Member Article - All roads lead to Kentucky!

When our daughters later decided show jumping was more exciting than flatwork the search for a new horse began and we found a handsome Holsteiner we called Flynn, who is still with our youngest daughter and is an amazing eventing horse. Part of his education was to take him out every weekend to distance rides all around the east of England. During the hours we spent waiting for our daughter to return to us we found we enjoyed the company of the riders and the atmosphere of the sport in general, and thought ‘why are we just sitting here waiting?’.

We knew warmbloods were not for us, but after moving yards we met a lady with four Paso Finos. She was kind enough to let us ride them and wow, our first introduction to gait and we could not stop smiling. We were hooked!

In 2017, after much research on the different gaited breeds availablein the UK at the time, we met Cassey Morris who had imported several RMH from the USA. We fell in love with the breed and the rest is the usual story with RMH and yes, we now have three! HSF Gunsmoke Superstar (black) born and bred in KY, and two rising 4 yr olds imported from Europe, KB Horatio’s Windy Breeze (silver bay roan) and Supersonic Mountain Trooper (silver black).

I had not ridden since before having a family and Yorick had not ridden at all, so Gun has been his introduction to horse riding and ownership. A four-year old when we bought him, testament to the RMH character, Gun and Yorick have learned everything together. Gun is also trained to carriage driving and was loving this job until an injury that led to an infection in the bone of his humerus, sadly requiring surgical intervention, ended that adventure. There have been a few other hiccups along the way with Gun, including a fractured leg, severed hock, and having a large part of his tongue removed after having it bitten by another horse!

Undaunted, in 2023–24 Yorick and Gun rode 1006 miles together in their first year in the RMHA Trail Program, an amazing feat for any partnership in any country, but also testament to Yorick’s determination to navigate the crowded highways and byways of this country. We live in Cambridgeshire, about 75 miles north of London and our horses are kept at a livery yard (boarding barn) some 8–9 miles distant; over 60% of leisure horses in the UK are kept on livery. In England we have an interesting mix of ancient legal rights to ride over some private land (on bridleways or byways), and also the challenge of being in an intensively farmed or built-on nation where there is not always room for walkers, cyclists, equestrians and cars to share routes amicably. Our riding out is mainly on local rural roads, field edges and tracks, fortunately from our yard we are also given permission to ride on some local farmland. For myself, while having youngsters my focus became the breed I am now so passionate about and I began to look at ways to bring owners together. A friend had started a small Facebook group that focussed on reaching out to and helping fellow owners and after joining this group I began to feel we needed even more as owners of this amazing breed. This was the seed of what has become now the Transatlantic Rocky Mountain Horse Club.

Over the time we have owned RMH, we had attended UK training clinics where we fortunately met Tara and Chris Stone,and Leonie de Jong-Prins. These friendships aided the development of the Transatlantic RMH Club and also led us to start to think about a trip to the USA to meet more breeders and owners, to visit the International Show and to see more RMH. September 2024 was our first opportunity to make the trip to visit friends in the USA and to ride some of their horses. We cannot thank them enough for this.

Our trip to the International Show was combined with a 4000-mile road trip made around 12 states in the southeast USA. We flew to Atlanta and travelled north up the Blue Ridge Parkway to stay with Marianne and Joe Jolley, in Virginia, then headed to Kentucky by way of the heart of the Appalachian Mountains, birthplace of the RMH.

Along the way we saw some amazing places and breathtaking views. We stopped in Lexington for the International and then travelled onwards, briefly visiting with Tim and Marcia Spencer, before heading to Mammoth Caves, Nashville and Memphis. We travelled down the Mississippi Delta to Baton Rouge and New Orleans, from there along the southern coast road all the way to Ocala and a must see visit to the World Equestrian Centre (WEC). Then back up to the panhandle and a stay with Chris and Tara before heading up the east coast to Savannah and finally back to Atlanta to fly home.

