Cob Jockey

Encore left for his new home on Friday.

In the end, he sold exactly how I thought he would: through word of mouth from one of the many, many people that are constantly messaging Castleberry Welsh Cobs and Sporthorses on Facebook asking if Lisa has any Cobs going under saddle. She almost never does, but she did this one time.

Literally his second time cantering under saddle since I had him.

The new owner is a young woman even shorter than me who had never ridden a Welsh Cob before. Her trainer (who has taken pulling breeds to the FEI levels, perfect for Encore) suggested she reach out to Lisa I think after seeing a Castleberry Cob showing at a local Dressage show last summer. 

The trainer said they would be more size-appropriate than the Warmbloods and Thoroughbreds she had mostly ridden to that point, and you could see her whole world start to change as she rode 15hh Encore. She had a grin on her face almost the entire time. And I knew that feeling myself. That first time you ride a pony when you're a tiny adult that has mostly ridden big horses is just magic.

I hauled the new owner and Encore to his PPE. What can I say, she and Encore are about the same age as Connor and I were when I got him, and I see a lot of myself in her. I jumped at the chance to spend the hour drive there and back chatting with her. Peep that 18hh 3 year old Belgian next to him!

I mean but for real though

She had also done a gap year as a working student at [famous COTH blogger/Dressage rider/trainer]'s barn where she saw Castleberry Cobs Roscoe (Castleberrys ReFflection) and Ember (Castleberrys Esquire) haul in there for lessons and remembered being impressed with their good behavior and athleticism, which just added to the whole "meant to be" feeling.

Encore was so, so, SO good for his PPE, even though he was a little overwhelmed at the clinic setting.

In the end, for myself, I am so glad I did this. It pushed me as a horsewoman - I had a few moments in the beginning where I was like "what am I doing". But I took a deep breath and reminded myself that working with green horses is a skill I was capable of learning like all of the other horse things I've learned over the years. 

I bought him a nice leather halter with a nameplate as a Christmas/congratulations on your new horse/congratulations on your first-but-probably-not-last Castleberry Cob purchase (lol) so everyone he meets at his new home will know he's a Castleberry pony.

And I didn't get as far as I would have liked with him under saddle, but I didn't need to. I needed to make him a solid citizen, solve his ulcer/teeth issues, and market him to the point that his person could find him, and I did that.

Getting the band back together after Encore left

For now, I'm done with projects for the winter. With our pastures all having been seeded in the fall, my turnout options are limited especially in fields with heated auto-waterers, so we're going to get through the worst of the winter with just three of them. But maybe I'll get to play with Encore's full sister in the spring...?

She is NICE.

In the meantime - back to my leading man.

One of the things I was hoping to get out of having Encore around was perspective. See, I regularly rode nothing but Connor for 12 years, except Aeres. I don't have a lot of experience "dating" different horses. And Encore is a very different animal from Connor and Disco - from a different "side" of Lisa's bloodlines, with far different movement and temperament.

But I had no idea just how much perspective riding Encore would give me in the end.

Connor always went clear, but boy did he make it interesting. Fox River Valley Pony Club HT, 2014

A fellow Welsh Cob enthusiast who is currently competing two very different types of Cobs in Dressage told me recently that she's found it really beneficial to ride both. It helps you understand yourself as a rider, and when it might not be you. And that got me thinking.

Penny Oaks, HHP, 2015

I spent the better part of a decade internalizing Connor's every inability to learn something new, every time he didn't respond to my aids, every time I thought "why is this so hard", as a failure of mine and mine alone. He would take the world by storm with a better rider, if I just handed the reins to my trainer, if I just wasn't so bad at riding, if I just wasn't such a slow learner, if my body just wasn't so crooked.That was my internal monologue.

And to be fair to him, it was both largely my riding that built that horse, AND he was the horse I needed at the time. Safe enough to be safe, spicy enough to be fun but not scary, he helped me conquer some fear I had developed in college and taught me how to enjoy riding again. He gave me experiences I had only dreamed about as a kid - winning an event, running XC, getting a neck ribbon, learning collection.

