On the Search for the Genuine

Skyler's First Week at Dillman College

Posted by Jen - 06/05/09 at 08:05:28 pm

The first thing I tell all of my argument classes is that a great piece of writing suits its argument and its author’s purpose.  Well today, I’m going to break that rule.  I don’t give two rips whether you care about Skyler’s first week of training–I’m feeling like a proud mommy who’s kid just went off to college, I’ve got some separation anxiety as a result, and if my audience wants to come along for the ride, welcome to the party!

Firstly, let’s all appreciate the beauty of Alison and Ian Dillman’s Pine Creek Farm.  I’ve been working with the Dillmans for over 18 months now, but because their farm is an hour from Ann Arbor in Holly, I’d only been there a few times before moving Skyler up there last Thursday.  I always forget how beautiful it is–this would be a perfectly normal and average barn in Northern Virginia (where I grew up), but in Michigan, you almost never see a barn this beautiful, clean, and organized:

I thought Skyler wouldn’t be too happy to go from 10 hours’ daily turnout to 3-4 hours’ daily turnout, but he seems thrilled with his new, huge-mongous stall with its super-soft bedding.  Every time I’ve visited him, he’s either lying down and napping, “chatting” with his neighbor through the bar slats, or sticking his nosy head into the aisle to watch the world go by.  He doesn’t seem the least bit stressed:

And here he is with Ian, the 6′4″ Legs of Steel.  Ian hacks all the horses on the gravel roads around the barn, as well as up and down this hill on the property:

And of course, a training ride at the eventing barn wouldn’t be complete without running through some water.  Alison was giving Sue a lesson nearby and yelled out, “I guess he doesn’t have water issues!”

The Future of the Thoroughbred

Posted by Jen - 18/03/09 at 10:03:35 pm

Not much time to blog today (or in my whole life, really), but I wanted to throw props to Fugly Horse of the Day for an excellent post today about the future of the Thoroughbred breed.  While I have trouble envisioning a world in which Thoroughbreds compete at breed-specific shows for a number of reasons–not that I wouldn’t be thrilled if Fugly’s vision came to fruition–I think everyone who loves the Thoroughbred breed needs to think more carefully about their future, and Fugly’s article is a good departure point for that discussion.

Personally, I grew up riding Thoroughbreds.  Some of the most exhilirating rides of my life were on the backs of Thoroughbreds in race training.  I have ridden many other breeds over the years, including Morgans, Quarter Horses, Warmbloods, etc.  Those breeds have their virtues too, but when it came time for me to buy a horse, I bought a Thoroughbred.  Those who have seen pictures of Skyler elsewhere in this blog will attest that his physical build is more like a Connemara or an Appendix Quarter Horse, and that’s no surprise since he’s one of the very few Thoroughbreds left in this country that was bred specifically as a sport horse for non-professional riders.  There’s no doubt that Skyler can’t make it to the top levels of eventing, but for an adult like me who wants my barn time to be fun time but still wants to do reasonably well at lower-level shoes, Skyler is the ultimate solution.  For the whole first 4 weeks that I rode Skyler for his former owner, I was puzzled at how what I assumed was a Quarter Horse could have so much gas in the tank, be so intelligent and learn so quickly, and be so game to try new things.  It’s not that I haven’t ever met a Quarter Horse with those characteristics, but they’ve been fewer and further between.  A few weeks later when I took Skyler to a show, the mystery was solved: his Coggins said that he was a Thoroughbred.  And sadly, seeing a Thoroughbred with that “old world build” is so rare these days that I asked to see the Jockey Club papers because I didn’t quite believe it.  Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have doubted.

I hope that someday a long time from now, my children will learn to ride on a much older Skyler.  But given the trajectory of the racing industry and the failure to fill the racing industry’s place with something else to support Thoroughbreds, I wonder if there will be another such Thoroughbred waiting for my kids when they’re ready for that big move-up from pony to horse.  I hope that when we get to “someday”, there will still be someone like Becky Bradley at Alpine Ridge Farms breeding substantial Thoroughbreds with big bone, reasonable temperaments, and Thoroughbred intelligence for those of us who value those traits.

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