Cerulean Moon
From AlexBrownRacing
A wonderful dark bay gelding lucky enough to go from one good racing home straight to a new career.
Pedigree
After a 6-month lease, I purchased Moonie from his trainer in May 2008. He is a 2002 gelding by Malibu Moon, thus related to AP Indy, Seattle Slew, Secretariat, Mr Prospector, and Native Dancer on his sire's side. Through his dam, his bloodlines include Hoist the Flag, the ubiquitous Northern Dancer, and a host of other famous thoroughbreds. After an OK racing career (he apparently earned in the high 5-digits) and a good bit of down time, Moonie is now learning his new job and making great progress. He's a beautiful horse and a lovely mover! I just love him and will add pictures as soon as possible.
For me, horse ownership was a lifelong dream, put off by work, family, etc. It's a familiar tale. Past experience (with polo horses) taught me that my favorite animals were "lazy" thoroughbreds. (Still, I'm tall, and without this site to keep my politics focused since May 06, I may have been tempted by the Warmblood Invasion!) Temperament is key: a horse like Moonie, with a kind, gentle nature--though with his TB moments, to keep things interesting!--is a perfect fit for someone in my situation. Add a fancy way of going, and it's all good!
080803 Update: Moonie is really building some muscle -- looking good and going great. In fact in our last lesson I asked my trainer if he wasn't getting behind the bit, and she laughed out loud: what I was feeling were those very moments of self-carriage that we are looking for! I will put up pix when I find some that meet my critical eye.
We will have our first dressage clinic in a couple of weeks, then we shall see what's next!
081021 Update: I just sent in an entry form for our first competition, a combined test at a local farm. We will tackle the dreaded Intro A dressage test and attempt a course of 18 inch "fences." At this point he won't consistently go straight down the center line (at least not for me!) and he doesn't regard 18 inches as a height that needs to be jumped, rather than just stepped over, so this should be an interesting schooling experience. From his life at the track, nothing fazes him when it comes to new things, at least not in our past year together. He looks, then moves along. Hopefully this attitude will continue when we go to a new farm!
And did I mention that this is a Halloween Costume dress compeition as well? Last night I was hard at work stitching sky blue trim and moon shapes onto a black saddle pad...
081225: The update as of Christmas Day is: We totally rocked at the combined test at Halloween. We looked GREAT and did well and placed first in our division! Had a really nice dressage test ("Attractive horse") and did well over the fences. Relaxed, etc. BUT our folly was this: Moonie did so well that we decided to take him to Waredaca for an unrecognized event. Moonie's barn pal Satchmo was going and we figured what the heck? Now what I failed to appreciate--and what really was the experiment here--was that Waredaca is like LIGHT YEARS beyond the other farm in terms of participants and general hubbub. And Moonie was VERY wary of the hubbub. We did OK in our dressage test (our biggest mistakes were all mine--especially failing to put the whip in the opposite hand when saluting, WHAT a doof!) but then had about a 2.5 hour wait before the stadium phase. During this time he apparently got mroe and more nervous. Eventually it was time to go warm up and we learned something new about Moonie: Moonie doesn't like ponies. He's deathly afraid of them. Has NO idea what they are about. Now, since we are in the Elementary Rider phase, this causes some problems since the Elementary Young Riders are all warming up at about the same time. This means lots of ponies.
Anyway I could not get him in the practice ring. So what the heck, I took him straight into the arena. No ponies there, and the fences are super small. Well, everything there had him freaked. The photographer, the horses outside the ring, the jumps.... We trotted up to our first fence, and... he looked at it... it was a menacing 3-ft-long flower box... not unlike several he's jumped in the past... but this was somehow different, yet clearly his rider ahd expectations, so Moonie jumped... like it was 4 feet. Up into the sky, and I went right with him. WAY up in the air. I came down forward on his neck, out of balance and not able to tell him to turn. This was unfortunate, becauee the next thing in our path was a length of shoulder-high pink tape roping off the back end of the area which wasn't in use. Moonie, bless his heart, and failing to get any ghuidance from his Rider to the contrary, thought that this must be the next fence... but it was high and weird and very insubstantial, so.. he kinda leapt at it... broke through it like a runner at the finish line... and in so doing I ended up on the ground, HARD on my butt. Good thing it's VERY substantial... so nothing butspectacular bruises for me!
So with the fall, we were eliminated and of course couldn't do cross country, which was what I THOUGHT the experiment was going to be. Turns out we have a lot more basic stuff to work on! The good news is, we went back to the local farm for a second combined test before Thanksgiving, and Moonie was FINE. I was nervous, but Moonie was great. It was cold as heck but we lasted. He just plopped over the jumps which was fine with me--I much prefer plopping to soaring! We came in 4th but he was so laid back in his behavior both around the trailer and during the competitions that it was a real victory. Not to mention my personal victory over my nerves! The boy that won was on a fab fjord horse--a real joy to watch!
Since then we've been working on our ground work--and on getting proper tack. We have determined that he hates my Stubben (and it seems both my trainer and our saddle fitter hate it, too... it was apparently reconditioned with some cheesy materials--who knew?). So I am borrowing a Passier dressage saddle THAT I LOVE but that sadly isn't for sale, and I'm investigating possibilities for a close-contact saddle. Right now I am thinking Black Country, but that would likely end up being done through the mail. With the winter weather, I need to time things right so that my week trial is a week when I can actually ride outdoors!
Some day I'll post pix. I'm way too self-counscious at this point.
