A Circle of Energy and Morgans

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 competitor from Region 4 shares her journey in both classical and western dressage with her Morgan mare as they climb the ladder of dressage levels – culminating in several World Championship appearances and awards!

By Cassandra Black

Dressage is about circles. At the beginning, we have 20-meter circles,  then 15- and 10-meter circles, and eventually, as we progress up the levels, 1-meter pirouettes. But more importantly, dressage is about the circle of energy that we are always gathering and releasing through correct, systematic strengthening of our horse’s body. 

My journey with horses began in a big lesson program with a lot of kids and great camaraderie. We all rode in our lessons, but then some of us stayed, learned to clean stalls and tack, and sometimes, we were lucky enough to get to ride another horse. This was how I met the first Morgan horse. His name was Court, and he was a sweet, chunky, lesson horse who packed us kids around with a calm expression. It was because of him that I joined the American Morgan Horse Association (AMHA) when I was 12 years old and discovered their youth program. I participated in the AMHA Youth Merit Badge Program, completing the Woodbury Level, and I still have all the Morgan horse magazines from the late 1980s. Circles must have a beginning, and this was the starting point of my path around dressage and the Morgan horse. 

I rediscovered the Morgan horse when I attended the 2010 Morgan Grand National and World Championship to watch a friend show in dressage. I had been riding dressage since moving to Wichita, Kansas, in 2000. As a young adult, I had been showing in rail classes, but I felt that there had to be more to offer myself and my horses – and the journey that dressage offers is what I was looking for. 

Using the circle of energy to always encourage my horse was exhilarating. I worked with a trainer to retrain my former hunter under saddle Thoroughbred to Prix St. Georges, earning my USDF Bronze Medal in 2002 and the required Fourth Level scores toward my USDF Silver Medal in 2003. In 2009, I was ranked in the top 20 competitors across the nation for the Dover Adult Amateur Medal at Second Level on a warmblood mare that I took from Training Level to Second Level. 

My circle has had some wavy lines, false starts, and pauses over the years, but every circle comes back to the starting point, and watching my friend show at the Morgan Grand National helped me see how much the Morgan offers the sport of dressage. The willingness and trainability, combined with the compact size, forwardness, and ability to collect, make the Morgan an ideal horse to take up the levels in dressage. 

My current Morgan, Hazelrun Fly On (Hazel), has been a true ambassador for the Morgan as a dressage horse. I have been showing her since 2017, and because of a strong social media presence, she is now recognized when we attend shows and clinics in this area. I bought her in 2015 as an unstarted four-year-old from Hazelrun Morgans in Oklahoma. My husband is a professional horseman, and he started her using quiet, methodical methods in the Ray Hunt/Buck Brannaman style. When I started showing Hazel, she was the only Morgan showing traditional dressage in the area. She stood out among the Thoroughbreds and Warmbloods that were showing and always attracted attention with her correct tests and fun personality.

My dream of showing at the Morgan Grand National and World Championship show came full circle in 2018 when I took then-seven-year-old Hazel and competed in Training Level dressage. We had several friends come support us at our first venture into world-caliber competition, and as the youngest horse showing in Training Level that year, we earned fourth place. 

Hazel and I continued our methodical journey up the levels, and by 2021, I was showing Hazel at Second Level. We attended the Morgan Grand National again, earning Second Level Reserve High Point champion, with a Grand National Champion in Second Level Test 1. We also attended several USDF-recognized shows and competed with our Second Level Musical Freestyle at local schooling shows and at the Morgan Grand National. 

As we continue our circle of energy that is so true in classical riding, I always fall back on my training that I have learned from videos, and clinics with Buck Brannaman. My exposure to western riding was limited growing up in West Virginia. I had seen some western horses, but I learned saddleseat, and my main exposure to the Morgans had been a saintly lesson horse and the magazines that I poured over as a youth member of AMHA. 

In college in Missouri, I learned to appreciate western disciplines, but they still “weren’t for me.” I was a classical rider and was committed to English saddles, until I saw Buck Brannaman ride. He is the epitome of classical horsemanship. I watched him school a horse at one of his clinics that I attended and he was doing all of the classical movements like haunches in, tempi changes, and leg yields, but he also did pivots and back ups, all in a western saddle with a softness and harmony that I had never seen before. 

My introduction to western dressage was led by a new student in 2021. The student, Haley Kottler, had a Quarter Horse mare that she wanted to show, but didn’t have an outlet. She had previously shown western pleasure but was not comfortable with the training methods used, so we worked together on more classical training methods, finding that the mare had talent and a wonderful work ethic for western dressage. I had attended the Western Dressage Association (WDAA) World Championship Show in Guthrie, Oklahoma, to watch my instructor, Laurie Hedlund, and some other friends show in previous years, and in 2021, we took Haley’s three-year-old mare, where both Haley and I showed and earned several top-ten placings. 

In showing western dressage, I found a place to be competitive with my non-traditional horses using the classical training methods that I have found work so well to keep my horses happy. I have attended the WDAA World Championship show every year since 2021, and I knew that Hazel would be a perfect fit for western dressage, but I struggled for another three years to find a western saddle that she and I were comfortable in. 

During that time, I continued to show Haley’s horse, My Three Crystals, at American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) shows, moving up the levels to Level 1 and earning Bronze Champion at the 2023 AQHA World Championships and Year-End High Point Level 1 Open Champion. I also continued to successfully show Hazel through Third Level classical dressage at schooling shows and Second Level at USDF-recognized shows. 

In the winter of 2023, I finally found a western saddle. It was owned by a Facebook friend, who posted it for sale because she could no longer ride the horse that it was made for. I couldn’t imagine that this beautifully tooled custom saddle could be something that I could ever own, but we tried it and have not looked back. Hazel is comfortable and happy doing all of the upper-level work, and it fits me like a glove. 

I started 2024 with Hazel showing Level 3 in Stillwater, Oklahoma, at the Central Plains Dressage Society (CPDS) Western Dressage Lite shows. We earned high points in Level 3 Open at all four CPDS Western Dressage Lite shows that we attended. She was also the Year-End High-Point Champion for Level Three Open with an average score of 70.33%, and Year-End High Score Morgan with a score of 74.3%. 

These shows are very well attended, with several horses of different breeds showing at Level Three, but Hazel always manages to stand out because of her correct basics and the Morgan flair in her tests. With her accomplishments at these Lite shows, I decided to work towards a USEF Year-End award in Level Three Open, so we attended two other Western Dressage Lite shows. Hazel was the only Morgan showing but proved that she had the ability and finesse to earn scores of 72.5% and 73.2% in Kansas City, Missouri, and 65% locally in Andover, Kansas, ending the year in Third Place in the USEF Final standings. We also enrolled in the AMHA Open Competitions program and have earned High Point Level 3 with 87 points and Reserve High Point Level 2 with 7.5 points.

I am continuing my circle with Morgan horses in traditional and western dressage. Hazel is getting ready for her WDAA Level 4 and USDF Third Level debut, and I am currently working with Hazel’s half-brother and plan to show him this year in both USDF and WDAA shows. I love that the American Morgan Horse Association offers so many opportunities for riders in all disciplines. I have been able to be a part of the association since I was a horse-crazy kid without a horse, and have now become a two-time reserve World Champion. The Morgans have an unmistakable flair in the show ring, but their trainability and presence make them fun partners in any adventure.