by caf. » Thu Oct 20, 2016 1:00 pm
Username: overcaffienated.
Barn: Cavallo Combined Training
Registered name: N/A
Show name: The Flip Side
Call name: Switch
Gender: Stallion
Age: 8 yrs.
Height: 16.0hh
Breed: Criollo
Discipline: Barrel Racing
Stud fee: 805c
History:
Lazy autumn mornings in Texas always end up being the most unsatisfying ones of the year. It’s too hot out to be considered fall weather, too cool to be summer, too heavy to be considered anything but unpleasant. As well, despite being out of school for several there was no sleep to be had; my computer literally never stopped dinging with notification after notification after notification. There were horses to be bred, competitions to be run, barns to be built, and oh, a shipment of horses coming to our farm for trial. Exciting.
Romero and I met at an eventing clinic a little less than four years ago. At the time I was still in a riding academy, riding a thoroughbred gelding I co-owned with my trainer. I was a high school senior; Romero was about three years older. He was level-headed and focused; I was sarcastic and strong-willed. In short, we disliked each other at first glance - and at every glance afterward. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the gelding, however, and approached me after the first lesson, asking if he was mine and if he was for sale. We conversed for quite some time, exchanging emails in a businesslike manner before going our separate ways. It turned out Romero hailed from Brazil; he’d shipped all this was for the clinic and now wanted to ship my gelding all the way down to him.
In the end, we ended up exchanging horses; my thoroughbred for his warmblood mare. The gelding died of colic complications about a month after his arrival; the mare served me well for a few years before I sold her into Ocala for extra funding to build our new barn. I figured after the first few weeks we’d stop talking.
And yet we didn’t. He continued to update me on event shows in Brazil, asking how things were up here and whether we saw any cool horses for sale. Eventually we developed what could be considered a very tenuous friendship. We spoke on a weekly basis; my mother still jokes that he’s to date the only person who willingly puts up with me.
Still, it was surprising that he’d message me now, especially so early in the morning. It quickly became clear why, however; apparently Romero was flying up to the US and had chosen to stop by in Texas before flying to Ocala, Florida*. He had a horse he was wondering if I wanted to buy, evidently. I opened up his portfolio.
The colt was a Criollo, born in Argentina. He’d been somewhat of an accident; his father was a teaser stallion and his mother an event mare. Evidently the breeders had intended to breed the mare to a champion jumper stallion, but the intern was careless and the foal was conceived before the champion ever encountered his intended mate. The only way they pieced together what had happened? The mare came out of heat early and refused the breeding, but turned out pregnant anyway.
The foal was sold promptly by the disappointed owners as soon as he was weaned; Romero picked him up at an auction, hoping for a cheap flip. Switch, however, quickly made himself known as an eventing powerhouse. Despite his stocky body type he was a powerful jumper and a surprisingly talented dressage horse; nothing overly flashy but definitely of good quality. He competed from ages 4-8 in horse trials, namely at the novice level. He was known to have never placed worse than fourth except for a single elimination when he was very young. It looked like he’d be a fine mount for Romero and a good partner for his other horse, the daughter of the mare he’d originally sold to me.
For whatever reason, one day while loading for a normal schooling Switch spooked and reared up, losing his balance and falling over backwards. It was reported that the stallion hit his head first due to the way he twisted his neck, as well as cracking his withers against the gravel. He was rushed to the veterinarian promptly and found to have some brain trauma as well as minor broken withers. Fortunately, his injuries did not impede his career, and with a few months of recovery he was back in work.
However, within weeks of the accident barn hands began to notice the horse randomly collapsing in his stall and while being bathed. At first the veterinarian diagnosed seizures due to the sudden nature of the episodes, but later on it was revealed that the stallion had developed equine narcolepsy** as a result of the trauma to his brain.
Romero and his team worked carefully to ensure all precautions were taken for the stallion’s safety - padded stalls and trailers, deep bedding, and the use of a whip to keep the horse alert and focused. Romero entered the criollo in one horse trial at the beginner novice level in hopes that he would perform as normal. Switch collapsed in the dressage ring at the free walk. He hadn’t evented since.
I read through his records and found that his scores were not just good; they were stellar. Romero had presented an interesting prospect; a stallion that could pass on his great skill set. However, he had also noted that he’d schooled the stallion in cross-country and experimented in barrels and noted that he’d had no problems; at the higher gaits, The Flip Side was a perfectly normal horse. In short, he had for me a horse that could run, but couldn’t walk.
My mother and I discussed the prospect long into the night. It’d take quite some thinking to ensure the stallion’s safety, but the long and short of it was that he could potentially bring us great revenue if we advertised him correctly. Sure, leasing him would be next to impossible, but his breeding potential and his potential to compete in localized cross-country and perhaps western speed events was great. In the end, Judy decided to see the horse herself before we made a decision.
Romero arrived two weeks later. Apparently he’d sent his other two horses straight to Florida; the only animal in his trailer was the bulky criollo. The stallion had big, friendly eyes and an open expression. While my mother was completely enraptured with his gaze, though, I was more focused on his musculature. The horse looked like he could run through a wall; he had big, powerful hindquarters and surprisingly long legs for his breed. I could tell why they’d kept him in eventing; eventing stockhorses weren’t common, but he was the epitome of what one should look like.
Of course, my mother was still wary of him. The roughened skin on his knees betrayed his cataplectic*** episodes. Romero must’ve seen this in her eyes because he handed the stud’s lead rope to me and disappeared into his rented trailer. He returned dragging a series of thick rubber mats, clearly made to hang on the walls of a stall.
“Don’t bother buying them yourself,” he said. “I don’t need them.”
My mother looked at me and I looked at her. Sighing, she retrieved her checkbook.
One of these days I’ll saddle the big guy and take him for a ride, but she won’t let anyone back him until our beloved vet checks him out. In the meantime, it looks like I need to buy a new set of Cavallo cross country tack.
Kasey Cavallo
*Ocala, Florida - the USA’s eventing capitol - one of the prime places to purchase event horses
**Narcolepsy - a sleep disorder present in most mammals that results in random episodes of REM sleep. In horses it tends to manifest in cataplectic episodes, usually only present in the lower gaits (walk/trot).
***Cataplexy - partial or total loss of somatic muscle function; autonomic muscles such as the heart and lungs continue functioning as usual.
Last edited by
caf. on Sat Oct 22, 2016 8:02 am, edited 2 times in total.
caf - they/them - bi
equestrian - vocalist - student
mostly i hang around here for
RVEC nowadays, though i
roleplay on occasion. chat
with me about horses, music,
math, science, or...anything!
