United States Eventing Association

Learning the Ropes Together

Have you heard the old saying that green and green make black and blue? Sarah Bratton hadn’t when she decided to buy a green pony to be her first event horse.

Although Sarah was in Pony Club, she had never evented before when she decided to buy five-year-old, Aztec Gold. Sarah found Aztec through her instructor who knew someone who owned him. She went to try him out at Frying Pan Park and decided right then to buy him.

No one is quite sure of Aztec’s breeding, when Sarah first saw him she thought that he might be some sort of Welsh cross, but as he has become fitter over the years she now thinks he is a Connemara cross. Aztec’s past is as much a mystery as his breeding. “I think that he might have been an Amish cart pony,” Sarah said. “I definitely don’t think he would have made a very good Amish cart pony though!”

Sarah says that Aztec definitely has some interesting quirks, for example he has no idea that he has been gelded and can be quite studly. He is also extremely neat in his stall, always poops in the same corner, and would rather be taken on a walk to do “his business” rather than mess up his stall.

“Whenever I take Aztec to events, I get asked what is he? and is he for sale?” Sarah laughs. “Also, no one ever believes me that he is only 14.1 and ¾ - people always think he is bigger.”

Sarah has been eventing Aztec for the last four years and although they have successfully moved up the ranks to Preliminary, their start together was a little rocky. Sarah entered Aztec at the Novice level at the MCTA Horse Trials for their first event. “It was a miracle we even completed,” Sarah said. “Neither of us had ever been on a cross-country course before. Aztec stopped at the first log, but then got rolling so we managed to finish with only two stops. All sorts of people came up to us and told me that I needed to find a trainer!”

After dropping back down to Beginner Novice for their next event, Aztec and Sarah got into a groove. “We learned together throughout the years,” Sarah said. Last October, Sarah competed at the Training Level Three-day Event at the Waredaca Horse Trials. She described the experience as “awesome”, and is hoping to go back this year to volunteer. “It was just such a unique event. I got to know everyone stabled around me, and we really looked after each other such as making sure all the horses always had full water buckets. At the end of the weekend we all exchanged numbers and have kept in touch,” Sarah explained.

Sarah hopes to take Aztec to a CCI* in the near future, but she doesn’t want to push him. When he is ready, she will take him. For now the pair is aiming at the Area II Championships and the AEC in 2010. After all, Aztec is only nine and Sarah is only 18 years-old so they have plenty of time to make their dreams come true.