Mr. Lincoln at the Pinehurst HT in 2006 in the ON.
Every horse that we ride has a lot to teach us. The longer we ride, the more we can pick out skills that specific horses have taught us along the way. However, there is always one horse that starts it all for us. The one that teaches about riding and makes us into the rider we are today. This new series is going to tell the stories of the horses that started it all. This week, I will start us off with the one that started it all for me, Mr. Lincoln.
Mr. Lincoln, aka Abe, (registered as Abe’s Qudradrant) is a 1992 OTTB that I got from Lost and Found Horse Rescue in 1999. He had been locked in a stall at the track and left for months without care. He was emaciated, hairless, and had abscesses in all 4 feet. He was a wreck, but I fell in love as soon as I saw him. After months of just hanging out with him in the stall, I finally started riding him. He was a lot of horse, and I did not have a lot of help for a few years.
In 2003, I started at Wilson College with the hopes of taking Abe and learning how to event. I had ridden all of my life, but I had never learned to jump. Abe and I had been working together for the past 4 years, but we were still pretty scary! He got really nervous and stuck his head straight in the air and ran around, and I was clueless as to how to stop it.
During my four years at school, Abe and I became a team. I had some great help in getting him quieter and on the aids. We both learned how to jump. I did my first event with him in 2000. We had a pretty up and down career together, as Abe never really became completely confident in his jumping. He had days where he would fly at the jumps and then slam on the brakes at the last second. (Which had me hitting the dirt…or falling off in the middle of a water complex…more than once.) He also had days where he would jump around like a hunter. Every day was a learning experience.
Abe gets 2nd at Pinehurst. Our first recognized ribbon ever!
Abe taught me many things: how to stick, defensive riding, the backseat, subtlety, patience, how to jump, when to push through and when to retire. He definitely taught me the ups and downs of horses. We had a very inconsistent record with a lot of E’s and some top 3 finishes. I evented him through Training level, before I finally decided that eventing with me was just not something he wanted to do. Sometimes, the biggest lesson we can learn from horses is how to determine what is best for them.
In the fall of 2007, I decided to retire Abe from competition. He became my lesson horse, and he LOVED it. When the little girls would come to see him, his face was the picture of pure contentment. The greatest thing about him was that he would barely trot around on the lunge for the kids learning to post, but if my teenaged students would ride him, he would suddenly wake up. He knew exactly how much he could give each rider.
Without Abe, I would not be the rider I am today. He taught myself and some of my students so much. I will forever be greatful to Mr. Lincoln, and he will live out his days at Rocky Start Stables.
