The fairytalesque Friesian! Throughout the month of February, we are featuring Friesians and Friesian crosses.
Did you know… dressage riders who compete with a member of this stunning breed are eligible for special awards through the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards program? The Friesian Heritage Horse & Sporthorse International, Friesian Horse Association of North America, Friesian Horse Society, Friesian Sport Horse Registry, and Friesian Sporthorse Associationare all participating organizations!
Read how a rider from Region 8 brought her Friesian Sporthorse mare all the way up the FEI levels after a half-decade-long career as a broodmare.
By Heather Wentworth
What started as a heartbreak became the foundation of a once-in-a-lifetime partnership.
After losing my previous horse, who I had hoped to begin my dressage show career with, to a tragic injury, I found myself scrolling through Facebook ads, looking for that just-right horse. My problem was similar to many others: the wish list for my next horse didn’t quite fit within my limited budget. Luckily, horse-crazy runs in my family, so I wasn’t without a horse to ride during my year-long search. My mother let me ride her mare at local schooling shows at Training Level, which fed my love of showing dressage.
While searching through millions of horse ads, I found myself repeatedly pausing on a beautiful black Friesian Sporthorse mare named Destiny SCS, aka “Dezi.” I have to add that I have always been a Friesian fangirl. Dezi (Donatelli x Magic of Forest Gate Farm – Pilgrim) was an eight-year-old broodmare with 30 days of training as a three-year-old, and was located in Pennsylvania. Living in Maine myself, this made it not just a quick day trip away, so I kept scrolling. Every time I saw her ad, I would pause and think, “I’m not ready for something that green, but man, I really like her.”
Despite every logical reason to keep scrolling, I finally had to at least see what my then-trainer, Erika Sawyer, thought of her. I was fully expecting her response to be everything I had already convinced myself wasn’t ideal about this horse… She’s too far away. She’s too green. She hasn’t even weaned her current baby. She cribs. It would be crazy to buy a horse without meeting it, but even if I made the trip, I couldn’t ride her to see what she was like.
Instead, Erika gave me the three words that changed everything: “Tell me more.” Based on those short videos, texts with breeder Judy DeBoer, and words of encouragement from Erika, I bought her, sight unseen. A month later, she arrived, and I waited for that trailer to show up like a kid on Christmas morning.
However, so many emotions whirled around, hoping that I made the right choice. The early days were a test of faith, marked by poor ground manners, trailering and loading issues, and a paralyzing fear of overhead noises; at one point, this phobia caused her to run head-first into the wall of her stall in fear. I began to think, “What have I done?” But through patience and consistent exposure, overcoming that fear resulted in a profound bond.
Over time, we have built an amazing relationship, and with that, her confidence grew, transforming from terrified broodmare to confident FEI-level competitor. Although, she does still have a fear of goats and noises over her head! During our first off-property experience together, she had to follow behind my mother to get to the arena.
If someone had told me in that first year where our journey would go, I wouldn’t have believed them. We began our competitive journey at Introductory Level at local schooling shows – cantering seemed like a lofty goal. The learning curve was steep. Learning upper-level movements at the same time as your horse means you don’t always know what a movement “should” feel like – you have to find it together.
Thankfully, I have had an amazing group of people who have helped me get this far. Without my trainer, Cassi Martin (at Life’s A Ride), I would have absolutely no idea what I was doing (I still often feel like I don’t). Cassi has guided me every step of the way, often pushing me outside my comfort zone. I owe so much of our progress to her insight and unwavering support. Dressage is a beautiful contradiction: the fact that there is always more to learn is both its greatest challenge and its greatest reward.
Our greatest success isn’t the ribbons, but being able to be on this wonderful journey and learn together. A journey that I hope to share with my almost two-year-old daughter. We have exceeded any expectations that I had of the broodmare I saw in that sales ad nine years ago. I would never have believed that I would trust this mare to continue to ride up to 38 weeks pregnant. I would never have believed that Grand Prix would ever feel like a real possibility.
Dezi and I have won numerous championships in the State of Maine throughout our show career together. In 2022, we competed at our first Great American/USDF Regional Dressage Championships, where we rode at Third Level, placing seventh! We have since competed at the Great American/USDF Region 8 Championships through Intermediate 1, placing in the top eight several more times. We also competed at the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan® (while I was 20 weeks pregnant!) at Fourth Level in 2023 and again last year (2025) at Intermediate 1.
Dezi has proven that with the right team, and a bit of “crazy” courage, the green broodmare can become the horse of a lifetime. I am forever grateful for finding my heart horse, Destiny SCS.
