teddi: Size doesn't matter!

togster

So i think this has to be one of the best horsey stories in a long time.

Theodore O'Connor: A 14,2 and 3/4 h pony riden by Event Rider Karen O'Connor. He is the first pony since 1978 to compete at Lexington 4* event.

A 4* event is the highest class for an event horse. Take into account that Badminton is a 4* course (albeit imo a stronger course than Lexington this year) and that 17h horses often struggle with the size of these fences sometimes, i am amazed that a pony can put in the best cross-country round (again imo) at Lexington! He finished 6th over all and won double gold at the Pan Am games in Brazil! He has been named Horse of the year and Pony of the year!!!!:)

I think he is going to the Olympics this year too. Was chatting to a friend of mine (you know who you are!!) about him last night and i though i'd share him with you guys. Perhaps just what the sport needs now.


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Bendihorse

Theres no doubt about it but thats a special ponihorse there, an inspiration to all (and makes me think - maybe mandi isn't too small for the olympics after all LOL) :-P :-P :-P

I just LOVE his name too, its SO human Im definatly giving my next horse a surname!

napoles

He was third at Kentucky the previous year too. There are some great videos of him on Youtube. He's like a little bouncy ball! One of the cross country clears from this year's Badminton was Little Tiger - a mare who is only 15.0hh!!
Go ponies!!

doctor evil

Reminds me of Marion Coakes/Moulds mount Stoller

Stroller

13 February, 2008
He was the smallest — and among the greatest. He was a TV star whose fans wrote to ask for hairs from his tail.

Bought as a junior show jumping pony for a Hampshire farmer's daughter, Marion Coakes, the amazing Stroller's rise to international fame summed up every schoolgirl rider's dream.

Stroller was imported as a "job-lot" from Ireland by the Sussex dealer Tommy Grantham. The pony went to Ted Cripps, a butcher, for his daughter, Sally.

Mr Cripps soon realised that he owned a good jumping pony. At the end of the 1960 Horse of the Year Show, Ted sold the pony as an eight-year-old to Ralph Coakes, a shrewd horseman who farmed near New Milton, Hampshire, and trained his children to show jump superbly.

Marion followed her two elder brothers, John and Douglas, into the British junior show jumping team.

She was an outstanding natural rider — this proved to be the key to unlock Stroller's incredible abilities and they forged a fabulous partnership.

"When I came out of juniors at 16, Dad wanted to sell Stroller. It seemed the natural thing to graduate to horses, " Marion recalls. "Ann Moore tried him, and I pleaded with Dad not to sell him, but to let me start open jumping with him."

It became a show jumping sensation that a child's bay pony was soaring over big spreads, parallels, banks and ditches better than most of the world's great horses.

When she was 18 in 1965, Marion rode Stroller to triumph in the ladies' World Championship at Hickstead.

They beat formidable opposition in a gruelling three-day contest. That year, Marion and Stroller captured the Queen Elizabeth Cup at the Royal International, and won it again six years later.

Stroller, at just over 14.2hh, was of pony height, but in conformation and temperament he was a miniature, quality horse. He had immense courage and self-confidence.

Stroller's last puissance class was at the Antwerp show in 1967. He cleared the wall at 6ft 8in, and only put a brick out at 6ft 10in, to win jointly with Alwin Schockemöhle on Athlet, a great puissance specialist.

In his second season as a senior show jumper, Stroller helped Britain to win three Nations Cups, and the President's Cup, the World Championships for teams.

Stroller and Marion won the Hickstead Derby Trial in 1964, and nearly captured the Derby itself, finishing second to the great Seamus Hayes and Goodbye.

Three years later Stroller was the Derby victor: he was the only one out of 44 starters to achieve a clear round, keeping his feet in a stumble and slither down the big Bank.

Stroller was second in the Hickstead Derby in 1968, and third in 1970, that year achieving an astounding victory in Germany's formidable Hamburg Derby.

