Cob Jockey

Mr. Encore...I am so damn proud of this horse and his transformation my heart could burst. I actually can't believe how dramatically his personality has changed after two months on ulcer treatment and a teeth float, plus some time, a consistent routine, and a job he understands and likes.

We finally found a bit he likes, and unfortunately it's my Herm Sprenger single jointed nathe that was recalled because it can snap in half, buuuuuut since I won't be using it for too long with him and he adores it, I'm rolling that dice for now

Encore with his owner, who is a REEEEEEALLY good farrier.

It has been such an honor and a privilege to be a part of this horse's story. To see the anxiety wrinkles leave his eyes. To watch him go from so jumpy and anxious I had to tiptoe around him, to being able to handle him like a normal horse, throwing things around while tacking him up and not thinking about spooking him.

He strongly prefers mane pulling to scissors. Who knew? Literally fell asleep for mane pulling but gets shuffly and big eyed at the sound of the scissors.

He's now solidly walk/trot under saddle, reaches for the bit when I bridle him (I had to chase him around the wash rack and corner him to bridle him the first month I had him) and can steer well enough that we can ride with another horse in the ring (anyone that has started a baby can understand that milestone!). 

Spending time at me and Leah's baby tying station (better known as The Wall of Knowledge, Patience and Wisdom) after his ride while I'm riding Connor. He has to be hard tied (with a twine safety of course) because he knows how to untie quick release knots, go figure #cobthings

He's finding activities he enjoys. He absolutely loves ground poles and loved free jumping so much, he went around and around the jump chute, the right direction and the wrong direction, over and over, without any encouragement from me and Mary. No fear in his eyes, just a glowing excitement and honestly pride.

He even went to a show. I opted to take him instead of Connor to our annual Welsh show and truly had no idea what kind of horse I'd get. I expected him to be jumpy and anxious in a new place, and had no idea if he would get on my strange trailer at 6am in the dark. I'm fairly positive it was also his first experience with a ramp, too.

BLESS my barn owners for putting these ridiculously bright flood lights over the parking area. They're so bright we get complaints from neighbors if we leave them on all the time, so we only use them when we need them, but when we need them they are GLORIOUS.

I did not anticipate that he would march right onto the trailer, stand quietly on the trailer for 20 minutes while I found his stall, settle into show stabling without a peep, calmly eat hay all day without screaming once, and trot in-hand like a damn professional in the show ring. But he did all of that, and boy was I proud. You'd have thought he horse showed every weekend, and in some respects he put my own horse to shame with his good behavior, lol.

Full siblings Castleberrys Encore (left, age 5, gelding) and Castleberrys Electra (right, age 6, mare) (Castleberrys Ffafr ap Culhwch x Rhosyr Ebony by Gwenllan Brenin Mon)

On top of all of that, his ability to learn things forever the first time I introduce them leaves me with my jaw on the ground at times. Especially coming from Connor, who had to learn something, sleep on it, learn it again, and then would slowly internalize it over time, the fact that I can teach a new concept to Encore and it's just immediately, permanently installed that very day is truly mind-boggling.

So, he's not officially for sale yet, but he's also not NOT for sale if anyone knows anyone that is looking. He is kind, sweet, snuggly but respectful of your space, always takes care of his person, constantly asks his human for guidance, knows where his body parts are and how to move them, and learns SO quickly. He's sensitive and reactive in a fun way, but never stupid, and will take a pro or a confident ammy in a program very far someday.

Just because Connor and I are exploring sports other than Dressage and eventing doesn't mean I don't have big plans and dreams for those sports in my head. For this reason:

All photos from his lessee

There was a time when I wasn't sure Disco was growing up into what I want, and I wasn't sure if I was going to sell him to his lessee or not. But as he's grown up, his most concerning conformation faults have softened significantly, and some time spent with Encore have convinced me that yes, I am keeping Disco.

Owning a baby for the first time is hard. I never know what is going to stick around permanently and what is "just a phase", both from a temperament and a conformation perspective. But finally I can say, at the age of 2 years and 6 months, that this is a horse I can see going far in something with.

A little "growthy" here, which is why she has chosen not to show him at the Canadian Royal Winter Fair this year. Thankfully he is doing most of his growing out and not up these days.

