The Marvelous Morgan! We are celebrating these horses as our April Breed of the Month on YourDressage!
Did you know that dressage riders who choose a member of this versatile breed as their mount are eligible for special awards through the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards program, as the American Morgan Horse Association is a participating organization?
What some would describe as a “big, destructive brat” is the perfect partner for others! In this story, a rider from Region 2 shares how she and her Morgan gelding have taken to the dressage world – with ease and talent.
By Leah Borders
In the summer of 2017, I was visiting a friend, Jay, who had Hackney ponies. I was walking through the barn when I passed a stall, stopped, backed up, and asked, “Who’s this one?” Because, in a barn full of Hackney ponies, this Morgan stood out like a sore thumb. “Oh,” she replied, “That’s Steve’s western horse, Jackson; he’s four.” Steve, a mutual friend, was boarding him at her place. I didn’t think much about it, but I told Steve the next time we talked that Jackson looked pretty cool.
That December, I got a message from Steve asking if I wanted Jackson. If I did, he was mine. Steve had some changes going on in his life and wanted a good home for him. Sure! I’ll take him. I didn’t really have a horse that was a show prospect at the moment, but now I had a project. I really had no idea what a project he would become!
When we went to pick him up, Jay was extremely happy to be getting the big, destructive brat (her words) out of her barn before he tore anything else up. My place is a different setup than most barns. I have a small three-horse barn, with paddock or pasture access for each horse. I only had two others there at that time: an old stallion and a teen gelding, Byzy. So, Jackson was turned out with Byzy.
Jackson had been started as a three-year-old in western pleasure, then had very little done with him as a four-year-old. He was now five. He had impeccable breeding; he was by ZZ Top, out of Tomeri Bella Riveria, a HVK Belle Flaire daughter. He was bred to be a park horse, except he couldn’t trot that high. He’s wicked smart, but not that well-versed as far as social skills. Think of Sheldon, from the Big Bang Theory. That is how he got his name, Boxford Ba Zzinga.
I’m a third-generation horse person. My parents were horse trainers, as was my father’s father. My parents bred Morgans and Appaloosas, and had an all-breed training barn in the 70s and 80s, so I grew up with a large variety of horses. Still, I always gravitated towards the Morgans. They were more showy, more animated, and more challenging.
Jackson checked every one of those boxes with an exclamation point. He is, without a doubt, the most challenging of any horse I’ve ever had. I started showing him both western and classical dressage, hoping to do the working hunters with him eventually. The first year was challenging, to say the least! Relaxation was not in his vocabulary.
At first, I primarily did western dressage, because I couldn’t find a saddle that fit Jackson correctly for classical dressage. I had to be more creative with him, and think outside the box in order to keep him enjoying his work. We lunged, worked in side reins, long lined, rode, and did cavelletti work, but never the same thing two days in a row. Jackson has been the horse who made me question my abilities as a horse owner, rider, and trainer.
In 2021, I pointed Jackson at a fence, and he did amazingly. My boyfriend’s daughter, Tori, wanted to show and was up for the challenge that was Jackson. He and I had sort of reached an impasse, and Tori and he got along well. I had shown him a few times in the hunter hack classes at the Morgan shows and won. Tori loved the bigger fences, and so did he. So, I stepped out of the stirrups and back into the coaching role, and they did amazing. She showed him in the amateur working hunter at the Morgan Grand National and World Championship, where they won the Amateur Working Hunter 3’3”.
Photos by Howard Schatzberg Photography
In 2022, Jackson and I returned to classical and western dressage. We showed primarily in open shows in Indiana, held by the Indiana Dressage Society (IDS). He has been in the top of the year-end awards for every year we have shown, and I always get comments about what a gorgeous horse he is and what a lovely mover he is. On a non-traditional breed, especially in western, asking for relaxation can be a bit of a struggle. That has been our most common critique. He had 2023 off, as I was focusing on my other horses at the time.
We have not participated in the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards program yet, as we have only competed at Introductory Level, but in 2024, we competed in the American Morgan Horse Association (AMHA) Open Competition awards, winning the Western Dressage Intro Champion and finishing third in classical dressage. He also won several year-end awards through IDS, including Western Dressage Musical Freestyle High Point Champion, Introductory Level Champion and High Percentage, and third place in the Western Dressage Intro High Percentage against all breeds. He also placed third in the Ohio Western Dressage Association Amateur Intro Western Dressage year-end awards.
Photos by Ken Martin Photography
I’ve had so much help from people in the dressage community who have so much more experience than me. I’m new to dressage, and very much an amateur dressage rider. I was raised in the Morgan world, doing working hunter, jumper, hunter pleasure, and working with other horses and trainers in the pleasure and “main ring” divisions. Still, I’ve participated in several clinics and taken not nearly enough lessons, and I’m very thankful to all my mentors and those who have helped me along the way to improve both me and my horses.
To me, Jackson is the epitome of the versatile Morgan. He has done well in the working hunter, in-hand, western dressage, and classical dressage, and we have even dabbled in the ranch division. Morgans are such a smart and athletic breed to be around. They make you a better horse person by not letting you get complacent.
