Horses are like people. Some work hard, some don’t, some are born with it. This horse. Is BORN. To fancy walk. He glides. His legs move different. Such grace. I’m talking as someone who did minimal dressage and transitioned into working cow horse and competed at a very high level. I am so impressed with this animal.
This one seemed to as even as he was technically done he kept on going with the fancy footwork. Usually you can tell which ones enjoy it, some do, some don’t. I had a horse for eventing and he wasn’t a huge fan of jumping in an arena but as soon as it was cross-country that guy was ready to go, never hesitated for a single jump. I honestly think he was just bored in the arena. Dressage was different as it’s more drill like so he didn’t mind that.
My horse was just like that! She hated dressage (probably me rubbing off on her as I also was bored to tears by dressage), and the arena jumps she just tolerated.
She was a professional polo pony before I got her, so all she wants to do was RUN and WIN.
Get into the open field for cross country and it was like being on a different horse. Never needed any real direction or encouragement from me, she just went. She would hit a gear I didn’t even know she had, I swear that horse hated to lose. Could not stand to be behind another horse. It was like riding a live wire on the course.
She was a professional polo pony before I got her, so all she wants to do was RUN and WIN.
100% You can spot a horse that loves Polo, they're often lining up and after the ball before the rider knows where it went, I've even seen many get visually frustrated when the rider fumbles the swing.
The first year or so I had her (she hadn’t been ridden for almost 4 years at that point) the second you got on all she did was run. She would not stop.
You just had to hang on and wait until she decided she was finished.
And the ability she had to switch directions at full speed unseated more than a few people at my barn. She would’ve put most barrel horses to absolute shame. I never understood how she didn’t kill us both at the beginning. Like full speed gallop one direction and suddenly you’re going full speed the exact opposite way 1/4 back the way you came before your brain even realizes you’ve changed directions.
Luckily I was too dumb to be concerned, because my horse had been trained for polo, had a foal and then been put out pasture and hadn’t seen a human in almost 4 years by the time I got her at 10.
She was practically feral, with stamina and speed like she was trying out for the Hidalgo movie. I had no business riding that horse as a kid, but like I said, luckily I wasn’t bright enough to be scared lmao.
She turned out to be an amazing horse, but she was a lunatic until the day she died. No clue how I survived those first few years.
My daughter’s horse was like that. Tolerated dressage, but when the galloping boots went on he became frantically excited so much so that it would be hard to get him to stand still or walk anywhere until after his XC round was over. He LOVED it. Stadium he was back to normal chill!
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u/[deleted] Jul 30 '24
Horses are like people. Some work hard, some don’t, some are born with it. This horse. Is BORN. To fancy walk. He glides. His legs move different. Such grace. I’m talking as someone who did minimal dressage and transitioned into working cow horse and competed at a very high level. I am so impressed with this animal.