TALENTED, YOUNG, WELL SEASONED AND VERSATILE.

YOUR NEXT EVENTER???

2019 / 16.1hh / Warmblood / Mare

Sire: Drumming R (De Niro x Totilas)
Dam: Woodbury Fisher's Lady (Fisherman's Friend x Gymnastik Star)

AWHA registered with papers / EA registered / Mare Studbook for ACE
ACE Assessed Elite as a 3yo – 81.75%
Schooling Elementary / Tinkering with Medium level plus working canter pirouettes
Official EA dressage scores to 70% | Multiple eventing starts | Proven double clear EVA65
Eventing dressage to 68.13% | Schooling 80–95cm & has jumped 1* fences
Fit, in full work & maintained on a varied training schedule
Extensive recent radiographs & full veterinary history available
Extensive Google Drive folder with more photos, videos, registration and xrays
One owner her entire life - Bred, broken in and campaigned by same person

Aspen is my beloved homebred mare. I bred her, started her and have produced her myself, so her complete handling, training, competition and veterinary history is known from birth. Since being broken in, she has spent the past 3½ years as my primary riding horse, professionally produced and campaigned by me as an FEI Grand Prix dressage rider with every intention that she would become my next Grand Prix horse.

This was never a horse produced for sale.

Serious Dressage Education Under the Bonnet

Aspen is currently schooling Elementary / Beginning Medium level, including shoulder-in, travers, half pass and walk pirouettes, with working canter pirouettes. Simple changes are established and straightforward. Flying changes are being developed and are sometimes clean at this early stage, even on the flat.

She is genuinely through and laterally elastic, works correctly from back to front into a lovely soft snaffle contact, and is light and responsive enough that I can ride her without spurs. She has a wonderful ability to "accordion" her body, shortening and lengthening with ease while remaining balanced and powerful.

She has three genuinely excellent quality paces, highlighted by an exceptional walk and naturally uphill canter. She is one of the relatively few horses capable of genuinely attracting an 8 for both Medium Walk and Free Walk in competition.

Aspen's education has been meticulous and progressive because she was produced as my own performance horse. The intention was always to take her through the levels myself. For an event rider, that means the hard yards of developing the flatwork foundation are already there: balance, adjustability, lateral suppleness, connection, responsiveness and body control.

A Serious Competition Record Too

Since beginning her competition career in 2023, Aspen has regularly competed dressage every 4–6 weeks, predominantly at Official EA competitions throughout Central Victoria and typically completing four tests per event. She has achieved Official EA scores to 70% and was awarded the Victorian Dressage Club Michael Lee Trophy Commemorative Award for the 2024–2025 season.

Her competition career has taken her to virtually every EA dressage venue throughout Central Victoria. Beyond competition she has attended countless clinics, protocol days, lessons, indoor and outdoor arenas, water walker sessions, trail rides, desensitisation days and general adventures. Loading up, travelling somewhere new, doing her job and coming home again is simply normal life to Aspen.

Aspen has been systematically exposed to the world from the beginning. As a 3yo at the Dressage Festival, she walked into the Christmas decorated indoor and promptly tried to eat the nearest Christmas tree. As a 4yo, she happily continued a dressage lesson while dodging a flock of sheep that repeatedly wandered into the arena. She was also taught to hobble as a youngster, a lesson that later paid off when she caught her rug on a fence and simply waited for help rather than panicking.


Over the years she has confidently tackled water, tarps, tyres, rocker bridges, ditches, pool noodle walls, bunting, umbrellas, flags, heavy machinery and all manner of deliberately strange things.

Then I Got Pregnant...

Aspen remained my main riding horse throughout my pregnancy. I competed her myself at 20 weeks pregnant and continued riding her until 22 weeks. When I could no longer fit into my jodhpurs, I handed her to Christina Hunter to explore eventing. The idea was fairly simple: keep my horse in work, give her some variety and let Christina see what she thought of jumping her.

Apparently I Accidentally Bred an Eventer (oops)

So, it turns out, Aspen loves eventing.

Christina added jumping lessons and clinics, XC schooling, trail and road riding and eventing competition to Aspen's already extensive education. She now has multiple eventing starts, including two EVA65 horse trials.

At her most recent horse trials she produced a 68.13% dressage test (in a jump saddle, mind you) before jumping double clear. Without the XC time penalties, she would have remained on her dressage score and finished 2nd.

She is currently schooling 80–95cm at home and has already popped a handful of 1* fences with ease

She is bold and genuine to a fence and confidently tackles fills, banks, ditches, water, brush and genuine XC questions. There appears to be no shortage of scope, and her technique and carefulness continue to develop with every jump school.

