morgan Horse Association, an official AMHA club that disbanded due to lack of member participation in 2019.
I learned how challenging it could be to edit content, and just how much content would need to be produced – I found myself writing articles myself to help shape the best newsletters I could manage.
The “From The Vault” posts I’m going to share here are just a few things I wrote for the RMHA!
Content will be dated and issue quoted will be cited – though I am not certain if these are still available anywhere, the copyright is still for RMHA ❤
“Excuse me, is this the three year old fillies class? I’m so sorry it’s just your horse is so small”
The sophisticated woman and her elegant seventeen hand dappled bay filly were a beautiful pair. I definitely understood immediately what she meant, and explained yes, it was that class, my horse was just small. I swear Celeste understood what I was saying as she seemed to puff a little up and stand straighter, to seem more imposing than her mere 137cm. The tall filly, I would later hear through show ground gossip, was the daughter of an Olympic hopeful.
“Did you win?” Is always the question people ask when you return from a horse show. For some events that makes sense, but for a Morgan horse in a dressage ring pitted against an Olympic daughter or the best Hanoverian colt in the country, that question does not come with the correct implications.
Many of my readers are Morgan horse people, or sport horse people, or both. Given that I do have many readers as well who are not thusly inclined, please allow my elaboration.
Morgan horses are known as all around horses, as saddleseat or as carriage horses, but seldom do people associate them with many of their greatest accomplishments, such as opening the West or being our loyal companions in war. Much in the same way, Morgans as a mount suitable for sports like dressage, jumping, and three days eventing, are often overlooked, despite their exceptional intelligence and good sense, their durability and athleticism, and their unfailing love for people. This means that entering Morgan horses into competitions seen as “unusual for the breed” mean the horse and human must work much harder to garner the same respect as for a horse seen as more appropriately bred.
Especially when the competition is the biggest breed show in America, at the oldest horse show grounds in the country, with international competitors at Olympic levels.
As I am still recovering my physical strength after a badly broken leg, I had to stop handling before the afternoon class in which Celeste was entered. My green, truly amateur husband stepped in. He handled our other filly beautifully, and though Celeste is more challenging, I believed she would perform adequately for him. I didn’t want to scratch.
This horse is my pride and joy, and I watched on pins and needles as my soulmate set her up for conformation inspection, and then led her in her triangles. Our dear friend was tailing, and my girl had a lovely spring in her step, mostly respecting my husband and showing herself off nicely. They looked beautiful, and it was a very good run, I couldn’t have asked for better especially being sidelined as I was – so when her score was announced and she had exceeded the leading score by six full points, I literally started crying.
The class had ten pairs run the triangle. As we watched the next scores tick in, some higher, some lower, one particular one quite high – but those higher scores besides the one, were quite close to Celeste, in fact within 1.075 points. Her position slipped from first of course but she paused at sixth with two horses to go. Then one. Then the class was over.
For those not in the know, at Dressage at Devon, the horses in places first through sixth get to stay in the ring, be individually called out to receive your ribbon, and get a special winner’s circle official ribbon. Places seven through ten receive their ribbons with their score sheets at the office.
Five towering warmblood fillies, and one tiny Morgan pony, stood in the winner’s group, patiently waiting for the ribbons to be retrieved, and then for the final scores to be read as they took their turns posing with their beautiful fluttering prizes.
My tiny Morgan found equal footing with some of the world’s best warmbloods.
Did we win, with my filly’s green sixth place ribbon?
What you may or may not know about me, fair reader, is that in the April of this year, I broke my leg. Badly – and followed it up by developing two massive blood clots, one in each leg. As broken and clotted is not a particularly tenable position for equestrian activities, I have been sidelined for the most part all season.
Today was my third ride back in the saddle. Doctor’s orders, I cannot do anything serious, no jumping or proper dressage tests or hard outdoor rides, until one year has passed from the break, but I have been permitted to return to riding, with my trainer, on a lunge line.
Before you scoff at the beginner and basics type instruction that this would imply, with the associated potential for boredom of an advanced rider doing walk trot lessons on a lunge line, let me explain that not only are we doing basics, but my entire position and style is being stripped apart and getting Blitzed, and when I can go back to riding properly again, I will be so beyond ready, and I am thrilled for it.
My trainer had the opportunity this season to clinic with Olympic athlete Heather Blitz, and it transformed her riding. We are taking the opportunity of my injury and easing back into full on equestrianism to recreate my physical riding form, in the image of those clinics – hence my saying she’s Blitzing my entire position.
