The perfect foal
February 2006
by JANET JONES
For as long as both of us can remember, my friend Jennifer Johnston and I have had a passion for horses; between us have had the privilege of owning and riding some wonderful animals – and some not so wonderful.
Jennifer, who lives at Hatton with husband Sam and their two children, Calum and Rebecca, is a tutor in equine studies and holds the British Horse Society Intermediate Instructor’s qualification. She events to advanced level and was top Scot out of 145 competitors with her horse Craigmancie April at Burgie 2-star International Event last year.
One evening a few years ago we were, as usual, talking horses. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to find the perfect foal and see how far we could take him in the world of dressage. We wouldn’t be able to blame anyone else for riding or training him badly. It would be up to us.” A lovely fantasy after a glass or two of wine.
I should point out that several years ago, after a lifetime of riding horses, I contracted a rare neurological condition. This has put paid to any equestrian ambitions so, even if I were to find ‘the perfect horse’, I wouldn’t be able to ride him.
But back to the dream. Some months after our conversation, Jennifer was asked by a friend to help her find a foal bred for dressage. They toured numerous studs, both in Britain and on the Continent, with Jennifer taking videos of all the mares and foals. No one foal caught her friend’s eye so they returned empty handed. I was interested to see the videos, so one evening we sat down to watch a seemingly endless progression of mares and foals and more mares and foals. After about 50, I began to glaze over.
Then quite suddenly ‘the perfect foal’ – at least to my eyes – appeared on the screen. Jennifer didn’t react. I saw a six-week-old black colt dancing around his mother, saying, “Look at me. Look at me. I am everything you’ve ever dreamed of.” He moved with such elegance, it took my breath away.
More mares and foals followed, but I was no longer interested. The video ended and Jennifer asked me what I thought of it. When I told her I’d seen the perfect foal she knew at once which one I meant. She, too, had picked out the little black colt as being very special, but hadn’t wanted to influence me.
We were hooked. We agreed that if I bought him, Jennifer would ride him and, as joint owner, I could be part of the action, albeit from the sidelines. An equine groupie.
So in October 2000 a very tired, leggy youngster teetered down the lorry ramp. This was the beginning of the dream. We decided to call him Donnergott, meaning God of Thunder. His father was Donnersohn, the son of Olympic gold medalist Donnerhall. At home, though, he’d be known as Ferdi.
Ferdi spent the next three years learning basic good manners, such as how to walk quietly beside a handler and how to stand tied up while the farrier trimmed his feet. We taught him how to go into a lorry and took him to local horse shows to get him used to noise and crowds. For the rest of the time, he played with the other horses or slept for hours in his stable. Even today, Ferdi’s idea of heaven is to sleep undisturbed for hours in a bed of deep straw.
It wasn’t all plain sailing, though, and as any horse owner will tell you, nothing ever goes quite to plan. We nearly lost him twice; once when the operation to geld him went very wrong and again when a nail penetrated one of his hooves. But he recovered well from both potential tragedies and by his third birthday was a very handsome animal.
In 2003, almost by chance, we heard of a competition called loose jumping aimed at three-year-olds. Ferdi wasn’t going to be ridden until the following year and it sounded as if it might be something he’d enjoy doing. Each horse is guided several times up a line of three jumps, the last of which is raised after each attempt. There is no rider and most horses seem to enjoy the experience. They are marked on the way they tackle the jumps, their attitude and style.
Much to our delight and surprise, Ferdi won the competition by a wide margin and so qualified for the British Loose Jumping Championships which that year were being held at Gleneagles. We were warned that the competition would be fierce, as there were competitors from all over Britain and Northern Ireland, but we decided to go anyway. And Ferdi won! We came home with a cup and a cheque for £1000. We were so proud of him – had we got a show jumper and not a dressage horse?
Towards the end of that year, Jennifer started to ride Ferdi and began the slow process of teaching him to understand her commands. He is a very big, powerful animal with an extravagant action, so there were times when it took every ounce of Jennifer’s skill and patience to persuade him to trot quietly round an arena and not explode into a rodeo horse. I would watch these training sessions mesmerised by the sheer beauty of his movement.
We thought he was special; whether he would measure up in the outside world was another matter altogether. Every rider at any level needs help from an experienced instructor and we were lucky to find Jane Bartle-Wilson who competed for Britain in the 1984 Olympic Dressage team. Jane liked our special horse and the training sessions with her were invaluable.
Towards the end of 2004, it was time to try Ferdi in a few local competitions. Much to our delight, he did well and progressed quickly to competing in qualifying classes for events further afield.
In January 2005 we took him to the Winter Scottish Regional Finals at Gleneagles where he won one class and was third in the second class. We were ecstatic! He had not been upset by the noise, people, or flowers around the arena; he had tried his heart out and beaten some very good horses.
In July 2005, he won at the Scottish Regional Championships and qualified for the National Dressage Finals at Stoneleigh in Warwickshire. We were happy just at his being able to compete against the best in Britain; when he came third in a class of 36 of the top professional dressage riders our faces were sore for days afterwards – we just couldn’t stop smiling.
Ferdi is only five and has a lot of maturing still to do. It will take many more years of training before he can compete at the highest levels, and that can’t be rushed. In the meantime, he does some show jumping for fun, hacks out with his friends in the local woods and continues to give both Jennifer and me a huge amount of pleasure.
So far the dream has come true. Perhaps one day he’ll get to the very top.JANET JONES is a graduate MA(Hons) in Scandinavian Studies from Aberdeen University and spent several years working in Denmark and Germany before returning to Aberdeen to teach. She writes books of local interest and lives in Foveran near Newburgh with her husband, two Burmese cats and three elderly ponies.
This is an article from the February 2006 edition of Leopard Magazine. To read much more like this every month, see our subscription details.