Do You Love to Ride – or Love to Win?

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?

Here, a rider from Region 2 tells us about the many adventures she’s had with her Morgan gelding, from showing at regional- and national-level championships, to braving a storm with other horses and riders on a treacherous ferry ride!

By Jennifer Kaiser

I purchased my Morgan horse, Up-Hi Santana, as an honest, notably awkward three-year-old. I had no experience with the breed, but his personality was top-notch. His conformation was not quite as top notch, and resembled three men in a horse costume, with the neck sewn on upside-down, but the guy in the rear never showed up to work. When paired with a rider with jazz hands who seemed to be rehearsing for Belly Dancers International, we were the epitome of a work in progress. 

I started Santana under saddle shortly after bringing him home. We spent his fourth year traveling to a few shows for exposure, with career highlight Introductory Level Opportunity scores over 70%. His first show might have also involved a short detour to pick up two baby goats (who camped in the horse trailer for the weekend), and we might be the reason that certain showbills now have the clause, “No livestock are permitted on the showgrounds.” My apologies. 

As a five-year-old, Santana competed in USDF-recognized shows and traveled by himself to the Kentucky Horse Park to show in the 2015 Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 2 Dressage Championships. From there, we lived in Second Level purgatory for far longer than I care to admit. But, boy, did he leverage that station-wagon body type to nail the free walk. 

Second Level Musical Freestyles were apparently his jam, as we did two of these during our struggle to move up a level. This served us well, as we placed third in the Second Level Freestyle Championship at the 2019 Great American/USDF Regional Championships and seventh at the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan® the same year. In 2020, we were the top adult amateur pair, as well as Reserve Champions at Regional Championships in the Second Level Freestyle Championship. This was when the Musical Freestyle championships combined divisions. Thank you, USDF, for finally separating the wheat from the chaff! 

Second Level brought many other championships, almost commensurate with the number of years stuck there, including the National Dressage Pony Cup (NDPC), Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards, and others. In 2021, Santana was ninth in the nation for the Adequan®/USDF Year-End Awards in the Second Level Musical Freestyle Challenge.

We finally made it out of flying change hell and into the sandbox at Third Level. In 2022, Santana helped me earn my USDF Bronze Medal after our first two Third Level debut classes, which is remarkable for any horse, but especially a non-traditional dressage horse. The following year brought my Bronze Medal with Distinction. In 2024, we dipped our toes into Fourth Level Test 1 and earned my first two Silver Medal scores. To mix it up during this time, we did a Pas de Deux with my dearest friend and her matchy bay Pura Raza Espanola (PRE). This was performed at the Waterloo Hunt Club and NDPC and was a great way to keep it fun! You can never go wrong riding to music with friends. 

I have taken Santana to many events that have allowed him to showcase the versatility and temperament of the Morgan breed. For example, he stood in as a Thoroughbred for a Kentucky Derby fundraiser, making a special appearance inside the banquet tent to pose for pictures with the guests, who were all wearing non-USDF-approved footwear. In 2022, Santana served as a demo horse for the Michigan Horse Expo. In addition to participating in workshops like western saddle fitting, Santana was borrowed by the dressage clinician to ride in the Mane Event musical freestyle. We had an unexpected Michigan mid-March blizzard, so the only available space for warming up was a 16-foot round pen. The clinician got to know Santana in that round pen for about twenty minutes before entering the big ring. As we waited for the monkey on a motorcycle to clear the ring (I can’t make that up), I told the rider, “Just go big and go sideways.” As expected, the crowd loved his neck yields and hollow-but-leggy extensions. Santana, as always, did his best and, most importantly, kept her safe.

Out of the sandbox, Santana shows the dependability of the Morgan horse. We have covered many miles together on back roads, through cornfields, and everywhere in between. In addition to trail rides, we’ve camped and even traveled out of state to enjoy the great wide open. We took a trip to Mackinac Island, which requires the horses to ferry across the Straits of Mackinac. Santana quietly stood on the loading dock among trucks and cargo, and then led our group through the town and on the path to the boarding barn. He and I rode all the trails and in the Great Lakes independently and bitless, no less.

The boat ride home from Mackinac was a harrowing journey, making for a once-in-a-lifetime trip. We were bumped to the last group to cross back to the mainland, and the wind had picked up considerably. We were forced to cross the Straits in a group using a 10-horse stock trailer contraption, but there were serious loading issues. We waited almost two hours on the beach with all our luggage and tack. 

Two mares were put together in the box stall, and one slipped and went down, pinned in by the other mare. We had to go NOW, or we wouldn’t get across. So, I rode in the trailer to hold the standing mare off the other. Our geldings stepped quietly into the chaos of the overloaded trailer. It was an intensely rocky ride. Unbeknownst to us but captured on video, the boat almost hit the landing dock. Despite the outside commotion, inside there was a quiet peace and sense of communion. Our geldings stood like sentinels over my shoulders, their heads hanging over the downed mare. All the horses, including the mare, made it safely home. It might have been the same whether I was in there or not, but it felt as if Santana and Bo were guardians to the lot of us.

I could tell a hundred other stories like this or write a long list of awards and ribbons that Santana has earned through the years. Hopefully, these examples illustrate the qualities of the wonderful Morgan horse. I don’t believe Santana is unique in this regard; whenever I meet someone who has had a Morgan, their words always contain the clause “and (s)he is/was the best horse ever I’ve ever had.” My goal for Santana is to have one ride at the FEI level, but only because goals are important. To me, it always comes down to, “Do you love to ride, or do you love to win?” Because if it is to ride, you will always win.