I’m really lucky – while I’ve been out, I’ve been able to audit clinics at my trainer’s farm, and watch rides on horses I know, utilizing the new Blitz style in motion. It’s very cool to know the horses being ridden, being able to appreciate their quirks and unique traits, and understand the demands the individual asks of their riders. Joy Congdon, who comes to the farm to clinic with our group, is a tough and fair trainer, and it is amazing to listen to her explain the physics of dressage.
As I said, this is my third ride back. It’s starting to make sense, and I’m starting to feel the difference. Ten thousand repetitions to muscle memory are under way, with careful stretching and excellent physical therapy to keep me on the right track. It can be hard not to dive right back in, but I would prefer to avoid permanent damage – and besides, this is enough. This is hard work. I am grateful for the kind minded Morgan mare who’s become my therapy mount.
My abdominals hurt. My obliques hurt. My latissimus dorsi hurt.
What doesn’t hurt though?
The break in my leg, and the knee that was frozen for three months.
Pictured is JAR Sweet Promise, a Morgan mare with me on lease.
As people, many of us know the challenges of modern job paths and careers: we can get buttonholed into a position, and even when pursuing continuing education and burgeoning excellence in our abilities, no next step is open to us; or even we take on the “side hustles,” multitudes of unique additional opportunities, to increase our income and to additionally encourage our minds to stay sharp and capable. Even when the option of a promotion or additional responsibility is available to us, it does not always become ours, and much as we are more than capable to do our jobs, excellently, we are stagnant and unproductive.
In my experience, people do not generally become stagnant and unproductive without first being brilliant, hard working, industrious, and having the world beat us down a bit, so to speak, so we are, to put it bluntly, bored.
It is no different for the Morgan horse.
While many other breeds may also have this phenomenon in their lives, I am most privy to the exceptional mind of the Morgan breed, and in comparison to the other breeds I have worked with, it is the most true for them.
A Morgan horse thrives on work, creative and engaging and diverse work.
For many, the career changes and transforms as they grow. As a baby, the work is ground handling, manners, politely interfacing with human beings. In their adolescent stage, the work can grow to driving, basic commands, and the like – much as it should for any horse. Adult Morgans is where I see the big difference come between the Morgan horse and other modern breeds. A Morgan can work themselves into a world champion athlete in one discipline, take some time off, and then do a complete turnaround and become a true professional in a new discipline – and even a third and fourth after that. Morgans I know work well into their thirties, and when they become bored, or tired, or just are done with their first job, because they have done it to its natural end, they relish the next career. Where I see some horses retired in their late teens, I see Morgans getting their second or third wind, and continuing on as if they were ten or fifteen years younger.
For other Morgans, they pick up the side hustles. I have heard now of three New England Morgan horses who simultaneously event, drive, work cows, and one also does side saddle – and in each of these they excel. There is no chance for boredom here, and the horses understand the difference in their tasks, adjusting as necessary for each.
We sometimes forget that these horses are as much “people” as we humans are. Morgans have always been the ultimate “jack of all trades” horse, as Marguerite Henry fictionalized in her children’s novel about Figure, called Lil Bub in the book. If we get bored and unstimulated at our job and crave a vacation or a career change, doesn’t it make sense that our horses would to some degree get that feeling too? These guys were bred to do it all, were made into a breed in the first place because the look and feel of the animals was so desirable – handsome, compact, strong, with a sweet and loving disposition.
We made them to be this way – we owe it to them to give them the same job satisfaction we all desire. It takes a lot of work on our part to help these amazing horses to have the lives they deserve, but with mindful attention they give us so much back when we do. It delights me to no end to see the great number of interdisciplinary Morgans and Morgans on their third career path in the beautiful photos on social media in the aftermath of 2021 Morgan Grand National and World Champion competition.
If you feel your horse isn’t engaged, or is unhappy, maybe think about their routine, your routine, and how you can switch things up for both of you, to dispel the boredom, and invoke your – and their! – brilliance.
Photo is Ancan Eye Candy in 2016, a mare who had been showing in English Pleasure before I purchased her, who I trained in dressage and show jumping, and now does all of these things and more with the young lady with whom I placed her.
A lot of buzzwords are thrown around on social media about Morgan Horses – performance, English, park, sport, western, endurance, show horse, performance prospect, saddleseat, driving, etc. Some of these are pretty well understood by some, others not very well by anyone, and quite a lot of energy is put into proving a horse is or is not a type that has not been clearly defined by the claimant in the first place.
So, what are all these disciplines, really? What can a Morgan do? While we Morgan people might say “everything”, I am writing this blog for people who might not be as versed in Morgans as a breed as others are. I’m also going to attempt to refrain from waxing on about each individual discipline in each category, but forgive me, I may about the categories in which I am well versed 🙂 If you are looking for more information on a particular discipline, I highly encourage you to do a Google search and read up!
