Looking for your best friend? Look no further. With a little more maturing and steady training, he'll be a horse you can do anything with.
Captain is a kind gentle horse. He enjoys coming in to be loved on. He puts up with a lot of chaos at the barn, whether it's a 2 year old constantly underfoot, a newborn cow, children riding dirt bikes, cows being milked, a newborn baby screaming, you name it. Speaking of a newborn, Captain is so kind that whenever my newborn cries, he goes over and checks on him. It is very sweet.
Captain is green in his arena work. He is boarded at a cow farm, and we made do with what we had available. Captain has shown some days he is very brave and some days he will completely forget that we walked over that pole yesterday. He is mostly ridden in an open field. He doesn't try to run off, he isn't buddy sour. He has hacked down the road, passed cars, tractors, and people walking their dogs. He has hacked off property for a trail ride and to hack around while another horse schooled XC.
I do think Captain would work for an adult amateur, aka someone like me. I have 2 children; I show up and get done what I can. He loves me and appreciates any time we get together. He has shown that he prefers to be ridden dressage. Maybe it's just me being unbalanced after kids, but he definitely has gone better in the dressage saddle. He has shown he can jump, but he has not figured it out under saddle, mostly due to me not actually working him on it. He has seen some XC jumps but only would go over following a friend. We have jumped a couple cross rails in an arena but nothing serious. I do think he could be a cute little BN horse, my friend thinks he'd be a cute hunter or dressage horse. Honestly, I think he'll do whatever you decide; it could be different every week.
I do think down the road Captain would make a lovely lesson horse. He is so gentle with my children. 3 other children live where I keep him, and he has always just let them come up and brush him, etc. One time the girl and her friend just randomly started teaching him to bow and he was just like okay cool. I rode him a little while pregnant and never felt unsafe on him.
Captain is only available due to 2 kids being too much for me since I do not have a village that supports my riding. I would love to develop this horse but he deserves someone with more time available.
Captain's Skill Set
- Hauls quietly but does take about 5 minutes of convincing to get on
- Ties, trailer/tree
- Cross ties
- Stands for farrier (barefoot); farrier uses sander type equipment instead of nippers
- Stands for vet and injections
- Bathes without fuss
- Accepts fly spray
- Ground ties, I 90% ground tie him. He comes in, I drop his lead and usually have to go attend to children. I wouldn't say he is 100% a ground tyer because there has been a random here or there he decides he's just walking outside to graze.
- Calm around children newborn and up
- Calm around dogs
- Accepts tarps, pool noodles, flags
- Accepts blindfold, walking
- Calm in new environments
- Hacks alone and in company
- Crosses water with a little convincing
- Traffic and road safe
- Basic walk, trot, canter both directions
- Trail obstacles including bridges
- Bridleless walk and trot — in progress
- Liberty recall
- Leads quietly in hand
- Steps on and off platform
- Drags objects on ground