By the way, I checked, and the eventer in the 'fun' video I posted, actually is a warmblood - a Selle Francais('French Saddle Horse').
Check out
www.runhennyrun.com
or
http://www.runhennyrun.com/henbio.html
Henry is an 8 year old Selle Francais from Argentina, he was born in September of 2001. I first saw him at a clinic I was teaching in August of 2007, he had been a show hunter and was completely mentally fried. He wouldn't even walk over a rail on the ground. I was asked to take him in training, then four months later the owners told me they couldn't justify keeping him in training any longer as he would not be suitable for them. They asked me what I wanted to do. I could already tell he was extremely talented and we agreed that I would take him on as a project.
My goal was to make life fun for him again and to get him to relax and enjoy his work. When I first got him it was an ordeal to trot the five minutes up the dirt road to the dressage ring. It would take me half an hour to get there because every change of color on the road, puddles, shadows from the power lines was cause for him to hit panic mode.
The first time I schooled him xc was quite interesting, far from being worried about all the weird jumps, he loved them. When I took him into the water jump I couldn't get him out. He loved it, he was like a pony, all he wanted to do was paw at the water (both front feet at once)and try to roll. After about a month he was going really well and I decided to take him to a novice level event at GMHA in VT. His dressage was fair, (he panicked when he trotted in to the tiny dressage ring) but he ate up the cross-country. I knew immediately he was something special. He continued to move up the ranks. In less than a year he did his first Intermediate at GMHA, he won it!
The jumping phases are easy for him, he eats up XC. After only a year and a half of eventing he was 10th at his first CCI 3* at Bromont. At Fair Hill CCI3* in the fall I was really disappointed but happy with my decision not to run the XC. I felt it wasn't worth the risk to him considering how inconsistent the footing was. I have to say it was the wettest event I have ever been to. I knew at the time that without second three star under his belt it may mean that I wouldn't get to run at Rolex this year.
This spring his XC performances at the Advanced and CIC*** were outstanding and I felt very confident about staying on track for Rolex. He certainly stepped up to the challenge. You have no idea how much fun it is to gallop around the XC on Henny!
He has proven to be very fast, handy and cat like cross-country and almost never has rails in the show jumping. Although he is one of the bravest XC horses I have ever had he is still scared of his own shadow when he isn't competing. My main focus for the summer is to get him to relax in the dressage. At home he can do it but when he is in competition his nerves sometimes still get the best of him. The cameras and the green artificial turf around the arena at Rolex were just too much for him to handle but he learned a lot!
Jimmy Wofford's comment in his Rolex preview, as always was very accurate, "this pair is a year away from a polished performance at this level." I'm working on halving his prediction and have the dressage polished by Fair Hill.
Henry is a very Unique horse, he can run around a four star one day and then be a lead line horse for my 2 year old son, Owen, the next. In fact Owen did his first horse show on Henry when he was only 18 months old! Henry adores Owen and is very careful when he is on top.
for details. This is one of the wonderful horses that enriches the lives of many.
His is an incredible story. The video I posted up there is just totally breathtaking.
But the pictures of Henny with the owner's very young son are just lovely.
