We hear all the time about horses at the top of the sport, but what about the next generation of equine talent? EN’s Got Talent 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].
__________
Katie Wooten Bryant and San City at the AECs last year. Photo by Mark Walter Lehner of Hoofclix.
When San City stepped out of the living quarters — there was no room for him inside the trailer — at Dream Acres Sport Horses in Ponce de Leon, Fla., the little weanling resembled an ugly duckling. Or that was Katie Wooten Bryant’s opinion, after her mother Linda Crabtree had purchased the now 7-year-old Hanoverian stallion sight unseen and imported him from Germany. But horses with Samson’s breeding (San Remo X SPS Bounty/Bolero) tend to mature slowly, and the breeder told Katie not to look at the full picture until the horse reached 5 years of age. Luckily for Katie, Samson started to come into his own long before he turned 5.
Katie began showing Samson in hand as a 3-year-old, and he was named Dressage Sport Horse Breeding Region 3 Champion that year, as well as ranked USDF Horse of the Year Reserve Champion. “He started to look so much better as a 3-year-old,” Katie said. “He started out a little tight in his shoulders, but as he got older his movement became much more free.” While Katie initially thought Samson would be a sales project, she started to fall in love with him when she broke him. “I had hopped over little fences on him, but when I free jumped him in preparation for his stallion inspection, I knew I had to keep him. He’s bred to be a dressage horse, and his movement is to die for; but when I saw him jump, I thought he could really be something.”
Caroline Roffman rides San City at the 2011 FEI Championships. Photo by Katie Wooten Bryant.
Like a fine wine, Samson only improved with age. He started his eventing career as a 4-year-old, running in novice at Poplar Place. Later that year, he won his first training-level start at Chattahoochee Hills. While Samson’s bloodlines scream dressage through his sire San Remo, by Sandro Hit, the stallion also has excellent jumping breeding through his dam line, which goes to Lombard. But Katie always worried about whether he had the fitness capabilities to run around an upper-level track. “There were times during his 4-year-old year that I was discouraged, because he was very much a warmblood type and I worried about how that would translate to eventing.”
But Samson continued to rise to the challenge. Katie ended up getting pregnant at the end of 2010, so she sent Samson to Caroline Roffman in Wellington to work on his dressage. Under Caroline’s tutelage, he received the highest score ever given in the history of the USEF/Markel National Young Horse Championships, earning an 89% on the preliminary day to ultimately bring home the FEI 5-year-old Reserve Champion title. By then, Katie was back in the saddle, and she really began to focus on Samson’s eventing career. He won the 5-year-old Young Event Horse qualifier at Cedar Ridge and qualified for the YEH Championships at Fair Hill, where he finished 10th.
–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHbL_-5de-M
San City’s 5-year-old FEI test
–
Next week on EN’s Got Talent: We’ll learn more about how Samson’s eventing career continued to blossom in his 6-year-old year — during which Julie Richards took over the ride when Katie got pregnant again — and what his competition schedule looks like for 2013. We’ll also meet some of Samson’s babies and discover the fabulous, chill personality that makes him so desirable as a breeding stallion. “He’s gotten out at Julie’s barn and just walks around saying hi to everyone,” Katie said. “He doesn’t know he’s a stallion. He can stay tied to the trailer at a horse show. The disposition plus the talent just makes him fantastic.”