The Kentucky Horse Park is a beautiful setting and is totally dedicated to the horse. The RMHA International Show was taking place in a covered arena with the barns closely located. There are training and warm up arenas nearby and we enjoyed seeing the horses walking around the park area at times. While there for the International we took advantage and travelled all around the park and visited the exhibitions and other attractions it has to offer. We also watched other shows happening at the same time. The main arenas, the Alltech and Rolex, are amazing but there are also other arenas and barns. There is even a rare breed area that has a mountain horse as one of its residents. We didn’t see many trade stands but we supported RMHA by buying some of their clothing and t-shirts for our grandkids. Most of the ridden classes required classic saddleseat type show attire and show saddles. Personally I loved the saddleseat attire, everyone looked so smart, and among the ladies some amazing jackets were on show. We also saw some beautiful western outfits with rhinestones and tassels in other classes. A highlight were the versatility classes for trail obstacle and pole bending as they looked fun and it was good to see the horses working. These classes evidence that the horses are great trail horses that are prettied up and brought showing. The in-hand, youth equitation and showmanship classes were also great to watch and there were some very skilled young riders. Finally, there were other classes, just as competitive but perhaps more light hearted, such as costume, bareback, a groom's class, a water class, and stick horse! If I have missed any you get the gist that pretty much most things were covered.

For 2024, there was a trial of a 5 judge system at the International and it is my understanding that the intent was to have input to assure a better assessment of the horses for frame and quality of gait. The discussions I have heard and seen about this change have interested me, as in Europe an increase of judge numbers is a situation that I believe is well known and accepted at higher level events.

RMHA judging is of horse and rider frame and quality of gait. We enjoyed watching and learning to identify the difference between the different divisions of show gait (country trail pleasure, trail pleasure and show pleasure), the differences in relaxation and stretch achieved in the trail walk and the speed and exuberance of the RM pleasure gait. It was also really good

to see consideration of the position in the stand and the back up in the judging line up in the ridden sections. Watching all the participants and the judging helped us understand these two quotes from the RMHA Rule Book, "The frame of the Rocky Mountain Horse should be one that enhances the signature gait in a way that looks comfortable and natural to the horse’s conformation and style of movement." and "It is not and should not be about how high he lifts. It is about how beautifully and consistently he moves around the ring with his rider in a correct and smooth manner.".

The audience loved the spectacle and the hooting and hollering was enthusiastic and widespread! The Show was certainly a great way of meeting the many people that prior to the show we had only known by name or online. When not in the arena the comradery was very evident, tempered with friendly rivalry. It was good to see all the rosettes accumulating and adorning pavilions and stables over the four days. Some of the barns were very impressively decorated, with a competition for the best dressed. The weather also made for an interesting time as it was hot one moment with all the horses having fans on them to an absolute downpour that led to the sides of the arena having to be rapidly closed while the classes were on.

At the International, we certainly learned that horse shows are big, loud and a huge amount of fun in the USA. Y’all sure love your horses! We had a great time and made some good friends. The atmosphere was relaxed though the competition was fierce. We don’t claim to have understood the finer points of judging but by the end of a few of the earlier classes we managed to pick some of the winning horses even if not always in the placed order. We were also slightly gratified to see the odd moment of a horse exhibiting pacey gait, the fact that some horses weren't 'perfect' actually strangely made us feel slightly reassured that it is okay to get it wrong as you can always work to improve. As the championship classes arrived it was tough to pick a winner as every horse had earned their place, and some were so smooth they were simply mesmerising to watch. Judges certainly earn their money!

We would say the RMHA International Show exhibited and confirmed for us that RMH have exceptional character and nature, and are adaptive and talented athletes. They have an extra gait, yes, but as with every other one of the standard gaits with time, maturity and a good trainer, if they have the ability, they can be trained to carry it out with style and grace. Good training and great riders make our horses look amazing and can help to keep them sound.

We will always remember our first visit to the RMHA International Show in 2024, and would so very much like to visit again, to not only support RMHA and continue to learn about this wonderful breed but also to visit old friends and make new ones. We would also wholeheartedly advise anyone that gets the opportunity to go, if you are interested in RMH then just do it, go to the International. Roll on next time!