He’s actually 3/4 warm blood. 1/4tb. He is a funny mix, his cannons are quite short but chunky but he is in a medium tree saddle. He is 16.2 and 6’9” rugs. He is registered Scottish sports horse with a pet id passport just with sire and dam name. but after digging I think it is Bavarian warm blood with his dams sire being a tb.
I did find his sire but he is gelded now and I don’t think had many foals. He has done a small amount of low level BE. Didn’t find much about his dam but again she had done a few low level BE.
From what I was told when I bought him he was bred and backed to be a show jumper. He certainly has the good canter for that and walk to canter very well installed and easy for him. He can jump a big jump. No idea how big as never got to his limit but up to about 1.20m at home. However he can be messy with his back legs and in a normal round he will get at least 1 down often 2. I have had him up to 1.05 unaff. So I expect he didn’t do much pure sj and was passed on. Previous owner got him at 7 and had him for a year.
I saw him jump when I bought him but never wanted to jump and wanted to do dressage. In the school was great and we won our first dressage test. However we scared each other hacking before I worked out how to ride him. To the point I never wanted to hack him again. Yo daughter started riding him(she found me walking back home after a hack and then got on) and she did 3 BE 90 with him running along side her horse. They were mid field usually but the sj let him down with 2 down each time.
The next summer the lovely lady riding in this picture started riding him. I would ride 3 times and she would ride 3 times. They just clicked and worked brilliantly together. Her old horse was very similar and they had gone novice eventing before she had children and didn’t have the time for a horse full time. She very much did the home work and it paid off with the sj improving. She very much believed in getting everything 100% easy before moving up a step. She did 3 80s with him until he sj clear! Then moved up to 90. He did the rc champs at kirrie and when I walked the course after realised it was not a first 90 - he sailed round easily. His first BE was burgie, he was leading after dressage. Had 1 sj and went clear XC to get 3rd. Sadly then she hurt her shoulder and just couldn’t hold him and she was struggling for light to ride him. He dosnt like staying in the school all the time singe did all his schooling out hacking.
The next spring I made a huge mistake and another livery who had seen the success asked for him for her son. Long story short they couldn’t ride him and I stopped that plan very quickly. She then was nasty in the extreme saying how badly I treated him and I should sell him and buy an old cob.
So another teenager asked to ride him. They did ok but didn’t quite click. I think he looks easy to ride but in fact he isn’t. He started refusing jumps. She just wanted to jump bigger and bigger. Vet checked twice and no issue found. He was refusing more and more and starting to not enjoy his outings. So I called a halt to that too.
I had decided I needed to give myself a kick up the butt after being told those nasty things and over the last 3 years I got my confidence back hacking. And decided I wanted him for myself. We had a great time hacking until the start of all his issues where but became apparent his hock issues were not a new thing and that’s why he was refusing and probably why a little lazy with back legs. But vet didn’t see him jump and it wasn’t until it was terrible he started being slightly off.
He won’t jump again now. But I am loving having him to myself. He loves going out BE but I will be happy with keeping him comfy to hack. It would be interesting to see if his jumping has improved but he is only 14 and I would love another 10 years hacking rather than a few months jumping.
