Mi Kindred Spirit 2000 ½ Welsh ½ Suffield Mustang bay gelding

Bram came into being because a former student had a mustang mare that wasn’t working as a safe, polite mount for her mom. She loved my young stallion Mi Bare Essentials and wanted to try to make a magic cross. The mare, Komiya (whose name means “more than pretty”, because her spirit was beautiful, but wasn’t likely to win any halter classes), was sweet, very smart and very instinctual. I reluctantly agreed, stating if the foal looks like its mom, you can’t tell anyone who the stallion was. Bram arrived showing the best qualities of both parents! In the meantime the student had grown and progressed and wanted to progress in the showering. Would I consider both Komiya and Bram as a trade for a bigger, fancy potential showhorse? I reluctantly agreed.

As he grew up and began training, I realized he was smart, extremely talented, a bit complicated and had very strong opinions. One of his early issues was that he has a slightly shallow mouth and finding a bit he would tolerate was a challenge. And if he was to become a fancy showpony, he would have to conform to traditional tack. One of the students arrived with a new bit for her horse, a mullen Happy Mouth. The bits are soft polymer, apple flavored. My opinion was that anyone who used such frivolous tack, was very well trained by their horse. But to prove my point, I tried it on him. Thus began our relationship of training each other! And although I felt I had always listened to my horses, Bram gave me new perspectives, often times he was way more aware of everything than I was. And I the all knowing trainer/coach with a wee bit of ego, learned to listen and learn from a much wiser Spirit. In the early years, I was still preparing him to be sold to a show barn as by keeping him I was depriving a little girl somewhere of a very special pony.

One day we were moving cow/calf pairs out of the corrals to go onto cleaner pastures. Spring often creates a substance in the corrals that I will politely refer to as “mud/muck” After slogging through this knee deep slop for much too long, I decided to hop on Bram bareback, he could do a bit of slogging. One nasty mama cow decided to be overly protective of her calf, and had us cornered against a slab fence and came at us. Now I ‘m not sure if everyone has really slow, clear thoughts in moments like this, but I remember these ones (slightly modified for polite company) “Oh sh%t! I’m going to get both of us really hurt and its all my fault” “Cows are best on a plate” “Next time a helmet and a wetsuit might be a good idea” “he’s not panicking, good pony” “ holy crap you are a rockstar, thank you!”. All of these thoughts in a split second. Brams heart rate never increased, knowing we had no escape route, he calming rocked back on his hocks performing a perfect levade and “punched” the cow on her nose with his front hoof. This was not a trained skill! I decided at that moment that he would stay and that I was the little girl who deserved this great pony! He has since saved my life on numerous occasions, the ones I know about are cougar, wild boar, moose, coyotes, rogue deer flying through the bushesat us.

His skills range from jumping impressive couses both in the arena and cross country, dressage (he does find it less than inspirational), lesson pony for beginners and special needs riders (he does not love the level between beginner and advanced riders, often showing them that their skills aren’t quite up to his level. He is still (maybe more than when he was young) opinionated, and in his mind always right! And he can flush out incongruency in people, expert level! I have occasionally whispered “Alpo” under my breath when he has decided he doesn’t want to be caught, he has occasionally nipped the top of my hand during lessons he finds frustrating, and he has taught me so much about allowance! Bram is an amazing Kindred Spirit that shares so much without saying a word!