Cob Jockey

On Tuesday night, I ground drove Disco, which marked the first time I really worked him since he's been here.

I couldn't replicate everything about Maude's setup, not even close, but I did my best to telegraph "driving" to him by putting him in his new driving bridle, which I also hoped would help keep his focus as we walked him past the mirrors for the first time.

Maude told me months ago that she thought he had the best work ethic of any horse she had ever worked with, and as I walked him out into the arena, I could already feel what she meant. He's not a particularly busy horse for a three year old, but a remarkable level of stillness and focus came over him as I put the lines through the surcingle.

When we stepped off - a little clumsily since I don't yet have a driving whip - I felt his whole world click into place through the lines. His walk was purposeful and powerful, almost too fast for me at first until I realized that he was putting enough power into it to pull the cart he was used to having behind him! 

He steered easily, even though Maude (very politely and sweetly) told me later I did it wrong by only using rein, that he was used to a whip for bending cues in addition to the rein for steering. His whoa was a WHOA, do not pass go, do not collect $200, do not move one single foot. Driving people don't mess around with that.

His level of focus, though, was the most amazing part. That was the first time he had been walked around that arena in almost two years, and even when we passed the mirrors, when he would look at the horse in the mirrors, I would say, "Hey, come back over here" using the rein, and he would say "Oh okay sorry, I forgot I was working" and go right back to being all business.

I just cannot believe that this is the same horse who was so indignant about being asked to do anything at all as a baby. Yes, of course good training and consistency and maturity play a huge part in it, but he was clearly so happy to go to work and do what his person told him to. It makes me so excited for the future. As Maude said, "You can do anything with a horse like this!"

I need to put a coda on the Eva story.

It's interesting. I have had the opportunity to work with three very different, wonderfully bred Welsh Cobs on a loan basis over the past few years, Aeres, Encore and Eva. Two of them taught me a lot about training and riding. but Eva taught me a lot about myself.

Eva taught me that I can, but I don't want to, bounce like I used to. It had been well over fifteen years since I fell off a horse when I fell off of her in August. It was a "good" fall, but I'm still dealing with some lingering (and thankfully, slowly subsiding) pain a few months later from my arm and leg hyperextending as I whiplashed them into the ground. With the way my mental health is built upon CrossFit, and the way our co-op is built around us all being able to perform manual labor, nothing scares me more than being injured.

She taught me that I don't naturally think like a horse trainer. I missed some subtle signs that there were small holes in her foundation, which turned into bigger holes later on. Ones which I thankfully had time to fix, but still, we could have avoided the fixing.

But - she also taught me that I can learn to think like a horse trainer. Especially when I rely on my friends, like Kate, Mary and Leah.

I'm going to try not to generalize an entire gender, but Eva taught me that I don't know how to speak mare. If I had had the time to really develop a partnership with her, I think she would be dynamite, but it's a whole different ball game from geldings and stallions, one that I am not used to playing.

She taught me that I can teach a level of subtlety I never thought I was capable of. That mare, no joke, steers off your seat and weight aids basically alone, in a rope halter, thanks to the way Kate had me start her. I'm looking forward to using that knowledge on Disco.

And she validated my opinion that some horses need to be started young for reasons that have entirely to do with the mind. I do not mean started hard, but I do mean that they need to understand the concepts of "work" and "submission" when they're still impressionable. Eva is a wonderful mare with a sweet personality, but we never really found anything she enjoyed, work-wise. I can't help but wonder if her work ethic would be different if she was started younger.

Ultimately, unlike Encore and Aeres, Eva wasn't really with me to be sold, and she is now back home, perhaps to be bred next spring. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to play with her and for the perspective that she gave me.

As you all know, a few months ago I gambled that Eva and Disco might be the same tree size and shape when I bought a saddle for Eva by way of a blogger. Drumroll please...

Wow, did THAT ever pay off. It sits beautifully on him. And in a stroke of perfect timing, the original panels just got back from my fitter, who I paid $145+shipping to add the missing feature to them to ensure that that didn't cause pressure points.

Mmmmm, the way the panel follows the shoulder is so delicious.

While I was trying that on him, I also tried a couple of Connor's other saddles on him, even though I knew they would be all wrong. I just had to know.

My beloved CWD looked like a tiny little hat on top of his withers. But it's getting lots of use on Connor these days between his part leaser and the two kids that ride him regularly, so it will be sticking around.

And the Patrick, as suspected, is also a big no. Connor and Disco are different back-to-front tree shapes, and even when the Patrick was built, when Connor was at his fittest, Connor was narrower and had more of a wither than Disco. Disco may yet sprout some wither, since he's only 3.5, but not enough where this saddle will ever fit, and I'm at peace with that.