Marion recalled: "When we sailed over the last fence, having completed the only clear round of the day, the crowd of 25,000 went crazy. It was one of the most exciting moments of my life. We had completed the 50th clear round ever achieved on the course — and it was the first by a woman rider."

Stroller's greatest triumph, and near tragedy, was in the 1968 Mexico Olympics. There were altitude problems, but Stroller was also suffering a decayed and split upper tooth. It was decided to give him painkillers and steam inhalations rather than risk an extraction just before the contest.

Despite this, Stroller bravely jumped clear in the first round of the individual contest, and picked up eight faults in the second round over a huge course. America's Bill Steinkraus and Snowbound took the gold medal with four faults, and Marion won the silver medal. She was feted on her return to Britain and named Sportswoman of the Year.

Troubled by his bad tooth, in the Olympic team class Stroller put in the only refusal of his life, fell after a second refusal, and was eliminated on time.

The amazing pony recovered and was so consistent that he won the Wills Hickstead gold medal for points gained in major classes, consecutively, from 1967-69. He was leading show jumper of the year at the Horse of the Year Show in 1970, and won Hickstead's British Championship in 1971, 11 years after he appeared at the first Hickstead show in the Grasshopper Stakes, finishing sixth.

Retired in the 1970s, Stroller lived until the age of 36. He is remembered with great affection by generations of horsemen. The mass TV audience made an idol of a pony with an easy-to-remember name bearing no commercial pre-fix — one lesson British show jumping forgot.

johnny_g

wow... lookin at some videos on youtube now... would definately make you think twice before you write off a horse for being too small.... its probably not beyond the reach of a lot of ponies in ireland to be that good. the 148 grade A's are jumpin 140 anyway... who's to say with patience and the right training they couldnt go on to do the same... ok maybe im in dreamworld now but there's always hope!!!

Sugar Drunk

thats fantastic delighted to hear it! The pictures are amazing!

I can never understand why over here that once your 16 the SJAI wont let you ride ponies? Im smaller and lighter than a lot of 16 yr olds at 27. I ride a lot of 14.2hh ponies in riding club and we do great against the big horses. Most 14.2 will make a horse stride and damn are they fast in a jump off! it maddens me that to do sjai i would need something bigger

napoles

Sugar Drunk wrote: »

thats fantastic delighted to hear it! The pictures are amazing!

I can never understand why over here that once your 16 the SJAI wont let you ride ponies? Im smaller and lighter than a lot of 16 yr olds at 27.

I think there's your answer. I for one would hate to see kids forcing their too small ponies over the jumps just because they don't want to go get a horse when they've patently grown out of the pony. There are an awful lot of big heavy kids out there too..

togster

There are exceptions to every rule. teddi is one example and probably the best one in recent times. However MOST ponies simply would not be able to do what he does. I saw big horses in Lexingtone struggle and some failed to jump these huge fences.

The rule to change to horses is an attempt to limit accidents. Not fool proof by any stretch of the imagination but a good idea all the same imo.

napoles

Also, and I could stand corrected here.. but Riding Club max heights and spreads, even at the highest level would not be comparable to SJAI levels.

johnny_g

All above points are good... i do think a lot of ponies would be capable of doing it but the amounts of accidents would be terrible if it were allowed and accecpted as the norm... Ponies prob could make the height of a lot of the fences but the margins for error would be very small... if a rider missed a stride or made any mistake, there would be serious consequences... it would be the spreads, length of strides and endurance that would get them in the end... some of those ditches and drops would be very deep to fall into off a pony,! ... thats what makes teddy so special... his rider must have some confidence in him.... its amazing also as if u look at some of the videos you can see that he started off just like every other pony with a child riding him but they obviously saw his talent and kept putting the work in as adults...

