Post by sepia on Jun 24, 2010 3:01:04 GMT -6
Show Name: Acorn Heart
Barn Name: Acorn
Age: 14
Gender: Gelding
Color: Dark bay, with one white sock on the right hind, and a star situated very neatly in the centre of Acorn's forehead. Also has a freeze-mark on his left shoulder, and a scar on the back of his left hind from when he fell into a ditch several years ago.
Breed: Connemara
Height: 13hh
Personality: Acorn is, in almost all senses of the word, a school-master. He is very sensible, taking in everything with a calm eye, and teaching his rider a great deal. His previous owners did a lot with him – show-jumping, dressage, gymkhanas, even a bit of cross-country – so it’s unlikely that most things thrown at him will worry him. He’s likely to take a good look at it, and get on with the job with the minimum of fuss.
Like all ponies, he's got a cheeky sense of humour to him, and being experienced, he knows what he can get away with - though normally he's the perfect gentleman, he sometimes does decide to teach Jess a little lesson, and acts up a bit, messing around and being stubborn. Usually, though, he's brilliant, and very neat in his way of going, be he jumping, or hacking.
Though very gentlemanly in the stable, he is a trifle head-shy, especially if people start waving their hands around near his ears, so he’s rather a pain to plait. He can also be a bit of a brat about getting fed on time, and will fuss if his feed isn’t presented in the way he feels is correct (he refuses to eat hay unless it’s in a haynet, and requires that his food be placed on the left side of his stable door). Other than that, you can groom him for hours, load and unload his from horseboxes and spend ages playing with tail bandages, and he’ll just paste on his long suffering expression and go along with it. Actually, he adores being fussed over, and has Jess wrapped around his metaphorical little finger.
In this sense, he’s perfect as a first horse.
History: Born an a Connemara breeding farm in Cornwall, Acorn was introduced to humans at an early age, and has been handled almost since the day he was born. Trained very gently, he's never been abused in his life, and so has a very sweet temperament,
His owner before Jessica's family was an enthusiastic boy who did everything with Acorn, and adored him. The pair worked together for five years, until he grew out of the pony and Acorn had to be sadly sold on, which is when Jess appeared on the scene.
Before Jess and Acorn moved to Blue Ridge, they had been riding together for about three months, taught by Jess' old instructor, so they are still a fairly new combination. Jess has utterly fallen in love with the Connemara, though, and Acorn in return is fond of Jess, and very good to her.
Discipline: English riding, any discipline – a real schoolmaster!
Owner/Rider: Jessica Brown