I’m also going to take a pause to point out, you can have a multi-disciplinary horse. Your Park horse may have a Sport future; your Endurance gelding might also love Cutting! Perhaps your Combined Driving horse also enjoys Working Equitation – with a Morgan horse, multiple careers, even at the same time, are reasonably common.
Taken by Lindsey Berry at the UPHA horseshow in the Big E at Springfield MA in 2017.
Morgans are commonly seen in the public eye as performing in Main Ring, or Rail Class, or Show Horse Disciplines – or even, for many who ride them, English Classes. Bear with me, I know it’s a broad label, but working on grouping into categories we can break down further. For the uninitiated, Show Horse Disciplines involve high stepping horses and beautiful formal suits on their riders. Note that in England, Show Horse is quite a different category so this label only works when describing classes on this side of the pond (for now). Show Horse Disciplines, more formally, are designed to show off the high action and extravagant gaits of certain breeds, including but not limited to Morgans, Saddlebreds, and Arabians.
Show Horse Disciplines are historically derived from two sources; plantation riding in America, where a smooth and high stepping mount was preferred, as it was comfortable enough for hours of plantation riding but fancy enough to look smart while riding around town; and literal park riding in England, where riders would show off their fanciest and highest stepping mounts in the city parks.
Show Horse Disciplines under saddle include: Park Saddle, English Pleasure, Classic (or Country) Pleasure, Saddleseat Equitation, Hunter Pleasure, and Hunter Hack. I will also include Side Saddle under this label because although it is less common, it is done sometimes with Morgan horses at all breed shows, and fits the historical category of “fancy park riding.”
Show Horse Disciplines under harness include: Carriage Driving, Pleasure Driving, Classic Pleasure Driving, Park Harness, Road Hack, and Roadster.
Taken by Lindsey Berry at the UPHA horseshow in the Big E at Springfield MA in 2017. Bianca Gaeta and AE’s Cielo Blanca showing at Buxmont Riding Club, Telford PA, 2021
Western Disciplines, are mostly competitions showing off a horse’s ability to work on a ranch, and is what we call Working Western. The more popular Western discipline for Morgans, however, is Western Pleasure, and the associated Parade type classes which use very fancy, often silver bedecked Western tack and Western Pleasure style of motion. Western Pleasure evaluates the horses for their manners under saddle, a calm and responsive disposition, and their suitability for a relaxed, slow gait cadence when moving. A young horse showing ability for the frame desired in Western Disciplines, a lower neck set and a naturally smooth gait, for example, is said to be a Performance Prospect.
There is a growing number of Morgan fans who are interested in the Working Western side of Western disciplines, and are competing against stock breeds (quarter horses, appaloosas, paint horses, etc) to show the suitability of our breed for working cattle, managing a ranch, and braving the unknown.
Western Disciplines include: Cutting, Roping, Team Penning, Ranch Sorting, Ranch Riding, Reining, Western Pleasure and Parade Classes.
Bianca Gaeta and AE’s Cielo Blanca sorting cows at Black Diamond Stables in Flemington, NJ, 2021.Karrie Rossen and WVS Flame Burner at Stockade NY, 2021.
Sport Disciplines are a complicated group, not because they’re not clear and defined, as they are, but because the label is misleading and confusing. Riding horses IS a sport, so by that concept ALL disciplines are sport disciplines, but Sport as a group of disciplines has been clearly defined by discipline-defining-people (not me).
The trouble with the label “Sport” and “Morgans” is that Sport has been used as a “cover all” label for Morgans who work in non-main-ring and less-understood-western disciplines. This is confusing and misleading, as it implies that many more disciplines are Sport than are actually considered Sport by the rest of the horse world outside of Morgans (and sometimes it turns people away from our breed, because it appears that the breed does not understand what Sport entails). A sport horse is a type, not a breed or a single discpline, but the term is applied to horses bred and used for the traditionally Olympic equestrian sporting events of dressage, eventing, show jumping, and combined driving. In America, we also consider hunt seat and show hunters (hunter jumpers), and western dressage, to be sport horse athletes. Horses used for saddle seat, western riding disciplines except for dressage, racing, or endurance riding, are not generally described as sport horses.
