Classic Eventing Nation

Kelsey and Madeira competing at Plantation Field. Photo by Dan Wilkins.

From Kelsey:

Plenty of eventers have a story about the horse that got them hooked and took them up through the levels. But most of them didn’t get handed that horse by the universe in the form of an evil, homebred mutt pony when they were 13 years old.

My first pony was a slightly psychotic, but very sweet, athletic and talented Welsh/Arab cross named Chablis who my parents found for me when I was 9. At first, she would dump me about the same amount of times we actually got around a course. Once I learned how to stick and got her out of a hunter ring, Chablis and I evented through Training level. After all this, my Dad went along with my brilliant idea to breed her for a baby to raise and train. After finding a great Morgan sire named Severn Hill Gabriel through some family friends, little Madeira was born.

Kelsey and baby Maddie.

Maddie completed her first unrecognized Beginner Novice event, completely unimpressed, at age 4, and by age 5, she was going Novice. I took her from Southern Maryland to college in Baltimore with me, and she moved up from Novice to Preliminary in a single season at age 6. She never grew taller than pony-sized, at 14.2 on the nose, but we went on to do seven solid seasons of Prelim at most of the Area II events and the AECs, a handful of CCI*s and a half-dozen Intermediates. I imagine if a pro had ridden her, she might have been even better, but we were a team from the first ride to the last, which also meant all of her problems are mine alone!

Maddie has never done anything in her life that wasn’t, in her opinion at least, her idea. Much of my strategy in our relationship together has been how to assert my dominance over her alpha-mare mentality while still negotiating so she thinks she’s doing what she wants. If she didn’t love cross country, I doubt I would have gotten her over a crossrail. Even with completely mediocre dressage (and no interest in improvement on her part), that mare will jump anything if given a fair shot.

Her most redeeming quality is her sense of self preservation. She has never attempted an unsafe fence. When subjected to a pilot error, you almost feel her roll her eyes as she politely stops then spins around to re-approach. She has never refused a fence I gave her a decent chance to jump. She can get her little legs tucked up so tight that she has been known to pull show jump rails with her belly when stretching to make the distance in a combination with her short legs.

Kelsey and Madeira competing at CDCTA. Photo courtesy of Brant Gamma Photography.

Her cooperation is drawn at work. She hates being brushed and will kick out if you toss a blanket on wrong. She occasionally decides she doesn’t want to be caught and will stay just out of reach for hours. She is a magician, and my tack room door now has a special cage over the latch because she learned how to flip it open. She has broken in and eaten nearly 50 pounds of sweet feed with inexplicably no ill effects. She has an uncanny ability to know the second you aren’t holding the reins or the lead rope and will bolt.

She slipped under a stall guard at the Virginia Horse Center and ran around the grounds for two hours, letting no one anywhere near her until she decided she’d had enough time out. She then jogged completely sound for the CCI* the next day. She pins her ears at every horse she passes in warm up and every person that walks by while she’s in the cross ties. She rakes her teeth across the stall grill if a horse walks by too close. The bigger the horse, the more she hates them (Napoleon Complex, anyone?)

The guaranteed ear pricks come only from food, peppermint wrappers and a jump in front of her — she knows her name and the word “cookie” like a dog. She is the bravest horse I’ve ever met; she was sandwiched between a marching band and a float in a Christmas parade, yet she will spook at a log, rock, or Beginner Novice jump as she gallops by. I theorize this is more for fun than out of fear.

Just one of Madeira’s many talents: jousting!

Since she has nothing left to prove to me as an event horse, Maddie and I have spent a lot of time dabbling in every other discipline I can think to throw at her. To date, her accomplishments include: games pony, capture the flag champion, jumper classes, pulling two people at once on sleds in the snow, skijoring, polocrosse games, jousting, Christmas parades, ponying green horses, swimming and even teaching lessons to my younger students. We spend more time in the summer bareback in a halter than we do with tack, and it irritates me how much better her lateral work is!

Maddie has excelled at everything I have ever asked of her, with the distinct exception of getting pregnant. Two stallions, vets, methods and years later, I have spent my savings and Maddie has refused to get knocked up. I’m saving my pennies for a specialist, but part of me wonders if Maddie is the only horse like her the world is ever meant to have. I dream of a Maddie/Thoroughbred cross and wonder if it will either kill me or be my Advanced horse! She turns 15 this year and is still going strong. She has the best feet my farrier has ever seen and never took a lame step in her eventing career.

Maddie has taught me so much about being a horsewoman and a person. She taught me all the lessons about reward and humility every teenager should know.  You can’t force her into anything, you have to ask. Even with her idiosyncrasies and wicked tendencies, I wouldn’t trade her for the world. She is truly a one of a kind “boing-boing mutt pony.”