A Dauntless Partner

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?

This story from a Region 3 rider is about a very special Morgan cross gelding – when he’s not taking riders to regional championships, you can find him taxiing the next generation of riders around their very first lessons.

By Taylor Reynolds

The word “dauntless” is defined in the dictionary as “showing fearlessness, bravery, and courage.” It is also the show name of a beloved lesson horse in the small town of Havana, Florida, better known around the barn as Spartan. Two seemingly bold names for a grumpy old horse, but if you’ve met him, you’d know they are actually quite fitting. 

Spartan has given his many riders the courage and bravery as they pursued goals, from learning to trot for the first time, to braving their first USEA events or dancing in the sandbox at USDF shows over the years. 

Owned by my longtime trainer and friend, Sarah Mills, Spartan was foaled in 2001 and joined our Iron Star Equestrian family in 2017. We believe he is a Morgan/Thoroughbred cross. Both with us, and in his previous homes, he has done a little bit of everything – including polo, hunter/jumpers, eventing, and dressage. This year, he turns 24 years old, and is still actively showing at USDF-recognized shows, IDA/IEA shows, and local schooling shows.

It hasn’t been in the cards for me to own a horse, and as heartbreaking as it has been at times, I have been incredibly fortunate to work with and learn from some amazing lesson horses. I owe much of my growth as a horse person and rider to the wide range of horses I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years. While I strongly believe all lesson horses are special in their own ways, I cannot think of one who is more special than Spartan. 

In the years we’ve spent together, we’ve been on piles of adventures, including clinics, trail rides, a beach ride, horse shows, fox hunts, and just messing around at home. Spartan has been forgiving enough to allow me to make many mistakes as I continue to grow as an equestrian. I can’t even begin to list the number of lessons I’ve learned during my time spent working with him that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. He has shown me that I can be braver than I ever imagined. Before riding him, my anxiety often got the better of me, and I was afraid of even trotting over cross rails. Despite my fears, he carried me through several successful beginner novice trips.

However, as fun as eventing was, my real love has always been dressage, and he has allowed me to pursue this love all the way to qualifying for, and competing at, the 2024 Great American/USDF Region 3 Dressage Championships at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala. We qualified at both Training and First Levels, and proudly placed in the middle of some very large competitive classes. 

Spartan also allowed me to earn my USDF Rider Performance Awards at Training and First Levels, and this year, we are planning to perform a First Level Musical Freestyle. We have already earned our first qualifying score for the 2025 regional championships, and are looking forward to earning the rest as the show season continues. We are in the process of putting the finishing touches on our musical freestyle, and hope to debut it at our next show.

Despite his best efforts to convince everyone he is a grumpy old man, Spartan continues to surprise us and prove he is still young at heart. For instance, the grand escape he made from his stall at regionals last year. I had put his saddle on and closed his stall door, but didn’t bother to lock it because I was coming right back with his bridle. Plus, he is not typically one of the horses to make a big escape…or so we thought. Our assumption on the matter was, in fact, proven very wrong. 

As I came out of the tack stall, bridle in hand, I saw an open door and a dark bay blur trotting out of the barn. My next thought was, “Oh well…he’ll just go and graze, and he shouldn’t be too hard to catch.” Again, I was very wrong. When I found him outside of the barn and began to make my way towards him, he looked at me and then the halter in my hand, and after a few seconds of weighing his options, decided it was a good idea to take off, galloping across the back fields of WEC. 

I give full credit to the wonderful staff at WEC for quickly scrambling what was probably a fleet of ten golf carts, and corralling him in a parking lot on the other side of the property. It was there that my trainer and I caught up to him, finally managed to catch him, and trot him back to the barn. By some miracle, we still made it with time to spare for our early morning Dressage Seat Equitation (DSE) class. Furthermore, he was perfectly sound after the entire ordeal, so credit to his good grain, supplements, and farrier work for keeping him so healthy and sound. 

Last year, a local barn organized a clinic with Olympic rider Phillip Dutton. Spartan and I were fortunate enough to participate in the dressage day of the clinic, which was yet another great experience I enjoyed because of this horse. Much to our delight and surprise, Dutton rode the horses for the first few minutes of each lesson. So, Spartan now has “be ridden by an Olympian” on his already long list of accomplishments. 

On top of all of this, he puts up with so many of our crazy ideas at the barn – he has been painted like a skeleton (multiple times), sported a lime green sleazy for Halloween, been covered in glitter and paint for collegiate championships, among many other shenanigans we’ve managed to come up with. 

And this is just what he has done for me. As noted earlier, Spartan’s “day job” is working as a lesson horse. A job in which he has taught countless lessons to so many different people, ranging from “up-downers” to more advanced riders. He is one of those special kinds of lesson horses that can teach someone to trot for the first time, then show someone the ropes of eventing and dressage. 

Iron Star Equestrian is also home to the FSU dressage team, where Spartan’s support of Florida State University (FSU) extends to the Intercollegiate Dressage Association (IDA). Weekly, he helps teach the team riders the basics of dressage, and when the FSU dressage team hosts shows each semester, he is a perfect gentleman for each rider who draws him as their ride. Spartan was even voted as “best draw” at the last competition. His Florida State support extends to eventing, where he has been an essential part of several collegiate championships and events over the years. Furthermore, he has participated in some “community service” for the local hunter/jumper Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA) teams. Recently, Sarah started the first IEA dressage team in Florida, and he supports those riders as well. And, if all of that is not enough, Spartan often takes riders to local shows hosted by South Wind Dressage and Eventing Association (SWDEA), our area’s Group Member Organization (GMO), doing anything from ground poles with a four-year-old rider to eventing. 

I must give so much credit and thanks to Sarah, his owner and my coach, for taking such good care of Spartan, and for sharing him with me and his other riders over the years. He has been such a valuable asset to her lesson program, but she always puts his health and well-being first. She makes sure he – and all of her lesson horses – get time off, that they get high-quality grain, excellent vet and farrier care, and anything else they need to stay as happy and healthy as possible.

Spartan is a testament to the all too often unsung lesson horses that are the foundation of this sport. He represents the versatility of the Morgan horse, and is living proof that if you take good care of older horses they can still go out and do all the things, even into their mid-20s. He is a prime example of how special an “ordinary” horse can really be.