Sagacious HF

Our Story

It all started in April 2018 at the Adequan® Global Dressage Festival. I was with Al Guden and his wife, Andrea Nason, and they asked if I would like to come to their barn and ride Sagacious with Petra Hoffman, their coach. I was previously a working student for Andrea’s daughter, Caroline Roffman, and she suggested to Al that I would be a good match with Sagacious. After seeing how well we paired and Petra offering her praises – my boldness in trying a line of one-tempis one-handed gave everyone a good chuckle – Al offered me the ride, and our journey began.

Sagacious and I had an interesting relationship at first.. For me it was my first sponsored horse and for him it was his first young rider. I have always been the rider that wants to do everything for their horses from their stall to feeding and everything in between. Sagacious on the other hand for sure thought that I was only going to ride him. So having him adjust to me being both his personal servant and the boss in the ring definitely confused him at first. I mean this by Sagacious didn't like to "bond". He had done the same thing all his life, sleep, eat, work, eat and repeat. Now he's doing sleep, eat, scratches, snack, work, snack, massage, scratches, eat, sleep, cuddle repeat and it took some adjusting... I think learning to let me hug him without running away was the hardest!

Over time, Sagacious became my rock, my best friend and my partner. After one year together our partnership was finally turning a corner. He started to help me vs. fight me when riding and actually accepted my hugs. We became one. I thought it he did it, he thought it - I knew what it was. We went from having difficulties making simple trot walk transitions to being able to run through a Grand Prix test in a snaffle with out a step of difficulty. Most thought my methods with him were counter productive, When all he ever wanted was someone to listen. Someone to understand that he felt stiff that day and just wanted to go for a walk or that he felt amazing and just wanted to run through our freestyle. Sagacious was the horse that taught me the most, not because he did the Grand Prix but because he taught me to listen. To have the ability to know how he was feeling and to put his physical feeling over my personal goals. Now some will say that you shouldn't listen to what your horse wants but I think if you've developed enough of a relationship you should know why they want that. He never said "I don't want to" because he didn't want to try he said "I don't want to" because he was tired, sore or just bored. I believe me listening to him at home was the main reason we had a succesful relationship in the ring. He trusted me and I trusted him. We listened to eachother and it worked.

Sagacious retired only a few days after our only Grand Prix together. We didn't know it would be our last but after a talk with his owner about how he was feeling and about what was best for him we decided that it was time for him to retire from competitions. After that they decided to lease him out to an adult amateur who would ride him for her enjoyment. I know that he is living a great life but I do miss him dearly every day. A piece of me is missing without him but I know that he is enjoying life of a retired old man.

Information

Scores and Video Links

11/10/19 Gold Coast Dressage

FEI U25 Grand Prix : 67.1% 3rd

Judges: Thomas Poulin

Sagacious HF

1999 Dutch Warmblood Owned by Al Guden of Hyperion Farms

Our Story

Information

Scores and Video Links

Scores and Video Links

Events

Articles