Bought Him Because He Had A Cute Face

She purchased the dark bay eight-year-old because "he had a cute pony face and was quiet," said Dean. "I got him two years ago from Steve Giddons who sold David O'Connor Lightfoot."

"I don't know who he is by or out of, but I think he actually is part Connemara," she said. Dean knew her horse had followed the hounds in his homeland and perhaps even done some showing.

Ironically when she got him, the Round Hill woman said she thought "he didn't have the gas" to go far. And he could "barely make a 20-meter circle at a canter" at that time. She did some preliminaries with him and took him to Bromont (Canada) last year where he was 20th, but since she intended to sell him, she didn't put a lot of time in on him last winter.

However, her coach, Phillip Dutton, saw him with her at Aiken last spring and "told me he had scope. Now he is a lot more horse than I thought." The more she has done with him since, she found "he definitely is a lot more than I thought he was. I think he has proven he is ready to go advanced," said Dean.