Dressage complicates Sport because there are generally three types of commonly known dressage – traditional dressage like what is done in the Olympics, which has levels and musical freestyle and cool stuff like that, western dressage which is a lot like traditional dressage only done in western tack with a different set of movements (but it is not hard to cross over a horse from one to the other, as they are quite similar), and classical dressage, also known as haute ecole, or high school, which is what the Lippizzan horses of Vienna do with the rearing and kicking supremely elegant war horse moves. Classical Haute Ecole dressage is not considered a Sport Discipline.
Sport Disciplines: Dressage, Western Dressage Eventing, Show Jumping, Hunter Jumping, and Combined Driving.
Olivia Bullock and EF Moment of Fate at GMHA 2021 in Woodstock VT.
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Long Distance Riding Disciplines include Endurance, Hunter Paces, Competitive Trail Riding, and Limited Distance Riding. Simply, Long Distance Disciplines are horse riding on controlled, long-distance races. They can be any distance and can take multiple days to accomplish. Some include various sorts of obstacles, and scheduled veterinary exams to ensure the health and safety of the horse.
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There is a category of emerging discplines which I am going to call Western Classical Crossover, including Cowboy Dressage and Working Equitation.
Cowboy Dressage is not the same as Western Dressage, which confused the heck out of me, so I would assume confuses other people as well. It is instead the blending of the best of Western riding and classical dressage, more tailored to the western conformation and tack specifically, where western dressage is more the adaptation of traditional dressage for western equipment.
Working Equitation is also a misunderstood discipline. YouTube videos show magnificent Lusitanos in Spain galloping over what looks like a western trail class course, moving and handling things in a way that many of us did in childhood gymkhanas, while also performing hairpin turns and magnificent feats of strength, flexibility, and intelligence. Working Equitation was actually created to showcase the skills developed worldwide to work cattle and ranch chores, and it has four phases: working dressage, ease of handling with obstacles, speed with obstacles, and cattle handling.
Everyone should take the time to find a trainer they trust and with whom they have appropriate chemistry.
Growing up, not unlike many, many equestrians, I rode “school horses” – off the track thoroughbreds, former trail riding quarter horse crosses, mixed breed ponies and retired showers alike. We all should ride these horses, the grumpy old guys who don’t want to keep working; the obnoxious mares who shine in the show ring and buck like the devil when you’re home; the devious pony who can always get you rubbed off and you can’t ever quite tell how. Riding these guys teaches us how to ride horses, not just how to ride a single horse. Horses, like people, come in every shape and size conceivable, with every personality type we could imagine. Part of why the college and high school riding team shows are so successful at producing quality riders is because the students get to the show, get assigned their horse, and whoever they get, they have to ride them to the best of their ability. The best piece of advice my childhood trainer gave me is, ride as many different horses as you can. Now, in my thirties, I’ve ridden well over a hundred, and lost track of the variations by breed, ages, genders, riding styles, training types, and the like.
Every riding school has horses to ride. Many have a variety of horses that will teach you to ride any horse you encounter. Not every program has a proper school master.
The school master takes the rider, who can ride lots of horses, and teaches them how to ride like the professionals do.
The best analogy I have is learning to play music. In many schools, kids have to pick a musical instrument to play, and can use a school-owned instrument, or a rental instrument, and learn the basics. Once you know the basics, though, and you can play well, you cannot hear or feel what it is to produce professional music, because the instrument is incapable of producing that quality sound. Your fingers cannot learn how to create certain nuances if the instrument cannot produce them. It is not the fault of the musician nor the instrument, but it must be recognized that at some point, if you want to continue to play music, you must leave behind the student instrument and pick up the professional level, so you can begin the process of producing music at a higher level.
It is the same, or similar in horses. A good lesson program will move you up from the beginner pony, who’s bomb proof and more whoa than go, eventually to the fresh OTTB who’s hot and spicy and can’t always get the correct lead at the canter, for example. You school and you show and move up in levels. If you are very lucky, or picky, you can move up to a school master, who can show you how to produce the nuances of professional riding.
I am very lucky that my dressage trainer has two of these masters.
Both of these horses are World Champion Morgan horses.
Both of these horses had full careers in Morgan rail disciplines, and both as later teenagers quickly mastered a new discipline so thoroughly that both have USDF medals.
Riding these horses is like playing a Stradivarius. I feel I can say that, as I play the cello and once was invited by incredible chance to play a little on a visiting professional’s Strad. It is nothing like training a young horse, which is what I spend most of my time doing, or even like riding a nicely trained show horse. It is incomparable, though once settled in the saddle for the first time with each of these horses, I definitely felt as though a very good and foolish friend was allowing me to take their very expensive sports car for a joy ride.
A school master is the Stradivarius in its discipline. It is the best tool upon which to learn your chosen style to ride.
