It was the most fun summer
Love the smile! Beautiful pictures.
What breed is your horse? Great pix, looks like you had a blast!
He’s a grade Quarter Horse! I could share photos of him forever. First 2 from our first event 2 years ago. Last 2 are foal tax and his parents . He is 7.
I love that he is a quarterhorse! I didn’t want to ask if he was an appendix because some people with warmbloods get a bit defensive. I got to ride a fellow boarders appendix in a couple clinics. He was such a wonderful horse. I think if more ammies rode quarterhorses there would be a lot more happy ammies (I’m not implying you’re an ammie, I’m just giving voice to the wonderful forgiveness that those horses show).
ps that pic of you giving the peace sign says it all!
Thank you! He certainly thinks so!
I adored the Appendix mare I had in college, and I wish more QHs were bred for h/j/eventing sport beyond the AQHA show circuit realm. You can’t beat the brain or the temperament. I mean those sporty QHs are out there, but I wouldn’t say they’re easy finds.
Oh absolutely! They may not have the razzle dazzle of a warmblood, but they can be very nice movers and jumpers and will laugh at the joke with you. Good eggs
That has got to be one of the most awsome pics I’ve ever seen. How lucky to have that!
If we’re sharing Appendix QHs - this is my unregistered TBxQH. We showed Hunters, Dressage, and Eventing. A friend rode him with the local hunt. When I started riding this cross and draft crosses were the common sport horses. It’s still the cross I would choose, though they’re harder to find these days.
These pics are us at home. The jump is 3’6" - we were playing after a mini show held at the barn. The other is from a dressage clinic - he’s actually bum high conformation.
He’s 26 now and still my super horse, even if all we do now is WT trail rides.
Love him!
Current horse:
We haven’t done enough wildly exciting things yet, but he has been so fun and such a good egg. So far all the good parts of my heart horse with 80% less shenanigans.
My heart horse (who I was told was unlikely to have scope beyond 2’6" ):
Also yes- I did buy those proofs, but only have the hard copies (this was pre-digital packages- if I do have the JPEGs they’re on a long dead computer).
My APHA/TB mare has a great work ethic and the kind that pros say “every barn needs one”- my trainer was saying last night that she wished her current almost-FEI KWPN had the same work ethic and it’s kind of amazing how a horse bred to be an APHA/NSBA all arounder - and ended up 1.5-2 hands shorter than her full siblings - is knocking on 4th and we’re thinking won’t top out until PSG or I1. I wouldn’t breed my mare but I wish I knew what about her lines produced such a fun mare, they’re not particularly exciting lines so maybe it was luck and a really good start.
I had to do a double take because you and two of us at our barn could do a hunt team! I have the same horse with four socks and another girl in the barn has it with no socks. Needless to say, I think he’s lovely.
As much as I love TBs and admire WBs, I also have to acknowledge that the horses I have had the most fun with in recent years and felt safest with and consequently push myself with have been qh or qh X (first no stirrup canter was a qh who made me work for it because he didn’t think I was ready. He was probably right, but I survived. First bareback canter was a qh X, who has also saved me once or twice when I screwed up a jump). And the ones I’ve ridden have just been very sweet, very chill, very generous guys.
I’m also a dabbler and mostly a pleasure rider, sure h/j is where I feel most at home, but if the horse has a western saddle? I will be riding in it, there’s a mountain trail horse place near me that I’d love to go to to play around with the obstacles, a working equitation place too, and lots of trails, county owned cross country with huge arenas and trails, etc. And quarterhorses do tend to be good all arounders…
And while I don’t think I’ll ever need a horse who can win a hack or anything like that, I do know a QH who went to 4th level dressage and another who is currently cleaning up at all the local hunter shows, so some of them can definitely be English fancy.
I just want fun and safe. And while I can find that in any breed, so far in my experience it seems more common in QH and QH cross.
I’ve had several QH x TB crosses. My first horse (after the pony I shared with my sister) was a QH xTB (by Rebel out of Sunny, but those may not be thier registered names).
The next horse I owned, after college and grad school , was another QH x TB.
After she died of septic arthritis, I bought a 3/4 TB x 1/4 QH (bred by ASB_Stars).
I now have 2 TB x Connemara mares.
Love you pix! Wasn’t the cross (TBxQTH) really popular in the 80’s? I also remember the ConnemaraxTB cross as being very popular with lower level eventers. Those horses all seem to have jump talent and a ‘go over whatever they’re pointed at’ personalities.
The first TB x QH was in the 60s. The second and third were in the 80s.
WRT to Connemaras and crosses, they almost all have a great jump.
I’m at the neurologist with my mom, who has dementia. We’re looking at the pictures from this thread and she really brightened up at your guy–her favorite eventer was a chestnut leopard Appaloosa named Exploding Poptart.
Quite possibly the best name for a horse I’ve ever heard