I saw him in the breaker’s yard, bereft of half his pride:
I’ve owned the highland since he was a mere youngster of 3, when I had him brought down 600 miles from his previous home. He had been sat on once by a lass up north, accepting her presence just long enough for a photo, before he unceremoniously ditched her into the mud. During his first summer with me, I hopped onto him, installed basic control in walk and trot and introduced him to the concept of ridden work in a low pressure environment, before turning him away for winter while I focused on my older horse.
He is now 7, and is my primary ride. My older horse is near enough retired, and I have another highland 3 year old, who has had the same introduction to ridden work as his older “brother” this summer. Fergs, my older highland, has become my pride and joy – he turns his hoof to anything I ask of him, and makes up for his lack of natural athleticism with his never say die attitude. He’s currently working at elementary at home – we suffer from ring nerves and can’t produce this in a competitive environment yet, but he is the most biddable, enthusiastic pony to school I’ve ever known. He will happily pop round small courses competitvely, and easily pops over metre high fences at home in short courses; he also loves gridwork and is very tidy. He’s not the most athletic jumper – he tends to stick extra strides in and produce a very vertical take off, which is neither comfortable nor stylish! However, he does his best to keep me out of trouble and always seems more than keen to work on this. He’s quite successful at TREC – the “thinking” obstacles appeal to his intelligent pony nature, and his naturally very uphill, collected canter picks him up plenty of points – he’s only hindered by my own inability to orient myself coming out of the map room! Over the years, he’s played a bit of horseball, tried a number of alternative disciplines and picks things up very quickly, often without a lot of help from me.
He isn’t perfect – and nor am I – but we constantly strive to make the best of ourselves.
The life and opinions of the Hot blooded Highlands 