Heavy Hitters! Throughout the month of December, we are featuring heavy breeds and heavy breed crosses!
Did you know that dressage riders who choose a heavy hitter as their mounts are eligible for special awards through the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards program, as the Draft Cross Breeders & Owners Association (among several others!) is a participating organization!
Here, an adult amateur from Region 8 shares how, despite being told she would never be able to handle her oversized young Dutch Harness Horse cross, she listened to her gut instead, and he has become the best mistake she ever made.
By Pamela Page
My horse, Ma Bête Noire (aka Blackberry), is a 17.2 hand Dutch Harness Horse cross, by the stallion Wouter.
My trainer, Jannike Gray, owns Seventh Heaven Stables, a 24-stall facility in Newtown, Connecticut. A USDF Diamond Achievement recipient, Jannike develops young horses up through the FEI levels, and loves helping amateurs and their horses achieve their goals.
I am 69 years old, and also based in Connecticut. When the opportunity to purchase a trail horse presented itself five years ago, I hadn’t ridden in over two decades, and had never ridden dressage. Based off of Blackberry’s sale video, the four-year-old gelding seemed to be just the horse for me: he had a beautiful canter; he calmly carried a two-year-old child over a cross rail; he was unflappable as a firecracker exploded above his head; he casually walked on to the back of a flatbed, and most reassuringly of all, he trotted merrily under harness as a pair to the drive-by hamburger joint in some unknown town in Amish country.
So, I bought him. No papers, no prepurchase exam (PPE). Unfortunately, the horse I purchased was far from the horse in the video. He was certainly younger than four, and as green as they come. And hotter than they come.
As with any young horse, he couldn’t steer, and didn’t yet have brakes, yet it was his explosive energy that caught me off guard. Although I wasn’t exactly a beginner, having successfully competed in my 20s and 30s throughout New England in the hunters, at first, I found this energy, his forward gaits, and his massive stature intimidating.
But what Pam Goodrich, a well-known dressage trainer, said was true: “He has an amazing temperament for a four-year-old. I can say nothing bad about this horse, except that he’s too big for you.”
Some thought otherwise: “You will NEVER be able to handle him.” Over the following year, these words of warning continued to be echoed across my equestrian universe. For me, however, “never” has always been just another way of saying “watch me.”
When my initial trainer refused to mount (or even lunge) him, I sent my new horse to Martha’s Vineyard. There, Katrina Heilbroener, a talented young rider, marooned on the island due to COVID-19, gave Blackberry his start as a dressage horse.
After she moved to New York, I relocated Blackberry, who was growing by leaps and hands, to a barn in Connecticut. Two months in, the farm’s owner and trainer politely suggested we find a new home. The reason? Blackberry was considered “too hot” to be around the barn’s kids and moms.
A few months later, at barn number four, the trainer there decided the New England winter was making him unrideable and suggested I send him to Florida. So, I did. Up to this point, I had ridden him only a handful of times.
Florida wasn’t for me; the trainer there wasn’t for me. I was starting to panic. It was as if I had a gifted child and I was desperately trying to get us into the right school, but the doors weren’t opening. Luckily, five professionals and two years after I purchased him, I met someone who knew someone, and I found us at Jannike’s barn.
The alliance between trainer and rider is a delicate one. It’s a relationship complicated by the presence of a third partner whose language is different from our own. Much like a successful marriage, the relationship requires patience, trust, empathy, and respect. Jannike respected my determination, yet knew how to keep me safe – especially in the beginning. She had the confidence to take a chance on an unconventional horse, and the vision and talent to make that chance pay off. I was finally in a good marriage!
Sadly, the honeymoon was barely over when we discovered that Blackberry was suffering from nuchal bursitis and needed surgery. We lost the full 2023 year of training and showing.
While I might have advanced faster and gotten into the show ring sooner with a schoolmaster, the thrill, pride, and joy I’ve experienced watching Jannike and my “cart horse” fly up the levels faster than you can say “FEI” is beyond words. Blackberry’s incredible work ethic, coupled with Janni’s undeniable gifts, has shown me that the right partnership can be equally as important as impressive breeding.
True: Blackberry’s conformation makes it harder for him to stretch. True: He doesn’t (at least yet) fling his toes like a Warmblood. But honestly, I don’t care. His big ears, big feet, and HUGE (!) personality always put a smile on my face. I feel lucky to have a partner who is wicked smart, eager-to-please, kind, forgiving, and – usually – a perfect gentleman.
2025 was my second year showing Blackberry. In October, we debuted a First Level freestyle together, and qualified for the Great American/USDF Regional Dressage Championships.
Blackberry arrived in 2020 with a gash on his right front fetlock, metal shards in his left, cracked hooves, and skin disease. Since then, he and Janni have earned many ribbons every year they’ve competed. They have also brought home several Regional Championship Top Ten ribbon sashes, including fifth place in the First Level Freestyle Championship Open/Junior/Young Rider (Open/Jr/YR; 2024), fourth place in the Second Level Freestyle Championship Open/Jr/YR (2024), seventh place in the Third Level Freestyle Championship Open/Jr/YR (2025), and fifth place in the Fourth Level Freestyle Championship Open/Jr/YR (2025).
Next year, Janni hopes to improve their Fourth Level scores, and move up to Prix St. Georges – possibly even to Intermediate-1. Could Ma Bête Noire end up as a Grand Prix contender one day? The possibilities are endless!
There’s a sign at our barn that reads, “To Ride Is to Have Wings.” When we canter, and I feel my big, powerful horse beneath me, the world falls away and I fly. I fly, and I fly. My “Heavy Hitter” is the best mistake I ever made.