Sugar Drunk

Napoles it works both ways you see. a lot of 15 and 16 year aold are very tall or very heavy to be riding ponies but they do so as they cannot ride horses until they are 16. By contrast a lot of petite adults like myself would have to ride horses to do sjai when a pony would fit us better.

riding club would not be anything like sjai as thankfully you can pick yourself what you want to compete at but I have seen ponies do brilliant at the inter and advanced inter.

The margin of error can be smaller but with a clever 14.2 its not always a problem. My own mares 14.3 and shes smart if a doubles long for example she can go one long or 2 short where as a large horse sometimes will not correct themselves as quickly. same with a jump off a pony will often turn sharper and quicker

Morafic

One from a few years back, Lobeke who is a little bigger at 15H beating all the warmbloods to win the Dutch National Title ridden by Chantal Megchelenbrink

napoles

Sugar Drunk wrote: »

Napoles it works both ways you see. a lot of 15 and 16 year aold are very tall or very heavy to be riding ponies but they do so as they cannot ride horses until they are 16. By contrast a lot of petite adults like myself would have to ride horses to do sjai when a pony would fit us better.

riding club would not be anything like sjai as thankfully you can pick yourself what you want to compete at but I have seen ponies do brilliant at the inter and advanced inter.

I understand where you're coming from, but there is still a huge difference between Inter and Advanced Inter in Riding Club and 1m 40s upwards in SJAI. If the rule preventing riders over 16 from riding ponies were abolished, it might end up with large riders attempting these classes on ponies that are too small for both them and the class. On another point there are also many petite riders riding very large horses and doing very well.
Also, and again, I may be wrong... but 14.3 is too big for pony SJAI classes anyway - so you could probably compete your pony in 90cms, 1m classes etc if you wanted to?

johnny_g

napoles wrote: »

Also, and again, I may be wrong... but 14.3 is too big for pony SJAI classes anyway - ?

Hahhahaha.... good observation...!! :-)

napoles

Sugar Drunk

whats the smirk for? yes shes 14.3 so I can compete her. I mostly do riding club on her but the odd bit of sjai.

Its the other ponies I ride that I cant compete as they are measured 14.2 or under. Thankfully I can still compete them at riding club

My point is that simply it would make more sense if there was a height and weight limit on jumping ponies rather than an age limit as some kids can be v tall or heavy.

togster

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> "wink" not smirk!!;)

napoles

Sugar Drunk wrote: »

whats the smirk for? yes shes 14.3 so I can compete her. I mostly do riding club on her but the odd bit of sjai.

Its the other ponies I ride that I cant compete as they are measured 14.2 or under. Thankfully I can still compete them at riding club

My point is that simply it would make more sense if there was a height and weight limit on jumping ponies rather than an age limit as some kids can be v tall or heavy.

My apologies. I didn't read your initial post properly, so thought you were only referring to competing your own pony.

I think it would be very hard to police a height and weight limit on riders though..

Sugar Drunk

sorry was having a bad day took the smiley the wrong way!;)

I know it would be really hard to police its just a pity. I love ponies especially the connemaras but can neither jump them in sjai as im too small or show them as im too old its v frustrating.

napoles

No worries. On an aside, you would be ok showing in Ridden Connemara classes though - no age limit on those!

Sugar Drunk

napoles wrote: »

No worries. On an aside, you would be ok showing in Ridden Connemara classes though - no age limit on those!

oh really? didnt know that! I thought it was 25 yrs age limit but actually thats IPS I am thinking of. Have you any idea where I would find details of classes? cheers

napoles

The new Connemara Performance class at the RDS is for riders 14 and over. The Clifden show holds a ridden class to be ridden by riders aged 21 and over. Other classes at local shows - check out the programmes.

There have also been some revisions to the 2008 Ridden Connemara classes;
Class 73 is now for Registered Connemara pony, mare or gelding, six years old or over. To be ridden by riders who have attained their 17th birthday on 1 January 2008.

togster

Teddi dies yesterday