I’d like you to meet Sophia, my new Arabian filly. Yes, it’s time for another project and I chose Sophia to partner me as I start out in two new disciplines, Cowboy Dressage and Liberty. Sophia has the personality I was looking for, a combination of blue and gray (see our articles on What Color Is Your Horse, Really? for more information on the personality types). Like a typical blue, she likes to be connected and she is always checking to see where I am, as you can tell from the pictures. :)
She is bred to move like a western horse and she does. Her mama was a Scottsdale reining champion and her daddy is a System A western pleasure champion. Neither her dam nor sire is over 14.3 hands, so if she gets bigger than that I’m going to be upset! I’m tired of throwing my saddle up over my head on these tall horses! As many gray personalities, Sophia handles new things with a lot of grace. She had never been in a trailer before I went to pick her up and it took me about 10 minutes to teach her to lead properly and then another 10 minutes to put her in and out of the trailer three times before we left. Once you show her, she is pretty willing. So far, we’ve done general groundwork and she leads without a halter, has been saddled and ponied with another horse, and is good with things like spray bottles and being sacked out. We are progressing to more specific work on lunging, maneuvers, showmanship, and basic liberty. I look forward to having Sophia out and about in 2015 and hope to introduce all of you to her in person!