I am a new dressage student, relatively speaking, as I have only been riding dressage for a year. I have ridden for so many years, with so many people, in so many disciplines and on so many horses, that I consider myself an excellent rider. I love young horses, and as a breeder I like to start my young horses before they go out into the world so they have the best start (I can’t always, as I wait until earliest three but more often four to get on their backs, as I do not want to hinder their growth or cause them pain). I’m usually I’m a position of schooling the horse, training the horse, teaching them what to do or reminding them of what they always know. To ride the two masters in my trainer’s barn, I am finally learning what it feels like to be schooled myself. These two geldings are kind boys, not tough or ornery – but they will not do “the thing” unless I am asking for “the thing” correctly. One is slightly more forgiving, and will take a slightly miffed direction and give you the benefit of the doubt, but the other will not move towards the asked for action unless you are on the money with your cues. It forces you to be present, mentally, every single stride. It forces you to RIDE, every single stride. It makes every muscle in your body ache with the effort. When you get it, though, their reward is so happy, the action done so nicely and beautifully that it impresses on your mind and body how to ask correctly.
Every lesson should move you forward in your discipline. Every clinic, every show, and even every ride, we should be growing and learning and expanding. If you find you are not moving forward, and you want to be, it might be time to reach out, find a clinician who’ll really push you, find a new place to school, or even find a new horse to work with and learn new things. Trainers and masters are out there, who will help you reach new heights, push you to be where you want with your riding, and find you the opportunities that will best help you grow.
My hope for you is that you find your place with your horses, with people who support you, and that you all enjoy the ride.
So the world got engulfed in a pandemic with a really insane novel virus and I got caught up doing my foal watch, and blogging just took a back seat. My thanks for your continued readership even with my absence.
Speaking of the Insane Pandemic, let’s talk about that today. I know it has varied state to state but wasn’t it great when horses were regulated out of our lives? Unless we are their primary caregivers in which case we were allowed to care for them, but not ride or train or give lessons or see another human being?
Not that all of us mind not seeing another human being. I believe many of us go to the barn to escape humans. Boy wasn’t it nice when the government figured that out, that we could maintain a pandemic-acceptable physical spacing from other humans while being in very close contact with our favorite animals?
All snark aside though, what a fucking nightmare of a spring. I was sleeping in a hammock in my barn for most of it, waiting on a mare who lost her foal and then for another who’s colt just wanted to take his time – all while my wonderful physician parents worried about my not getting enough sleep (which I wasn’t) thereby reducing my body’s own immune system’s ability to fight off anything if I did happen to be put into contact with this scary virus (which thankfully I wasn’t).
How many of us are still not riding our horses enough (much to their glee), or have been unable to see our horses until recently, or been unable to breed for their 2021 crop, or who have lost their jobs and cannot even keep their horses anymore?
This is 2020. Horses while still livestock are more pets for us. Non-essential. Horses like Morgans thrive on work and routine, and throwing a wrench (or series of bottle rockets, whatever) into our year has set many of us back. We cannot push pause on our living partners. We cannot give them back this lost show season. We cannot give it back to ourselves either.
With this in mind, though, we cannot give up. Yes, our horses are our pets and companions, eating our paychecks and shitting our time. We adore them. This year is in the toilet. That does not mean the rest of our lives – or their lives – are going to be in that place. Perseverance is the name of the game this year. Wear your masks, keep your distances, stay outside, however you need to protect yourself, please do it. Your horse needs you when all this is over, to be the person you always have been to them.
Style My Ride’s Lindsey Uhl recently attended the Devon Horse show for the first time and was overcome by the majesty and tradition.
When you’re a local equestrian, plans for Devon start early. You can buy your tickets for events online and plan which ones you must watch on live feed. You arrange carpooling with your barn friends and whomever else, and it’s just accepted that of course you’ll try and get to the Grand Prix, it’s Devon!
When you grew up elsewhere and are new to the area, Devon is still this sort of mystical magical wonderland where champion horses and riders show and in your dream of dreams, maybe some day you’d get there too, even just to watch.
I grew up outside Boston, MA, and rode at a hunter jumper stable a little ways from my home. I never had the money to be a big show rider or own my own horse, but I had a devoted trainer who taught me how to ride anything. I enviously watched my peers head off to the big shows, and of course heard names like Devon and Ocala casually thrown around, but they meant nothing to me, really, as the world I lived in was one with snarky school ponies that had lessons to teach me. As I went through school and moved from formal horse riding lessons to casual, “if it is a horse I like it and will ride it,” I encountered many more equestrians from numerous disciplines, across more than a half dozen American states, and all over the UK. Devon remained a name that everyone knew and talked about. It seemed to be used as a standard by which to measure oneself and one’s horse, or a trainer, or a breeder, or a horse for sale. It was not the only standard, to be sure, but the more involved with horses that I became, the more Devon grew in my mind.
