Ross – Grey Connemara Gelding

ROSS

Now I am blogging again we will get back to where we were with our insight into the characters of our horses. We had reached R on our alphabetical tour so we will start again with Ross.

This gorgeous grey is a beauty, a pure bred Connemara from Ireland with the rather grand official name of Rosscon McDuff. But we just call him Ross and everyone loves him.

 

A family – 3 generations of riders – that had been riding with me for a long time rang me up. They had bought a horse for their grand-daughter and they wanted me to give a second opinion.

I went to see him. He was only rising four and newly broken. I quickly noticed that the horse would not stand still to be mounted – a priority for me. He was lovely but very forward and I felt he would be too much for them. I explained to them that he would not be ideal, although she was a very nice rider. It is easy to underestimate how much time and work is involved in bringing on a young horse.

He was a sweet natured boy though and the whole family was already in love with him! I helped them with some ground work and took him out on the Chase for them, but eventually they too, sadly decided he was not right for them.

But they loved him dearly and were very concerned about his future home so I decided to buy him.

Once I got him home I resumed the ground work – and taught him to stand still! – and gradually brought him on. We put a lot of hours into him and he came good really quickly. We rode him as a guide horse before we put experienced clients on him. It took time before we could allow him to be ridden by lots of different clients.

Ross is a lovely kind natured horse and now he doesn’t have a single problem. He is very sensible, keen and eager to please. My regular riders adore him!

He has an incredible jump and absolutely loves being in the arena and doing lessons. Karen and Lucy, our instructors, love teaching people on him.

In my bareback lessons he is literally bouncing because he is so eager to canter! My staff love him as a guide horse and he has done the Wales holidays, beach rides and been a Marshall’s horse on the Sheriff of Lichfield’s ride.

He is just perfect – our little gem.