Is he a warmblood-style 10 mover destined for the Olympics? Of course not, but I can take this kind of movement pretty far:

And this is still an awkward two year old! Can't wait to see what he looks like in four years.

He has a lot more foreleg reach than Connor and knows how to sit and push from behind - especially in the canter, which I have no good media of but have seen glimpses of from behind his broodmare harem while cantering together.

Praise be, the potato might eventually sprout a wither.

Disco also has retained his incredible brain. His lessee can't gush enough to me about how easy he is to handle, even when she's taken him to a show or during breeding season. She's sent me videos of a ten year old boy trotting him in hand, of her one year old sitting in a stroller next to him while he hand grazes with mares in their field behind him, of him being ponied off a gelding in a rope halter, of him being bellied off the mounting block and of wearing a harness for the first time.

None of it surprises me, every stallion I've known of Lisa's has always been kind and easy to handle, but it's still wonderful confirmation that he's going to be a good citizen for our co-op when he comes back.

Best of all, in every photo and video she's ever sent me, I've never seen a single image of him with a worried look in his eye. The world is a wonderful and interesting and not threatening place to Disco, and I'm so here for that attitude.

So, it will be another year before I see him again (assuming he shows at the 2024 Royal, I'm planning on making the trip) and another eighteen months before he's back in the States, and possibly even longer before he's back in my barn because I plan on sending him out for training immediately when he returns, but the wait is worth it. This is my horse for the future.

Recently, someone, somewhere out on the internet - politely and without revealing my identity at all - publicly questioned my decision to quit Dressage. Someone I don't know. They, and some subsequent other folks, made a bunch of (wrong) guesses about why I might have quit Dressage.

And, you know, such is the nature of blogging. You put yourself out there, you have to be vulnerable or else it's not good content, and therefore you open yourself up to speculation. So it didn't really bother me, but it did make me want to address it clearly and openly.

To ask that question and to guess that it had anything to do with outside forces is to fail to understand me as a horsewoman or my relationship to Connor. I am not a Dressage rider any more than I was an eventer for the first five years I had him. I'm a horsewoman, and I'm Connor's advocate. That is my whole identity as an equestrian.

 I switched to straight Dressage in 2015 not because I wanted to, but because Connor had told me that even though he was capable of this:

He didn't enjoy it. Even though he was sound and his last event was winning a massive rated BN division at the Kentucky Horse Park and by all outward measures he was successful, I knew that leaving the start box made him anxious, not excited. So you have two options in this case: you either say "I'm an eventer and you don't like eventing so I'm selling you to buy a horse that does", or do what I did: we switched to a sport that left one foot on the ground at all times, and my heart horse was happy again.

But when you have a wildly stoic horse like Connor, you can't rest on "he's happy doing Dressage". You have to keep re-evaluating. And after six years of us both enjoying Dressage, as my trainer and I pushed him towards Third, I started to get that same feeling I got toward the end of his eventing career, that he wasn't enjoying it. I had to "make him" do a lot of things under saddle, even though, again, he was sound (if you ignored his persistent, violent headshakes when first asked to go on contact every ride) and by all outward measures successful in the sport and capable of reaching my goal of getting my Bronze scores on him.

This realization came at a time that I was getting divorced, was in therapy for depression, and was learning to acknowledge and feel my own feelings for the first time in my life, which gave me the strength and perspective to say, you know what, I'm not enjoying this either. I'm not enjoying putting a square peg in a round role either.

Connor will never, ever say no to me. He will always say yes, no matter if what I'm asking him to do hurts him or scares him or he's not interested in what I'm interested in. It's my responsibility to not take advantage of that. It's my responsibility to be his advocate and partner first, above all else, above any ambitions I have to compete and win and rise up the ranks of a particular sport.

So he got quite a bit of time off while I was too depressed to ride and struggling with losing my identity as a competitive equestrian. He stood in the field and got fat and lost his topline and still made my heart soar every time I saw him, groomed him and heard him nicker at me (which he always does, every time he sees me).

And as I've gotten myself back together, I've started riding again. Started finding my identity again. And started exploring other sports that sound fun for both of us, as the human and horse we are, not the human and horse I wish we were because I have some arbitrary idea that I'm "a Dressage rider".

Might have made a friend that does endurance this week...

I am whatever my heart horse wants me to be, because that's what a heart horse is.