This is my twenty second year of riding and training horses, and this spring was my first Devon.
It’s a difficult thing to approach wonderland when it’s been built up so much over a lifetime. I’ve achieved the dream of my life already recently, as I purchased my first horse in the fall, and moved her out from her breeder’s farm to my city this spring. She’s a yearling now – and Devon became a topic of discussion with some of my professional horse friends. Such a great show, and so close, of course I had to go, at least to the Breeder’s Day, to see what the rest of the local young stock was looking like, and to see if maybe there’d be a place for my filly in the two-year-old lineup in a year! I felt apprehensive, like approaching someone famous and asking for their autograph, almost afraid that if I went, the bubble would burst and Devon would be just another place, but I couldn’t deny the clear logic my friends presented.
I planned my day at Devon with a young equestrienne from my stable who I’m mentoring. As a young rider with a lot of natural talent and who works very hard for everything she has but who had also never been to Devon, I wanted to share the experience with her – after all, it is a great standard to strive for! We packed up our sunscreen and water bottles for the hot Pennsylvania day, both very excited but also uncertain at how the dream would unfold in reality. Half an hour drive from our stable, and we were there. As much as there is the fair and the vendors as well as the horses, we agreed that we had to see the horses first.
The grounds are simple and stunning. The stabling rows, brown with blue and white trim and the Devon Hackney horse seal above every entry, are beautiful, well maintained and clean, with potted flowers at entrances. The Ferris wheel peeks above the rooflines and vendor tents, reminding the crowds that there is fun to be had beyond the show ring. And then, of course, there is the Dixon Oval.
In my real life, I am an entry-level architect specializing in historic structures who has just completed her formal education. In my heart of hearts, I would love to work primarily on equestrian facilities, but of course, as an amateur horse rider and owner, pigeon holing myself that much just isn’t practical for feeding my filly. The Dixon Oval is a historic structure taken from my own dreams. Its early 20th century grandstands remind me of Churchill Downs, only for a riding arena instead of a racetrack, and painted a stunning blue with white and black that feels almost like something out of Mary Poppins. You can of course tell that over time it has been expanded and the like, but its essence is perfect: this is where Champions meet.
My friend and I found a place on the fence line to stand and watch, as we were too excited to sit. We positioned ourselves between the warm-up ring and the main arena, so we could see all the action. Breeder’s Day is fun, because while the jumps have been put away, there’s both in-hand and riding classes, with horses as young as yearlings. We had such fun, watching the babies prance around with their handlers, picking our favorites and admiring the exceptional grooming and braiding that had been done. There were some stunning youngsters, some clearly needing to grow into themselves a bit more, but even when gangly and long-legged, just gorgeous. Neither of us had seen in-hand classes before, and it was very interesting to learn about the process and what makes a difference for the judges’ scores.
Between the in-hand classes and the hunter under saddle, we decided to peruse the shops and the fair. Some of the vendors had already packed up to head home, but many were still open. We challenged the Dubarry stand about how waterproof their boots really were, and the gentleman there stepped in a bin of water and splashed around happily, explaining that it is their lining that is waterproof, and you must condition the leather as you would the leather of your saddle, but he’d had his boots for over a year and they were just as good as new. We admired the F.O.A.L. Competition Jacket by Arista Equestrian, made of such breathable and lightweight material that we’d be comfortable in a hot show ring in a Pennsylvania summer. Of course, we each purchased some Devon official gear to celebrate our first Devon experience!
Our experience with the shops was made perfect by two ladies who took the time to really chat with us like friends: Piper of The Plaid Horse Magazine, and Vicki of Bizi Bee Boutique! Piper took the time to tell us all about the USHJA Horsemanship Quiz Challenge, which The Plaid Horse is presenting this summer. It’s an online program to enrich a stable’s horsemanship knowledge beyond just riding, through quizzes that gain each contestant’s stable points over a thirty day period. Each stable has the opportunity to win cool prizes, and we got really pumped to introduce our stable community to this challenge. Vicki, who came out from the Kansas City area, was equally warm and friendly. A graduate of University of Kansas myself, we chat about the area and the horse communities out in the midwest, and she introduced us to her fun boutique. We love her French horse t-shirts, they’re just so cute! It’s great people like these that make the horse community such a wonderful group to be with.
