EN’s Got Talent is Eventing Nation’s newest series. We hear all the time about horses at the top of the sport, but what about the next generation of equine talent? This series introduces the future superstars of the sport, interviewing riders about how they’re tackling training with these youngsters. Have you spotted a spectacular young horse at an event you think should be highlighted in this column? Tip me at [email protected].
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Rebecca and Harry. Photo by Jim Stoner.
I’m a sucker for ponies, especially ponies that jump with their knees cranked up to their eyeballs. While Belafonte D’Avalon, better known as Harry, is technically out of pony range at 14.3, he’s still pint-sized enough to make my heart go pitter patter. When Rebecca Brown, who trains out of Wilmer, Texas, contacted me about Harry, she said she thinks he could be the next Teddy — a lofty goal. But once I saw a photo of Harry over fences, being the next Teddy doesn’t seems so far outside the realm of possibility.
Harry, a 14.3-hand, 5-year-old Germany Riding Pony stallion, is owned by Kathy St. Martin and Jos Mottershead of Avalon Equine in Wynnewood, Okla. Rebecca got the ride on Harry just before last Christmas, after he’d done his 30-day pony stallion testing at 3 and been given a year off to grow up. “He’s so naturally talented and amazing that I had to ride him for a week before I decided where to go,” Rebecca said. “I had no idea what he really knew, so we were starting from the beginning.” While Harry didn’t know much at first, he learned very quickly. “He was only 4 years old then, coming 5, and we were already doing shoulder-in and half pass,” Rebecca said.
It turned out that the dressage came very naturally to Harry. “On the flat, he just loves a challenge,” Rebecca said. “He learns things in a day. Every day he comes back and already remembers what he did the day before. I really have to keep things interesting for him.” Rebecca found that she has to be careful to stay out of his way due to his size. “On a pony, they can’t make up for your balance issues. I never want to make it to hard for him, so I have to be conscious of how my weight affects him,” Rebecca said, who joked that she’s always on the “Harry Diet.”
Harry’s natural talent and scopey jump caught the eye of the judges at the Young Event Horse 5-year-old class at Greenwood Farm Horse Trials in May. Even though the judges commented that they wished Harry weren’t so small, he ended up winning the class. “The entire time the judges kept saying, ‘We wish he was a hand taller,'” Rebecca said. “We kept saying, ‘He’s not, but he still has everything that it takes.’ He is so competitive. If you saw him go at home, you’d think he was cute. But at the shows, he says, ‘Game on.'”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FApB8NJLuSI
Harry winning the 5-year-old YEH class at Greenwood
Rebecca firmly believes that Harry has all the pieces to go to the top, even more so after seeing him compete against the other 5-year-olds in his Young Event Horse division. “You look at all these horses that go through this program: they’re leggy and a lot of them are big warmbloods,” Rebecca said. “They look like they could all go right down to Rolex and they’re so fit and tall. Then you have Harry, who is only 14.3. Standing there, he just looks like a cute pony, but then you get him moving and you realize just how impressive he is.”
Next week on EN’s Got Talent: We’ll look at some of the training challenges Rebecca has faced with Harry, included his aversion to ditches. “His only real training challenge is ditches,” Rebecca said. “Everywhere else, you would think he’s 10 years old. With ditches, it’s the only time he needs to process something. He’s incredibly smart; he just needs to figure it out on his own time. Some people say warmbloods can take a little longer to mature mentally.”
