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 (AMHA) is a participating organization?
Here, an adult amateur from Region 4 shares the story of the young Morgan whom she purchased sight-unseen, and has become everything she wanted!
By Erin Buie
Never did I think I would be one of those stories you hear about a rider buying a horse, sight unseen, off a Craigslist ad, but that’s where I found myself back in 2022, when Promise Picasso (aka Dill) came into my life.
I had been looking for another Morgan after my lovely palomino Morgan gelding, CJ Quick on the Trigger (Romeo), retired from showing. We had earned my USDF Bronze Rider Medal together. It was during the COVID-19 pandemic peak, so horses were selling quickly and for high prices. I had contacted a breeder to see if she had anything available, and she sent me this horse’s Craigslist ad. The catch? He was in Montana, and I was in Minnesota, and it was January. The owner sent me some videos, which I sent to my trainer. To which she said, “He’s the nicest one you’ve sent me; vet him and buy him.” So, that’s what I did!
It turns out a winter Montana to Minnesota route is not particularly popular with shippers, so I had to wait until March for Dill to arrive. The shipper handed him over to me and said, “Good luck, he’s a fire-breathing dragon,” which almost gave my mom a heart attack. To this day, we can’t figure out how he came to that conclusion; Dill has never done anything to earn a reputation like that!
For me, it was love at first sight. Dill is a red chestnut, with a blaze and flashy white legs. I couldn’t have drawn him up to fit what catches my eye any better. Even better than his looks though, he loves people and has a HUGE quirky (and I mean that in the best of ways!) personality.
Any winter hat with a fur poof on top will promptly be removed from your head. No grooming tote is safe from his hoof – he will tip it over while maintaining heavy eye contact to draw you back into his space bubble. He is entertaining to be around, and I never know what he is going to get into next.
He is also the pasture favorite with the other horses; they fight over who gets to hang out with him. He, however, doesn’t get a lot of choice in the matter, as his pasture mates are primarily 17+-hand warmbloods. They herd him where they want him to go and, luckily, he is a go-along-to-get-along kind of guy. It is terrifying to see my 15.2-hand horse playing robust games of halter tag with his giant friends. But he is quick and crafty, and thus far has managed to avoid both teeth and hooves. And, let’s be honest, he is a master instigator and very good at getting the game started!
Speaking of things I never thought I would do, I sure didn’t plan to end up with an unstarted horse. I wanted something that was already going under saddle but, as many in the horse world will attest, what you think you want often isn’t what you get.
Dill was a few months shy of his third birthday when he arrived. This meant I had to wait a good long time to finally even sit on him. It turns out, there is nothing more fun than getting to do “firsts” on your horse – the first leg yield, the first shoulder-in, the first haunches-in…It is something I wouldn’t trade for anything. I guess things turned out the way they were supposed to after all.
Dill’s dressage training has gone remarkably well. He is forward, light (sometimes too light!), and is a very bendy horse, which helps tremendously in the lateral work. I feel very fortunate he likes his job so much. He is cheerful, willing, and is game to try anything.
Last year we mainly focused on Training Level, with a couple of First Level Test 3 rides mixed in to try to qualify to do a First Level freestyle. In typical Dill fashion, he came through big time. In a test that we maybe weren’t quite ready for, we scored up to 66%. He was the American Morgan Horse Association Inc. Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds award Adult Amateur Reserve Champion at Training Level, the Morgan Dressage Association Champion at First Level and Reserve Champion at Training Level, as well as our local GMO Reserve Champion Training Level horse and Reserve Champion Morgan Horse.
This show season (which is short and sweet in Minnesota), we will compete at First and Second Levels, along with doing our very fun First Level freestyle to a compilation of the tunes of Bruno Mars.
Dill, being a typical Morgan horse, loves to do new and different things. We tried some jumping last fall, which he absolutely loved (me? Maybe not so much). It has been about 15 years since I’ve jumped and it really showed. I joke that we jump sandwich-sized jumps — 6-12 inches! Hopefully we’ll make it up to two sandwiches this summer! It is such good cross-training for him, both physically and for his busy little brain.
We also take long jaunts down our dirt road and the trail that is only a 10-minute ride from the farm. It is so nice to have a fun, safe horse to do these activities with! Eventually I hope to do Starter level eventing with him on the side, with dressage remaining our main focus.
I would strongly encourage anyone looking for a horse that can do dressage – and a lot more – to consider a Morgan. They are smart, fearless, and so fun to interact with. I have found them to be very amateur-friendly, forgiving of mistakes and a true partner both on the ground and under saddle. I feel so very fortunate to have not one, but two delightful Morgans in my life!