We topped off our Devon day by watching the hunter under saddle class. It was a large group, who filled the huge oval space completely, dominated by bays but with a couple greys, blacks, and chestnuts thrown in for color. It was hard to watch all of the horses and we wondered how the judges would be able to pick the best out of the crowd! I had a definite favorite, whose rider kept him a little to the inside of the rail and in a wonderful frame the whole time. I was so pleased when he placed fourth! It was fascinating for us to watch the motion of the class: walk, trot, canter, pulling some horses to the center, reversing and watching the gaits again, excusing some of the class, then asking them to walk and trot in hand. It’s been a few years since I did any showing, and I forgot how complicated it could get! It was beautiful, such well-made and well prepared horses with riders equally well prepared for the class.
As we walked slowly to the gate, past horses being cooled and groomed and vendors packing up their wares, my friend and I talked about the horses we had liked best, which ones we would like to take home, and which trainers we thought we might like to someday work with. One dream made reality, it was easy to let the rest start to form in our heads. Maybe someday soon we will return with horses of our own to take around the Dixon Oval, and help other girls to begin their own dreams.
I’m a crazy girl who had a big dream when she was a small child. The dream came true, and multiplied by about a million, with Spirit’s Celeste.
Spirit’s Celeste is a 2019 Morgan filly by my stallion Primal Thunder and out of my friend’s Equinox Challenge daughter, Triplesweet Trinity. She and I planned the breeding together, and I offered her multiple breedings to my stallion in exchange for the offspring her mare Trinity would bear in 2019. April 28, a tiny crumpled bay filly emerged in the middle of the morning when the barn was full of people, with big soft eyes and incredibly expressive ears, and an innate love of human company. I had a hunch she might be the baby to show in her first year, so worked with her on my friend’s farm two or three times a month before she came home, at which point we officially show prepped for a couple of weeks. Before she was five months old, she out-performed even my wild imagination. She’s not even a year old yet, and she has become the Morgan of my dreams, and the horse of a lifetime.
I’m a Morgan horse breeder. I’ve accepted this as my role in life, and become quite content with producing Morgan horses for sport disciplines. I do show, but I don’t show to win. I show to learn, to help my horses learn, to meet people, and to have the creatures I’m creating be critiqued assessed by professionals who know their job better than I do. I want them to be seen but I also want to know the truth of their potential. It’s nice when we do pin, but at the end of the day, the experience is worth much more.
In 2018, I entered my first rated show. My first show at all since I was a teenager, minus one late night show jumping competition in England. I took my beloved stallion Primal Thunder to perform in hand in the breeding division of Dressage at Devon. Devon Show Grounds has been a holy place in my mind my whole life and I decided it would be the best place for me to start. It was an unbelievable experience. The show staff are amazingly kind and helpful, especially for someone showing all by her lonesome as I was. My stallion is always a gentleman, and he napped curled up like a puppy between events, leading to some braid cleanups – but the braider I decided to hire was wonderful and is now a personal friend, as is the exceptional photographer who followed our rounds, in the rain. It was nerve wracking. It was exhausting. It was absolutely brilliant. I had so much fun, and I learned so much, met some wonderful people and horses, and even brought home some gorgeous satin ribbons. My boy was so quiet and respectful in the warmup ring, where there were also some hot tempered stallions of other breeds, that a couple of the officials asked if I would bring more Morgans the following year.
So, I did. I packed up my two youngest fillies, three year old BCT Gentlemans Prime Time and weanling Spirit’s Celeste, and we drove down from upstate New York to show. Prim had shown once previously, earning a blue ribbon at the Morgan Medallion show as a yearling. Given her motion, carriage, and success of her sire in the discipline, I’d been thinking dressage might suit her natural style, and I wanted to know what trained professionals thought of her. I also wanted to see how her self esteem would handle it! Prim is a sweet, loving girl, but can get overwhelmed, and is the low man in the herd so gets picked on a lot. Especially as the “big sister” to Celeste, I thought it might help for her to show again, see how easy it was, and at the same time be the comfortable presence for the tiny filly.
Celeste though, she was born a show horse, and ended up comforting her “big sister” at the show! She came out ready for a stage and spotlight – but in that distinctive, unassuming, Morgan horse way. She loves everyone, all the humans she meets and all the horses, dogs, barn cats, and anyone with whom she can interact. She cuddles like an oversized puppy. She can quietly stand and not fuss – at four months old. I wanted to put her in the ring and have her seen, and to check my own assessment against the assessment of the judges.
The show has been done for months now, when I am writing this, and I am still spinning from it. It was incredible.