Jump Start HT, KHP, 2014. BN feels massive on the back of a 14hh pony, for the record.

But Encore has shown me that Connor is also just naturally a difficult ride as a sporthorse. When I first got Connor, a clinician told me that it "just seems to take a long time for things to get from your aids to his brain to his feet", and that never changed over the years. And even though Encore is nowhere near as educated as Connor, things have come more easily for me on a horse with more of an engine, more reactivity to aids, and quicker feet. I can be a more subtle rider.

Hamilton County Dressage Show, 2016. Photo by Paul Wood Photography.

There was still one thing I couldn't figure out though: Why had Aeres, who is a very similar horse to Encore in terms of movement and bloodlines, but much more trained than either Encore or Connor, not given me this same realization that Encore has?

Aeres, November 2020

It took a wise friend on a similar therapy journey to mine to help me figure it out: "You were in a different place at the time. Emotional awareness matters so much," she said. And it hit me. 

Baby noodle's first show ever, June 2012

It wasn't in my vocabulary at the time to ask myself if I was happy or to stop to compare Aeres and Connor or to ask myself if maybe I wasn't always the problem. At the time, I threw myself 110% into horses, and specifically competing, as an escape from other things, even though I didn't realize that's what was happening until many years later. Self-flagellation and blaming everything on my bad riding were easy to reach for, while asking myself how I felt about something and giving legitimacy and validity to my own feelings was so difficult I didn't even know it was an option.

The good news - Connor doesn't need to be a sporthorse to make me happy. He makes me happy standing in his stall and nickering at me, and trail riding, and being the horse I can pop on bareback and drink a glass of wine on on a cold winter night. And I'm grateful for the personal growth and perspective it has taken to appreciate him for who he is, and to appreciate myself for what I am, and to know much more clearly what makes a good match for me under saddle at the stage of riding I'm at.

Thanks, Encore.

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.

This horse is making me a better horsewoman.

I mean of course a near-green-as-grass baby will do that. But this one is a little different. He's so worried, but willing, so it's easy to overface him if I don't carefully think through what I'm doing and why. 

Whole family came to dinner last night

He doesn't "get over" negative experiences quickly or at all, so I have to figure out how to set him up for success with new things. "Success" looks like small asks with a clear objective in mind that is within his capabilities to get to in one session, and then patience as he realizes this new thing I've asked of him won't lead to his imminent demise. Which takes...a lot of time.

What Leah has termed his "processing ears", where after work he's suddenly like "Oh...that was it? I expected something much scarier, I'm sorry."

Last night was our first night "off the leash" as it were, and his first time in the hackamore which seems to be a better place to start with him than the bit, as I continue to put together the puzzle pieces of "what does he know and what does he not know." 

This looks a lot calmer than it felt. It felt like he was about to jump out of his skin.

Knows:

• How to go
• How to stop
• How to go in the right general direction that I point him with a combination of neck rein and direct rein

He's so sensitive that it doesn't take much to help him get the answers right, but he's so sensitive that we are weeks of daily riding away from this all feeling like less of an existential threat to him. But his owner is on board with the patience approach and so am I.

When he dropped him off, the owner told me Encore had spent the last 30 days with someone local, and he admitted that it didn't turn out to be a good fit.

"I mean I've walk-trot-cantered him myself, he'd occasionally scoot if he was startled, but never did anything bad with me. But [rider] made it sound like he was bad, like almost afraid to ride him. [Rider] was just too Quarter Horsey for him I think, you can't drill these Cobs, they're too smart for that."

The man has done Lisa's ponies' feet for well over 20 years; he may never have owned one before Encore, but he sure does know Cobs. He's exactly right about them being too smart for drilling.

(Remind me to tell you the one sometime about the Welsh Cob that laid down with a student trainer in college (not me!), because he was being drilled and he was too smart for that. It's a good one.)