XC in particular seems to make complete sense to her. She is powerful yet controllable, forward thinking and incredibly willing, with an enormous work ethic. She can seemingly go all day and still ask what's next. Her broader education has continued alongside the eventing. She has been out on road and trail rides around cars, cyclists, kangaroos and swooping magpies, ridden bareback on trails, worked in unfamiliar indoor arenas and jumped spooky fences at night.

Aspen has shown herself to be wonderfully consistent away from home. She can be taken somewhere completely new, unloaded, saddled and simply get on with the job. She is comfortable in busy warm ups, around horses jumping beside her or cantering up behind her, and after doing her job can come back and stand quietly on a loose rein.

The really exciting part is watching 3½ years of professional dressage production translate into an event horse. She already has the balance, adjustability, body control, lateral suppleness and competition mileage underneath her. Now we're discovering she also has the bravery, stamina, scope and genuine desire to get out there and do the job.

Aspen continues to be entered and campaigned by Christina, with further outings planned. Interested purchasers are very welcome to come and watch her at her next competition and see her doing the job for themselves.

She is currently fit and in full work on a genuinely varied weekly schedule, combining dressage, jumping, fitness work, trail and road riding and regular outings.

Extremely Easy to Own

For all the horsepower under the bonnet, Aspen is an exceptionally sweet and uncomplicated horse on the ground.

She is easy to catch, rug, clip, trim and generally do anything with. She is pleasant and affectionate to handle, has been ridden bareback, has both ponied other horses and been ponied herself, and happily slots back into work after a break, without a lunge. Never cold backed, no funny business!

She has been barefoot her entire life, with exceptionally hardy feet. She has never required shoes and comfortably works across a variety of surfaces, including rocky ground straight after a trim.

Her teeth, feet and worming are completely up to date.

She loves people, loves a good cuddle and has a ridiculous soft spot for babies, both human and horse. Given half a chance, Aspen will happily appoint herself nanny to somebody else's child.

World's best self loader! If you fell over on the tailboard, I'm fairly confident she'd climb over your dead body because there is a float to get into and apparently nothing should stand between Aspen and her transport. Forget the halter! Just open the back and get out the way! She is a confident and secure traveller and exceptionally easy for one person to load and unload and take out alone.

So Why Am I Selling Her?

This has taken me quite a long time to accept.

Aspen on paper is the dream dressage horse. The pedigree and movement really suggests she was supposed to be my next Grand Prix horse. But watching her discover jumping and eventing has made something rather obvious:

she absolutely loves having a bigger job to do.

This horse was born to event and conquer big fences and 4WD terrain. The weirder the better.


The problem is that I'm a professional FEI dressage rider with absolutely no desire to jump tall buildings in a single leap.

Having a young baby certainly hasn't made me any more likely to suddenly reinvent myself as an event rider, (IYKYK) but the reality is that eventing is Aspen's adventure, not mine.

Christina taking her eventing has allowed me to see another side of a horse I thought I knew inside out. And when your homebred horse starts showing you that she may be exceptionally well suited to something you have absolutely no intention of doing yourself, I think you owe it to them to listen.

So, with an extremely heavy heart, I am offering my main riding horse for sale.

I genuinely never thought I would.

The Home Matters

Whilst she is fairly uncomplicated to ride, Aspen is a sharp, powerful and forward thinking athlete with a serious engine, and huge, powerful paces, particularly the canter, and she is at her best with a rider who appreciates those qualities and wants to use them. For an ambitious rider looking for a serious partner, I think she is an incredibly exciting prospect. She has the power, athleticism and sensitivity of a genuine performance horse, backed up by years of professional education, extensive competition mileage and a work ethic that makes her want to get on with the job.

I would particularly love to see her with a bold and talented Junior or Young Rider looking for their once in a lifetime partner to develop through the grades. With her temperament, mileage and serious flatwork education, I think she could make a ripper Interschools mount.

She could equally suit an ambitious, competent adult or professional wanting a horse with genuine ability and the foundations already underneath her.

She isn't being sold as everyone's horse. She's being sold as a serious horse for someone with serious ambitions.

She has been loved and cherished from the moment she was born, and finding somebody who will continue to love her that way matters enormously to me.

Veterinary

Aspen has an extensive recent set of radiographs available, including neck, back, hocks, fetlocks and hooves.

She is currently fit, sound and in full work, training across a varied weekly schedule and continuing to be actively campaigned and competed.


No windsuck, weave, fence walk, post chewing, separation anxiety. No kick, bite, not girthy, not marey....Coolest kid on the ground in every way.

If you're looking for something talented yet sane, experienced without being ancient, educated without being fried, with three excellent paces, years of professional production, enormous competition mileage, a proven double clear, a huge heart and enough engine to genuinely take you somewhere...

This is your mare.