I’ve ridden a horse that came from a rider famous for using electric spurs.
When the electric spur thing came to light… it made a lot of sense why the horse was like it was.
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I trained with Gigi decades ago when she was Gigi Fenical Hood in eastern PA. She is the best!! She is so great with very sensitive TBs like my mare who I used for dressage.
Every time she would pop on my mare for a few minutes, then I would hop back on, it felt like going from a VW to a Mercedes. She could make such a difference in how my mare was working.
If you’re out there reading this, Gigi, love you!! Pam from Pleasant Hollow (Dusty’s mom).
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I got to ride Peponita when Matlock Rose had him. I lasted about three turns then got dumped on my ass. I thought I was pretty hot stuff on a cutting horse, too. I’ll always believe that Matlock thought I needed my comeuppance. He was right.
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Rode an Olympic eventing team medalist horse for about a year, as well as his fellow 4* stable mate, who himself had completed Rolex. They had both been retired from competition but were hunting weekly, so I kept them legged up during the season. We also did some regular flatwork and jump schools in the ring in addition to the hacking and fitness work out of the ring. The Olympic horse would get so jazzed for the jump schools! And his barnmate was a joy, one of my favorite horses of all time. He was exceptionally well schooled on the flat, and when asking for some smaller/neater canter circles, he was an overachiever and actually gave me a canter pirouette…a very badly executed one on my part, but I remember feeling him sit down and start into it, the coolest feeling ever!
It was a real honor to even be around them, let alone enjoy them and learn from them. Loved those boys.
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I’ve exercise ridden/jumped for a pro as a teenager and he was BNR at the time in the country and other BNT/R had trained some of the horses beforehand. The guy I worked for was one of those classic cases that rode on a feel, so while his horses were obviously doing the job the ones he had brought up the levels didn’t have many fancy buttons installed - some didn’t have a solid flying change when jumping 120-130 courses. He was just a phenomenal rider who saw the distances on any horse and had an immense “feel”, but I still learned a lot from him.
Contrast those horses with the one mare who was brought from SJ YH classes to GP by this lady with a tough reputation as a trainer. The mare was a very particular ride and spicy, but I could do tempi changes (solid 2-3) on a diagonal for fun on a flat day. At that point the BNR hadn’t sat on the mare for at least a couple of years. This lady was so good that one of her more dedicated students still jumps up to 130 classes with young sale horses AND casually competes at Intermediare 1 with a horse she brought up the levels herself. So I would say there are absolutely BNT/R who install some fancy features in their horses for life while there are others who get by on comparatively little.
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I rehabbed several top tier jumpers and dressage. The one thing that they all had in common was they were NOT easy to ride. Very touchy. Very responsive. A few were crazy spooky. One distinct one loved to stand up and wave. I had one FEI dressage horse that I couldnt even get to move off of my leg. It was stupidly comical. I’m a competent rider but they made me feel clueless lol.
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I’ll bite! I leased RF Easy Going for about … 9 months. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owxZOWpTZYQ
ML’s less famous / less useful eventer.
here’s a couple of photos of us: https://imgur.com/gallery/vq7CQIc
us jumping: https://imgur.com/gallery/fld5Ywm
He came to me in pretty rough condition after his junior & ammy riders moved up from 1.10-1.15’s and sort of left him in a field. He came off the transport truck looking like hell, starved, dehydrated, and with a massive gash in his head. He recovered well and he was rideable within 2 weeks. I rehabbed him into work, eventually jumping my largest fences on him around .90-1m (1.05 singles/ outs of lines maybe).
He’s a horse that really enjoys a job and I loved riding him. Very much ML’s observed type of ride, hot, but absolutely lovely for a rider with an educated or European seat. I loved his dressage buttons, how absolutely loving to work he was, and how sensitive he was to my aids. Not a spook in him, very brave, but I think might have been crashed at some point as he did have a very rare, but definitely there stop in him on occasion (mostly me taking my calves off the gas when I felt like we were really motoring to the base).