It is actually stupid how well my Dressage saddle fits him. I think it fits Encore better than it ever fit Connor even when he was fit, and that it saying something because it was a damn good fit on Connor.

The one video I saw from "the girl" was of Encore being practically chased on the lunge with a bigger man on him, his bad eye on the inside of the circle and giving off strong prey-animal-being-hunted vibes. It gave me a sense of what kind of riding he'd been exposed to at the boarding barn, and especially with the ulcers I'm sure he had, that had to have been just a LOT for him.

I've had him 10 days and been on him twice so far. The first time, we did a pony ride with Leah leading us, and I swear the poor guy was going to jump out of his skin. Every sound I made, every motion I made in the saddle was terrifying to him. You could tell he was waiting on the other shoe to drop, that he had some negative associations with riding, but all that said, he was still a very good boy and I never felt unsafe.

But like OMG doesn't he just want to be a sporthorse!

A couple days later, we did a mounting block lesson. We got all tacked up again, and we went to the mounting block and just...stood there. Click treat for standing still. Click treat for standing still while I rub him all over. Click treat for standing still while I sit on him for a few seconds. Untack him, put him away. See? Not every time you wear a saddle do you get ridden. You could see his brain going, "...huh. Okay. This is different."

Lil fella needs to develop his butt muscles!

The next day, we lunged for the first time. This again he had associations with. I could feel him assuming he would be chased on the lunge, with palpable worry. No, we will walk, I told him over and over, until he understood and started to exhale and relax. I only lunged him on the good eye side. There will be a time to push him and lunge with the bad eye on the inside, sooner rather than later so I don't develop a one-sided horse with no coping mechanisms for his vision loss, but the time for that was not the first night we lunged, when we were trying to break those negative associations.

That's gotta be what, like a foot overtrack? By the way, he was a superstar at lunging. His voice commands are rock solid.

Last night, though? Last night I rode him again, again with a ground person although she was only there as an emergency brake, and it felt like I had a different horse. From the moment I tacked him up you could feel that he was starting to understand that the game is different with me. His eyes were softer than I'd ever seen for any kind of work before, and dare I say curious?

This one doesn't need the hillside to look uphill, lol

Last night was the first time I had a sense for what kind of riding horse I really have because so much of the fear was gone, although he wasn't completely without nerves. I could talk and laugh without him jumping the way he did the first time I rode him. I had rudimentary steering and a very good whoa. I could bump him with my legs, even pony kick him when he was fixated on something outside and wasn't listening, and he jumped, but in place.

There's a lot of power and air time in that trot. I'm excited to ride it when the time comes.

It's been such a hard thing to figure out, how much to push this horse and how much patience he needs. But that he made so much progress from one ride to another was validation that I'm getting it right with him, at least so far. He learns so quickly, far quicker than any horse I've ever had, and he's open to new experiences and changing his expectations. He won't end up being a horse for everyone, but he'll definitely be an incredible horse for someone.

To be honest, I spent the last few days wondering what I had gotten myself into. Encore was anxious, spooky, and I truly never saw him take a single deep breath. He would take this series of half-breaths but never really exhale, like a sleep apnea patient. He wouldn't even eat his grain the first night, so I didn't end up getting Gut-X into him until Monday night.

That cowhorse mane had to go (with owner's permission!) if he was going to be marketed as a sport horse.

But after two days of keeping his routine very consistent, introducing clicker training, and getting Gut-X into him, when I came out on Wednesday I had a totally different horse.

SUCH a different horse, can you believe it?

Just like his Aunt Aeres two years ago, almost overnight after starting the hyaluronic acid supplement there was suddenly a softness to his eye. He cocked a hind leg while I was grooming him in the crossties (which, two days ago he'd never been crosstied before. One of several examples I could give you of him learning things faster than any horse I've had before). 

I actually didn't plan on doing his mane last night, but as I was brushing a few tangles out after his nightly feet picking and brushing routine, I heard him exhale - fully - for the first time the whole time he'd been here. I clicked and treated, and kept going as he practically dozed under my fingers.