I handled both of my fillies myself, as I frankly didn’t feel hiring a stranger to jog my babies would be appropriate. I learned in brief how to do so for my stallion in 2018, and had spent the weeks leading up to the show acquainting my girls with the proper way to stand and move, as best as one can. They were ready. We shipped down with a good friend who’s driving skills have always impressed me. Prim wasn’t keen on getting in the trailer – but Celeste marched right on, and Prim, not to be outdone by the much-younger-and-much-smaller, followed suit. They knew and loved each other at this time, and they shipped easily, arriving comfortable and dry to Devon’s grounds. Anxious mama me, of course, I’d been bustling around, bedding the stalls, portioning out hay and filling water buckets and obsessively checking my texts for the “we’ve arrived at the gate” message. Everything went smoothly. I had to speak with the officials about attempting to run both of them in the Morgan IBC class, and they arranged the order of “go” such that I would be able to run one back and fetch the other. We walked the grounds, each filly and I, we walked the Dixon Oval and did our triangle, and relaxed.
Our first day was all “GO”. Early I ran both my girls in the Morgan IBC class. Celeste won and Prim took fifth. Prim got to nap while Celeste and I then did the pony division in the afternoon and evening. In which she won almost everything. Which is still blowing my mind. She was the first place filly of the year, champion foal, champion young pony, and reserve grand champion, beaten by a 12 year old Westfalen (I believe) stallion who won the previous year and who, frankly, deserved to win.
Each filly had a class on our second day. Neither ribboned, but the entire point of going to this show for me, as I’ve said, is to have my babies exposed to the “horse world,” to see and be seen, and to learn about new and exciting things. Prim improved her score by a whole point in her class the second day, and the judge said she showed elegance and real promise – what can beat that?
We were done by mid morning, and after each had a nap, I took them for walks around the grounds. Celeste and I met up with a good friend of mine who came to meet her (she owns a colt by Celeste’s father) and we ended up walking around and talking to people for more than an hour, this tiny four month old filly standing nicely and quietly letting people pet her and talk as people do.
What we heard a lot, either to our faces or about us as we walked by, was pleasantly shocking.
“What breed is she?”
“Wait she’s a MORGAN?”
“This is the little filly who beat everyone?”
When we finally walked back to the stalls, two very nice ladies with the show were sitting there waiting for us to get back – to interview me and meet Celeste.
My mind is still blown about this. Not once did I hear anything negative said about myself or my fillies – not saying negative things weren’t said, but that I heard none of it. So many people approached me and Celeste, asking to meet her and hear her story, marveling about her kindness and sweet disposition, and how darn cute she is. When you’re a small time horse person, who’s ridden forever but only owned for a couple of years, who’s constantly sought it out but never been able to do it as she wished, but who is then suddenly in the spotlight because of a horse she made – it’s incredibly humbling, frankly. Proved to me that if you work hard enough, and always keep that end goal in mind, and just persevere and WORK, some day you might actually achieve more than you thought possible. It’s also been suggested to me that this, this exact thing, might also be why I love Morgan horses – because that’s how their minds work.
We met up with many friends at Devon, from the Morgan and the Dressage worlds. The Morgan IBC class hosted a fairly large class for an “off breed” – seven horses! – and I got to meet more Morgan sport horses and their humans. Dressage at Devon proved to me, more than anything else, that Morgans are sport horses, true warmbloods at their core, though not aimed or trained for the sport circles until much more recently than European warmbloods. Although this does mean Sport Morgans do have some catching up to do – developing through training what many warmbloods are born doing – if we humans work hard through collaboration, cooperation, and the grit and hard work our beloved Morgans are so known for, our high-headed, big-hearted, tough-as-nails and smart-as-Harvard-grads ponies and horses will prove their worth outside our inner circles.
2019 was a year that took my life by storm. The first breeding I had planned for to be a “keeper” foal by my stallion and out of a friend’s mare arrived in late April, a perfect black bay filly who is the absolute image of her father. I was thrilled. When you’re a new breeder in the first few years, you hope a lot – and if you’re very, very lucky, sometimes your hopes pan out.
Spirit’s Celeste was born to be in the show ring. I knew it from the first day we met. I didn’t realize how true it was until I took her to Dressage at Devon when she was not even five months old. While I was always going to breed Morgan horses for sport disciplines, with this filly I can see without a doubt that I can achieve this goal.
I realized this year that my inklings about the Morgan breed I’ve had since I was a young child have always been correct: they are multidisciplinary, exceptionally athletic and intelligent, and would climb into your pocket if only there was enough room.
2020 is the year I start to share the things 2019 proved to me.
The Modern Morgan 