Yann's Horses

[forte]

Show Name: Katzenjammer
Barn Name: Kat
Age: 8 years
Gender: Gelding
Color: Chestnut
Breed: Trakehner
Height: 15.2 HH
Personality: Kat is, to put it nicely, a bit off his rocker. He's a looker, sometimes. Occasionally, one can see why Yann bought him in the first place. He really has a lovely collected trot. He holds his head really well, and his movements are like a dream. Every so often, one looks at him and sees a horse that is capable of anything you want him to do, ready and eager and perfect. But then, he snaps. Kat is inconsistent almost constantly, has horrible ground manners, and snaps when you tighten his girth. He bobs his head, fights the bit, bucks. And then he will go around for a few perfect trials, looking for all the world like a Grand Prix level horse. Like some high-bred thing, not the crazy, bucking, bolting, demon of mere instants before.

Kat is certainly not well trained, although it's obvious that he's had some sort of schooling before. However, he really just can't be trusted. There's no rhyme or reason for his issues, they are what they are. One second people will be watching him fight whoever happens to be riding, or just suddenly take off at a gallop after a turn, only to slam on the breaks instants later, ignoring the bit which only seconds ago he responded to so well. He seems to have settled down a little bit, but he's horribly inconsistent and even when he's behaving, his form is undeveloped and under-muscled. He's, in short, not the kind of dressage horse you'd expect to see at a high-level boarding school like Blue Ridge.
History: Kat was born a sub-par dressage horse, actually an accidental mating with an unpredictable (but high-quality) stud. He was born, however, into a fairly well-meaning stable, which had decided to keep him. However, the owners of his dam were fairly ignorant, and he was weaned far too early, one of the first instances that went into his later training. They worked with him on the lead line, but they let him get away with much too much, and to this day he jigs, won't stand still, and tries to push whoever is leading him around. His owners were inconsistent with their firmness - one of them was far too harsh, the other far too lenient, and, being an intelligent horse, Kat learned to behave differently for each.

They sent him off to be broken to saddle at the age of three with the cheapest dressage trainer they could find, and got what they paid for. Kat was trained with a tie-down and a whip, and never properly introduced to the saddle itself. He learned to hate the saddle, and tried to kick when the girth was tightened. In truth, he would have responded quite well to kinder, more patient training, but the trainer really only cared about results, for which they were trained. He got to where he could be ridden and was shipped off back home to become a lesson horse at the age of three, sold off to another stable as trained. He had preformed well enough for the person who tried him out, and seemed steady enough to take the life of a lesson horse...

Really, though, it was not Kat's calling. At all. At first he was docile enough, and so they responded by saddling him up with young riders who didn't continue to teach him. In fact, they were extremely inconsistent in their riding. Kat was a sensitive horse, and as time went on he grew bored and frustrated, and began to learn all the old tricks. He bucked. He bolted. He did whatever it took to unsaddle his riders if they rubbed him the wrong way. He grew even worse on the ground, and after he bit a girl in the arm he was shipped off for more training. Again, this did not go so well for him, and he learned that he couldn't trust any ride, and that he had to try to unseat them all...

When Yann found him, Kat was for sale once again, having traveled from home to home growing worse with every one. To this day, Yann doesn't know what made him purchase Kat, but in any case he did, and has been keeping him at a small stable for a few months, trying to work through his issues. But mistrust is deeply ingrained in the gelding, and he's not quite ready to trust another trainer yet.
Discipline: Dressage. Well, sort-of.
Owner/Rider: Yann Ritter

[forte]

Show Name: Monet's Garden
Barn Name: Claude
Age: 12 years
Gender: Gelding
Color: Bay
Breed: Dutch Warmblood
Height: 16.2 HH
Personality:
Claude is an extremely responsive horse... and a huge ham. He's a big, fancy mover with a personality to match. He could almost be described as haughty, if you dared call him that... Claude can be head-strong and hard to deal with, but if you earn his respect, he is a perfect competition horse. He seems rather put out when he is mounted by beginners. He's extremely steady and predictable, but he always does exactly what you ask, which means that he won't save you when you make a mistake! He's not exactly an old horse, especially not for dressage, and he could go very far. He's driven, hard-working, and never balks or does anything rude. His ground manners could be better, and he's not exactly perfect at dressage yet, but he's safe for anyone. The only time that he is at all stubborn is when he's confused.

Claude does have a tic... He doesn't downward transition very well for most riders. He can do it, but it takes a lot of working with him and patience. Really, it's because he's so overly responsive to leg commands... sometimes he ignores the reins a bit more than he should! But he will do it very well once you've got him figured out. He also seems not to particularly like travers... but, again, he'll do it. One warning: don't try to jump him! Claude is terrified of jumps for some unknown reason... He balks at every single one. Otherwise, he would have been a great eventing prospect with his honesty and sensibility. as it were, he is an on-the-ground only kind of gelding, and that doesn't seem to bother him one bit.

History:
Claude is a half-brother to Yann's horse, Abstractism, although he was born in America (his mother was a retired American mare, a very bold jumper). After his brother died, Claude was instantly offered to Yann, but he refused and has continued to refuse since, even as Claude went on to a fairly successful career in dressage. When Claude was young he was pegged an eventing prospect, but as aforementioned he was, for some unknown, horsey reason, terrified of jumps. Although he never reached Grand Prix level, he was a fairly well-known horse and was expected to do so under a different rider after his old one switched horses... However, one event led to another and Claude never ended up leaving, or competing again, for that matter, even though he was really just coming into his own. He fell through the cracks.

At some point, he went up for sale, and Yann's parents, well-meaning, apparently, bought him and sent him off to Blue Ridge to be Yann's horse... Of course, they didn't know anything about Kat. Yann, still resistant to owning the half-brother of his old horse, doesn't actually ride him much... He prefers to stick students up on him, even though Claude is so obviously too talented to be saddled up with dressage students.

Discipline: Dressage. Usually upper-level, could probably train higher than he is currently ridden

Owner/Rider: Yann Ritter