I rode him in a rubber snaffle 90% of the time and occasionally added a gag and a gag rein (2 reins) for clinics. I didn’t agree with his martingale set up most of the time (former trainers had a love affair with German martingales (cringe) and draw reins. I eventually learned to say “No, thank you”
Never got to show him as when COVID happened, I quit my job, went back to school, and relocated from SoCal to the PNW. He was leased by a kid winning a mini prix in winter 2020, but I lost track of him since then. He’s around 20 or so now…
I ride like a dressage rider over fences, I think Easy appreciated my skills on the flat and tolerated me over fences, as I at least gave him a soft ride overall, especially between the fences and in return he gave me bravery. Good thing I have long arms to compensate for my very open hip angle. Sweet boy, Easy.
Oh damn, I always said my grey TB/Dutch lease mare before him was my heart horse, but I just teared up looking at the photos…
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I did not say the horses would go the same with the trainer not using different aides for each horse.
I said the horses would be well trained with the rider usually having lessons. We have 3 at the moment. All are quiet, all are going well. However one is forward thinking and goes into pressure, one is backward thinking and goes away from pressure and the other is an old riding school horse who will go around with minimal effort looking pretty but doing no work if you let him.
I have had lessons on all 3. I have actually been told on one horse doing an exercise not to do it on the other horse as it would heat him up too much. I have more tools to use on different horses now, but to anyone watching the horses are quiet and going well.
I have a horse that was shown up and down the eastern half of the US by several BNR, including Candace King and Kent Farrington. He got really show sour (which is how I ended up with him), my theory is that he didn’t like being one of a string. He seems to thrive in my back yard.
As far as how he rides? Well, he has a lot of buttons and sometimes can turn on the super jumper mode, which is awesome and was scary the first couple of times. But he’s just a horse. He makes me feel like an absolute novice one moment and then makes me feel like I’m ready for the world cup the next.
I’ve ridden other horses that were trained/ridden by other BNT (Margie mostly) and they’re all nice horses, they have the buttons installed and since I mostly ride jumpers there can be some fire in most of them.
One thing that I have noticed in these horses is that they don’t seem to have a stop. (Of course I am not anywhere near maxing them out) If I give them a chance to jump, they will. That is a HUGE confidence boost to any rider!
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Just have to add, just because a rider is successful and famous it doesnt necessarily mean what their ex horses have in common is anything good.
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Rode a jumper that did the Nations Cup with Norman Dello Joio. This was maybe 10-15 years ago.
Horse was INCREDIBLY broke on the flat and a cruise missile over the jumps. It really hammered home to me how much flatwork is the baseline and foundation for everything. You could flat this horse and he was in tune with every slight signal, could hold a counter canter with as much balance as the correct lead, and would leg yield beautifully if asked. However, the second you picked up your canter and pointed him towards the jumps, he became this aerodynamic machine that would just build a rhythm for you and your job was simply to steer, push, or hold if necessary… otherwise, he was on it. He was in the twilight of his career… with so much jewelry on his legs… but he was a blast.
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I work for a collegiate program and often “try out” donation prospects when they arrive here for a trial period. We got a hunter in a few years back who had a breathing issue (COPD I think). They wanted him in the Northeast and out of Florida to see if that would help his breathing. I have ridden hundreds of horses and that one sticks out as THE NICEST, most broke, obedient, straightest, most even, best cantering with a rhythm to match - see a distance two miles away etc. etc. He was a sweetheart to handle on the ground as well. I never did find out who’s barn he came from but if I had a nice young prospect that needed training I would have explored that background further. The horse still wasn’t comfortable in his breathing up here on certain days and we had to pass. I still think of him!
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This is hilarious!!I never considered “remote control” training but I love this picture in my head!!!
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I have actually ridden one of the paralympic horses that won a medal this year many years ago as a green broke 4 y.o. once. To be honest I wasn’t impressed, the horse didn’t have a great balance and was overall a bit of a clumsy tank and iirc a bit spooky too. Not my type of ride either. It’s been years and the horse has gone a long long way - just goes to show how much hard work can pay off.
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“Back in the day” I used to ride a horse (belonged to my trainer) who was trained by Hilda Gurney. That mare, though, was CRAZY. 
Maybe Hilda bred her. Either way, she was nutty, but I had fun with her jumping nonetheless.
