Cob Jockey

*chuckles* I'm in danger.

Meet Castleberrys Ebony Everlasting, or Eva (pronounced "Eh-vah"), Castleberrys Ffafr ap Culhwch x *Rhosyr Ebony by Gwenllan Brenin Mon. She's just turned 5, and, somewhat unbelievably, is a full (younger) sibling to Encore, because she's absolutely nothing like him in terms of color, build, height or personality.

CobJockey-for-scale photo: she's barely 14hh, so an inch shorter than Connor and almost a full hand shorter than Encore. She may still grow some, Connor grew over an inch between 5-6.

In all my fourteen years of knowing Lisa, I have never known her to be so desperate to see what one is capable of under saddle, and I fully understand why. This mare tied for the site-wide high score at the 2022 Bannockburn Farm Belgian Warmblood NAD Keuring, with absolutely glowing comments from the judge, who always likes her Cobs a lot, but he isn't a Welsh guy and doesn't normally lavish THAT kind of praise on them at the Keurings. But Eva is different.

Lisa had been asking me to take her on for a while, not to be sold, just to see what she was capable of, but things had been so crazy for me, I kept declining. Finally, my life finally settled down enough that I could handle two again, so on a warm, sunny July Saturday, Lisa dropped her off. And almost 24 hours later, I think I'm still picking my jaw off the ground as I write this.

Her build is amazing, her movement is amazing, but THAT BRAIN is the real headline here. She came off the trailer like a seasoned show horse settling into show stabling, not like a 5 year old that was just pulled out of a hundred acre pasture. She never screamed, drank straight from the auto-waterer without spooking when it started refilling (all the new ones spook at that at first) and spent about 10 seconds studying the first hay net she'd ever seen before diving in.

Homegirl needs to lose a few pounds, which is saying something because she's been living her best life  on 24/7 turnout on a hundred acre partially-wooded pasture with the rest of the yeld Castleberry mares. And we've been in a mild drought most of the summer, so nobody's pasture is particularly lush right now. No grain, no supplements, no hay. Cob metabolisms are something else.

Turnout, too, was equally a non-event. I turned her and Connor (our resident professional new guy greeter) out in the drylot and put the other four horses in the big field, separated from them by a fence with a hot top strand. She and Connor sniffed noses before turning away from each other to graze with nary a squeal. She even walked away from both him and the herd to graze by herself in the next paddock over within minutes of being turned out.

And even when she did finally walk over to introduce herself to the peanut gallery, again, not even a squeal, just a polite nose sniff before walking away.

Gelding gang getting excited to meet a new lady

Then as if I didn't already love her enough, the report from the morning feeder was "I was all ready to put her halter on and lead her into her stall, but she walked right over to me and walked into her stall all by herself. She's really smart!"

Smart, curious, brave, people-oriented, respectful. Lisa said she was sweet and easy, but I didn't realize just how easy she was going to be. And that's a good thing, because she's neon green, a total blank slate. She leads and that's about it, which is an exciting challenge for me. 

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...like this horse.