Don't get me wrong, we've still got quite a ways to go. He's an anxious fellow by nature, and this is all very new to him. He is attached to his underneck like it's a security blanket he won't let go of. But this whole time I've seen a thinker shining through the anxiety, and now that the anxiety has subsided just a little bit, I can see the horse he'll become with time, trust and consistency. And it's only been three days.

Airplane ears after a click treat sugar cube.

It's exciting to see him start to come out of his shell, and I can't wait to get to the barn every day and see what baby steps we're going to make that day.

 Mr. Encore arrived at the barn yesterday at noon sharp.

He's a big boy - every bit of 15.1hh, and at age 5, he still has that weedy "I'm horse shaped but still growing" look I'm used to seeing from five-year-old Cobs. He's going to fill out a lot, and probably add an inch before he's seven like Connor did.

Not the best scale photo, but he's got a solid hand on Connor, at least.

I spent all of yesterday afternoon just hanging out at the barn enjoying the first cool day in a week and watching him. Learning him. 

He's so sweet and personable. A little anxious and reactive, but he thinks through his anxiety.

And - I'm pretty positive there's ulcers going on, which if his Aunt Aeres is any indication, solving that should REALLY take the edge off.

Oh Connor, worth his weight in actual gold when it comes to turning him out with whatever random training horse happens to need a buddy over the years.

I let he and Connor spend the afternoon next to each other eating hay in the barn before turning them out together for the night. At times I groomed him, or just sat on a stool in his stall reading a book. Observing. Being calm and trustworthy. If I was in his stall, it didn't matter how much hay was in front of him, he wanted to be near me, sniffing me, touching me.

He has diminished vision in his right eye from a pasture accident as a young horse, and he seems to appreciate you chattering when you're working on his right side.

The plan for this week is to let him settle in, get him started on ulcer treatment, get him used to the routine of being worked and fed as I assess what ground stuff he does and doesn't know (and what saddle should fit him - I think based on looking at him we have better odds of Connor's saddles fitting than his girths!) and then hopefully start riding toward the end of this week.

Really can't wait to sit on him after watching him run around today

At first, when I said I was leasing Connor out, multiple friends were concerned. "But with Disco in Canada, that leaves you with nothing to ride! Are you getting out of horses?"

Absolutely not. I still love to ride. I still dream of a lifelong career at Beginner Novice eventing and no higher again someday (lol). But it's true that I am not interested in committing fully (buying) something else right now. Lisa to the rescue!

The farm sure does bring it on sunrise photos

Her farrier has a class of 2018 Castleberry Cob gelding who he just doesn't have time for and is looking to get some time put on him and then sell him. He's broke enough to be past the fireworks stage (not that there were any - as with all the Castleberry Cobs I've known, his first time with a rider he just turned around and sniffed the guy's foot like "Well, that's kind of weird but okay.") but not broke enough to really know much of anything - which is perfect.

We chatted on the phone, and I said, "Look, I'm not a pro, I won't charge you, I'm an amateur that loves Lisa's ponies and I have an empty stall and time on my hands and the network to probably get him sold for you. If you're okay with what I am and what I'm not, I'm good." He was, and we virtually shook hands, with an agreement that he'll get dropped off in a couple weeks.

So, meet Castleberrys Encore! Sort of. Baby pictures only until I get some current ones.

He's a 2018 gelding out of Ebony and by Lisa's stallion Castleberrys Ffafr ap Culhwch.

The only other Culhwch-bred Cob I've ridden was Aeres (Aeres being a granddaughter of and Ffafr being a son of legendary Wales sire Gwynfaes Culhwch). 

Gwynfaes Culhwch. It's so hard to find Dressagey photos of Welsh Cob stallions since breed folks prefer a different stance phase of the trot than sport folks!

In my limited experience, they tend to be freakishly good movers with active hind legs and a lot of suspension. I'm excited to see if that holds true for Encore.

A Culhwch son killing it this year at 3rd