I'm super thrilled with him, he can be quite a fire-type horse. He takes a bit of a different warmup -- which can be nerve-wracking -- where I can only stretch and then I get off, and I wait for 10 minutes before I get in the ring, and then I go in. Carolina has an atmosphere here, it's always pretty electric. I was super thrilled with him. It's his first four-star test -- he's done three-star for quite a while, so time to move up. I couldn't be happier with him, he's just gonna get better and better.
If you can tell me a little bit about his story of getting him, I know he came over like just about...
I'm so proud of him -- I might start crying a bit -- cause my past three-star horse that I had, Riot, died, he broke his neck in the field. My owners were nice enough that we got a group together and -- well actually, I found Kaz before we got the whole group together -- but thanks to my dad for kind of pushing me along, because that was really hard. But Kaz reminds me a lot of Riot. Sorry.
No I understand.
It was like two years ago, so you think I'd stop crying by now. Two or one, it was 2021 when he passed. Anyway, so I got Kaz. He had been produced by Saffron Cresswell over in England up to three-star, and I tried him and he reminded me a lot of Riot. A bit more fire than Riot though, and he's quite a bigger horse too, but he wants to go get it. Last year, it started off a little rocky, I think I came here for the three-star and we didn't have a qualifying score in the dressage because he kind of fell apart, and he's really horse shy so he scares everybody in the ring, so I have to be careful there. But then once I started to figure him out, finally by the fall and Maryland, everything kind of came into place and he finally clicked, and it takes about a year to really establish with your new horses anyways. Anytime you move up the horse to the advanced level, it's hard, but he's experienced. He's 13, he's had lots of years at three-star. He's a very special horse, I think he's super talented. He gives me so much confidence in the showjump -- he showjumped to 1.45m as a seven-year-old before Saffron got him for eventing, so he's just rock-solid there. He's very brave on cross country. If anything, sometimes steering and rideability is the hardest thing -- it's what I've worked on, which can play a part in dressage too. He's definitely a horse that if I can get him confident and quiet, he can be at the top. I always get teary-eyed about it, but it really is a special horse, so it's got a lot of meaning behind it.
And what about him kind of reminded you of Riot? The behavior?
Yeah, there's like a look in the eye. Riot would always do this begging thing, and Kaz is the same where he wants you to touch his chin, and they'll like, boop your boobs -- Riot did the same thing. And then it was a little bit the experience I found on Riot helped me with Kaz, because Riot was a big, strong horse, and on cross country he's a warmblood versus the thoroughbreds that I'm used to riding, and they give you this feeling like you're out of control, but you're not. So you try to wrangle them down and then you fight them more and they get mad. I found I had to trust Riot and let him go and he would do it, and it's kind of the same thing with Kaz. You have to just pick your battles where you want to like, 'Hey, we need to turn here actually,' but that feeling kind of out of control -- they're not, they just are so big and moving in every which way -- Riot really helped me to ride Kaz better. Also, the feeling in the jump, Riot gave me a lot of confidence in showjump too. He was an all-around horse and Kaz is just very similar. I'm very thankful that I've had the horses I've had, because it's allowed me to ride the tougher ones that are super talented, which they have to be to do this sport. It's funny how, even so, the longer we get to have Kaz the more he reminds me of Riot.
And what was he like when you tried him, when you saw for the first time? What kind of made you be like, 'Oh, this is one that I really like'?
Well, his jump -- he has a phenomenal jump, he's just super solid and he is a good mover. When he was over in England, he really didn't have much of a topline -- which I didn't know if that was him, but it's also a transition for the horses, when they come to America from the UK. So I just really worked hard on getting his body right, and he's built a lot of topline, he's gotten stronger. He looks like a different horse from when I got him in last year, so that's always fun, seeing the transformation of them a little bit in your programs and stuff. He seems to be coping well with the ground here and he's a very solid horse.
Like you said with the partnership, how's that kind of changed as the years gone on? I'm sure you've gotten to know each other.
I like to do a lot of bareback work. He could be a strong horse at times, but you can go and ride them in the halters when I do my gallop sometimes. Just building up on that partnership. I have to pick and choose when I really am like, 'Okay yeah, now,' or just let him be a little bit. He's definitely the horse that, on cross country, it's better just to take a straight line than the turn, you know what I mean? All of the horses I have -- I've got two other mares and him -- they all load together, they all lead out to the field together, you can drop them, groundtie them and do stuff. They get pretty relaxed with everything. It's nice because I don't have to worry about him at all.
And what's his personality like in the barn?
He's a lover, he's a good boy. He just loves to have cuddles -- because I think over in England they called him Cass. I think that was short for, the other girl who had him called him Casanova, but us being American, you can't say 'Coss' so we called him Cas. We kind of call him Caz, or Casserole. He's just a very happy guy, he's very easy in the barn. He likes to talk to his girls, so that can be a little annoying, but besides that, he's a very, very good horse. Very chill, very easy to handle all the time. He's an interesting character for sure. He's a double-whorler, so he's got his two sides -- he's got his chill side and he has his performing side. It makes sense.
I love that. All right. Well, thank you, it was great to watch you ride him.