Post by sepia on Jun 23, 2010 5:59:42 GMT -6
Show Name: Savannah Win
Barn Name: Doodle (a nickname that has a very long story behind it). He responds fairly well to Twit, as well, probably because he is one.
Age: 13
Gender: Gelding
Color: A rich, rather handsome chestnut, with a white stripe and two white socks on his hindlegs.
Breed: Thoroughbred
Height: 16 hands
Personality: Originally a moderately successful racehorse (flat racing, not jumping) Philip bought Doodle when he was retired at the age of ten. Being, even for a racehorse, a bit of a nutcase, it took him about two years to calm down so that Philip could actually do anything useful with him, and even now, he still has his days when walking around is an impossibility.
When he’s on form, though, he a surprisingly good jumper, considering he raced for seven years, and though he’s never really had the patience for dressage (he considers going down the centre line a good place to show off his very extended canter, and likes leaping sideways over white boards) Philip keeps attempting to teach him it. He does have his insane moments, though, when he reverts back to his racing mindset, and won’t do anything except at a gallop.
He’s very sensitive – both when being ridden and in the stable – and it’s for this reason that Philip refuses to let others ride him (both for their safety and for his horse’s). Though he’s affectionate, and likes to hang over his stable door to see what’s going on, Philip prefers it if people refrain from petting or feeding him titbits, because he can sometimes take exception to them for no apparent reason.
Being a thin-blooded Thoroughbred, he spends very little time outside in the paddocks – usually only in the day, and never when it’s cold. He’s enough of a twit that if he spent too much time outside, he’d probably end up stuck in a fence, or something.
History: Bred as a flat racer, Savannah Win had a moderately successful career as a racehorse – coming first a few times, but never in big enough races to make himself famous – until he was retired with a dodgy fetlock when he was ten. Philip, who’d been in the market for a horse at the time, had taken a shine to the thoroughbred (still adoring the breed, no matter how many problems they’d caused him in the past) and had bought him, shortly afterwards discovering that he was a twit.
He has calmed down, somewhat, in the three years since then, so he does still have his days when Philip cannot get anything useful out of him, Doodle preferring to act like an idiot and spook at everything in sight, which can be very frustrating. Philip does love him, though, and is very proud of the progress he has made – he can actually hack the horse, now, which was more than he could do when he first got him!
Philip hopes to begin showing Doodle soon… and that’ll be a whole other kettle of fish to overcome!
Discipline: English style, no particular discipline. Philip jumps, dressages and hacks him (and would like to try some cross country at some point, too).
Owner/Rider: Philip Grey