I've known for a while I should sell it. It's still nearly new, since I all but retired Connor a few months after getting it, and Connor's retired dad bod won't be using it. Seeing it on Disco was the push I needed to sell it and then plow those funds into a Wow jump saddle for him.

SO, any short legged riders out there looking for a Dressage saddle, I would be willing to make you quite a "blogger special" deal on the Patrick, especially if you save me from dealing with listing it. I only want to get out of it what it will take to get Disco a jump saddle, which is nowhere near what I paid for it.

2022 Patrick Saddlery Liberty II

17" wide monoflap

Velcro pocket for knee blocks (comes with small blocks, can order other shapes)

Extra short flap

Wool-flocked serge panels

Would best fit a horse that is wide with some wither and a semi-curved front-to-back tree profile. Will not fit a flat back.

Hit me up via the contact form on the blog if you're interested or if you know of someone who might be interested!

You know, I actually thought I might sell Disco to Maude a couple of times. As late as a few months ago, even. It was on the table.

And one of the big reasons was that I wasn't sure I could give him as good of a life as he had up there. It was not a guarantee that he would be able to be turned out with Connor again when he got home, and he was really living the good life with Maude, turned out with his pregnant harem. I couldn't - wouldn't and won't - keep him in solitary confinement just for the sake of one or two foals a year.

It was weighing on me more than I thought, because when I turned him out with Connor yesterday for the first time and absolutely nothing happened, I had tears in my eyes.

Disco ran past Connor and started grazing, then they eventually worked their way toward grazing next to each other. It was completely anti-climactic.

Of course, I knew Disco would try something at some point, which was why I first tried them together on a day that I was spending at the barn. An hour or two later, I heard "EeeeeeeeeeEEEEEeeeEEeeeeEeEEE!" and ran out to see Disco trying to mount Connor, and Connor telling him to f*** right off. 

What happened next would, I knew, determine whether or not I could keep them together. Would Disco persist, like he had when he was a yearling? Or would he respect Connor enough to not try that again?

I got my answer almost immediately: Disco slunk off to a corner of the pasture and started grazing facing away from Connor, who stood his ground. All looked well, and they were as quiet as could be the rest of the day, so it wasn't until later when I realized that Connor had, ahem, landed a kick on Disco's (retracted) man parts, and that Disco was taking this lesson (and the associated pain) VERY seriously.

Do I feel bad for him? Absolutely. Am I grateful this happened? You bet. No permanent harm was done, and Disco learned a lesson that he's not going to soon forget.

As always, we are taking stallion life one day at a time.

It's interesting - looking back on it, I was never in love with baby Disco. 

Possibly one of the best photos I've ever taken, lol. May 2021.

I mean, I liked him a lot. But whether it was being totally unsure of what I was doing raising a baby, or having no ability to read what kind of horse he would grow up into, I never felt the warm fuzzies I feel when I look at Connor.

The best old man charming his new bodyworker to pieces yesterday. I think she would have taken him home for her grandkids if I was interested in selling him.

I fully recognize that I'm still in the honeymoon period with Disco. I haven't asked him to do anything hard, haven't gone through anything more difficult than getting him out to his turnout field when he hadn't been turned out in preceding 8 days (which, on a scale of Connor to the racehorses I used to handle, was like a 4). 

But I'm feeling the warm fuzzies toward him already anyway. He's gorgeous, for one. He makes my heart flutter in the same way Eva did: just standing there, he makes me catch my breath. All of the conformation question marks I had about him as a baby have softened or disappeared (save for his slightly upright front pasterns, which, no one's perfect.)

Hard to believe we're going to look back on this picture in a few years and realize what a baby he still looks like here.

But it's his attitude that has impressed me the most. There's a softness to his eye that wasn't there as a baby, and a level of good citizen-ry installed that speaks to the work Maude did with him. He's aware of everything around him - anything unusual requires a head raise and a long look - but he's not stupid. 

I get a shiver sometimes when I see a photo of him like this. He looks like his grandpa and Lisa's heart horse, *Tuscani Dundee, reincarnated.

And he takes so much joy in movement. It's not hard to see why Maude said he has the best work ethic of any horse she's ever worked. Even when it's not silly movement, you can tell that he's going to be more 'go' than 'whoa', which (please remind me when I'm feeling overhorsed in a year or two) I wanted in my second horse. I'm ready for it in a way I wasn't when I got Connor.

First turnout in 8 days. He really held his shit together and saved all of his horse balloon antics for after the lead rope had been unclipped, bless him.

Through these warm fuzzies, I'm maintaining the balanced perspective I know I'll need over the next 3-5 years. I know that with any young horse, let alone a stallion, there are going to be days when I want to sell him, and days when I question my sanity, and days when I want to take his nuts off myself. 

But it's exciting to feel like he might be growing into everything I hoped he would be as a baby, and to know that whatever temporary struggles we go through, the horse I'll have on the other side will be worth it.