Cob Jockey

Connor's sire was laid to rest this week.  He was absolutely Connor's breeder's heart horse as well as the foundation of her breeding program.  It's never easy, but it's even harder with the special ones.  She wrote on the Castleberry Cobs Facebook page:

"RIP *Tuscani Dundee. July 1992-Oct 2018. What an honor and privilege to have owned (and be owned) by such a magnificent horse. He truly changed our lives for the good. We have met so many wonderful people and made lifelong friends because of him. He seemed happy until the end when his body began to fail him, and for that I am grateful. He is buried on our farm, between a large Oak and Hickory tree, strong and beautiful like he was. He leaves his legacy through his offspring. If you have a son or daughter of his, or a grand-cob of his, please share a favorite photo (or two) in the comments to honor him. Thank you, Tori Laub for selling him to us. He was a horse of a lifetime."

I wrote a blog post in 2012 about the time I rode Dundee in the Parade of Stallions at the Hoosier Horse Fair.  Even during a thunderstorm, at the State Fairgrounds, being ridden for the first time in a year, being ridden for the first time by me, in front of a crowd with babies in strollers and cowboy hats and tents and who knows what else, he was kind, gracious and focused.

I described him then as "forward, but easily controlled, confident, yet keenly aware of his surroundings."  Just an all around good guy.


Rest in peace, *Tuscani Dundee.  You were so loved, so special and had such a huge influence on the breed in North America.

Yesterday I went to the Hoosier Horse Fair.  I've gone for several years now - in college, I went to hang out with my friends all day and giggle at the strange things we saw, and post-college, I'm finding that I'm only there to see people I know.  This year, specifically, Shae's (Castleberry Protege, the pony in the picture) sire was the Welsh representative on Stallion Row, so I mainly went to hang out with him and Lisa and take pictures.

This stud was stabled next to Dundee.  My brain has a hard time processing this as "horse".  It goes straight to "dog".

Hanging out with a "rare breed" at the Hoosier Horse Fair is so entertaining.  I couldn't make up the questions Lisa gets from the attendees.  Some gems:
- "Does that horse have Mustang in him?  He sure looks like my Mustang."
- "What's a Cob?" "Oh, I been wondering what my horse was!  He's about 14hands, he must be a Cob too." "What's 14.2?  Oh, well ponies have to be under 14, so this horse isn't a Cob?"  We spent about 5 minutes explaining to this gentleman that outside of 4H, the standard for ponies is 14.2, and the .2 denotes two inches.
- "Is your horse part draft?"
- "Have you tried sweating his neck to get rid of that crest?" (Cob stallions naturally have huge crests)

It's fun introducing people to the breed, though.  By virtue of his stunning good looks (no exaggeration here, he looks like something out of a child's fantasy) he gets a lot of visitors and a lot of questions, which allows us to tell stories about the breed and introduce people to it.  Dundee, with classic Cob disposition, is also a perfect ambassador for the breed, allowing little children to pet him and always standing at the front of his stall to greet the people.  I am privileged to be able to spend the kind of time that I do with the quality of animals that I have access to, and I enjoyed myself so much yesterday.