Lofty
was a bay dutch warmblood gelding who was bred and raised in Virginia. Lofty
was destined to be an outstanding hunter as his sire was Aristos B. Aristos B
sired many famous hunters including Rox Dene, a horse that many people consider
to be the best show hunter of all time.
Lofty and his mom
Lofty
came into his mom’s life almost thirteen years ago. After outgrowing her first and only pony, Lofty’s
mom had been riding an interim horse while looking for a new horse. Her trainer
had ridden Lofty as a young horse, first as a green three year old. He then won
the Founder’s Cup at the prestigious Upperville Colt and Horse Show with Lofty
as a four year old.
Lofty living up to his name over a jump
Lofty touching his knees to his nose over a jump
Lofty and his mom accepting their trophy after winning a hunter classic
Lofty and his mom hanging out
During
the course of their horse search the trainer remembered Lofty, and contacted
his owners in Virginia to see if they still owned him and would consider
selling him. As it turned out they did still own Lofty but they were not
interested in selling him. After some persistent requests by her trainer, Lofty’s
owners finally agreed to let them come and try Lofty.
Donneur, Lofty and Asterik
Gibson wanted Lofty to play
Lofty, Romeo and Lotus
Lofty's mom and her trainer flew to Maryland
where Lofty was at a horse show competing in the high performance hunters. The
plan was to try Lofty and one other mare while they were at the show. They
tried Lofty first and it was such a perfect match that his mom did not even end
up trying the mare, and Lofty and his mom became a team. Lofty’s sale caused
several people to be unhappy. Apparently several other people had expressed
interest in purchasing him but had always been told he wasn’t for sale. Lofty then
traveled from Virginia to California to join his new mom.
Lofty and Donneur
Lofty and Cocomo
Lofty and Asterik being wild
Lofty was a big horse, especially for a kid
moving up to her first horse from a pony. However, his mom's mom told me that
although Lofty was such a big horse, she never worried about her daughter when
she was riding him. She knew that Lofty would always take good care of her
daughter over the jumps, and he always did. Lofty liked to live up to his name
over the jumps, and always jumped in a beautiful style.
Lofty and Donneur
Gus, Donneur and Lofty
Lofty and Cocomo
Lofty and Cocomo
Lofty and his mom had a very successful show
career together. The original plan was for Lofty to get his mom very solid and
confident over three foot fences. Once that goal had been accomplished they
would either sell Lofty or lease another horse for her to move up to the junior
hunters at 3'6". However, once his mom formed a partnership with Lofty she
didn't want to sell him and get another horse. In fact she declined the offer
to keep him and get a second horse. Lofty was the perfect partner for her and
she didn't want a different horse or another horse, she simply wanted to enjoy
Lofty.
Silver, Cocomo and Lofty
Faune and Lofty
Donneur and Lofty
Lofty, Donneur and Cocomo
Although Lofty was generally all business in
the show ring, the rest of the time when you were riding him he tended to be on
high alert and on the lookout for monsters and other things that might get him
and his mom. He was sometimes called Scooby-Doo because of his tendency to peek
at everything. It was almost as if Lofty would look for things to scare him,
but at the same time with a little bit of encouragement he would be brave and
eventually face the scary things as long as his mom told him it was ok. His mom
learned that as long as she had a lot of patience and stayed focused on Lofty
he could handle almost anything.
Cocomo and Lofty
nap time
Lofty and Faune
Lofty and George
One of the few things in life Lofty decided he
could not handle was any hot walker. He was convinced that they were horse
eating monsters and no amount of coaxing through the years would ever convince
him otherwise. One time a new groom ignored the instructions not to lead Lofty
past the hot walker. The groom was going to lead Lofty to the ring and their
trainer made the comment "see you in a minute." The groom went the
wrong way and everyone heard a big commotion, and a few seconds later Lofty
came trotting around the corner alone and put himself back in his stall. The
groom didn’t try to lead Lofty past the hot walker again.
Lofty and Donneur
Lofty and Gibson
Lofty and Donneur
Donneur and Lofty
His mom told me that in their last class at
their last show together they were showing out on a big grass field. The field
was huge and everyone was cutting in quite a way off the rail to keep the
rounds from taking too long and to keep from over tiring their horses. As she
landed from the last jump she was thinking about cutting in off the rail, doing
her finishing circle and ending the round. But instead of hurrying to end her
round she decided to let Lofty carry her all the way across the grass, making
their finishing circle much bigger than necessary. She said she remembers
really savoring the feeling that it was, at the end of the day, just the two of
them out on the grass, having a really great time. I love the fact that
Lofty’s mom didn't even tell me that she and Lofty were champions of their
division at their last show together, her mom told me that. Instead her
favorite memory from that last show was of simply savoring the moment with her
horse.
Lofty (center) enjoying a lazy day with Flyer, Faune and Romeo
Lotus, Romeo, Lofty and Donneur
Lofty, Romeo and Lotus
Lotus, Romeo and Lofty
Lofty and his mom were a winning partnership in
and out of the show ring for almost six years. When it came time for Lofty’s
mom to go off to college she had a lot of discussions with her mom and trainer
about whether Lofty should be leased to someone else or retired. Lofty ended up
answering that question for them. He started having an occasional stop at a
jump which was completely uncharacteristic of him. Instead of trying to work
him through things or patch him together they decided it was time to let him
enjoy being a horse, he had definitely earned it.
Lofty and Flyer
Lofty and Gibson
Lofty, Silver and Romeo
Flyer, Lofty, Romeo and Lotus
Lofty made the trip from California to retire
at Paradigm Farms in April 2013. He had no issues leaving behind his California
show horse lifestyle. However, just as
he thought hot walkers were horse eating monsters in California he decided that
water troughs were horse eating monsters in Tennessee. He absolutely would not
drink from a water trough, and he brought to life the saying that you can lead
a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Jason and I spent a couple of
weeks begging and pleading Lofty to drink from a trough, any trough. We would
sit on the trough, we would splash our hands in the water, we would cup water
in our hands and touch it to his nose. One time Jason even tried to pull
Lofty's head down to the trough. Jason ending up putting all 220 pounds of his
weight on Lofty’s halter trying to make him lower his head down towards the
trough. Jason only succeeded in breaking the halter while Lofty never lowered
his head at all. Two weeks into this routine Jason and I were starting to think
that we were going to have to lug water to Lofty in buckets forever. Then, one
day, we walked out of the barn to see Lofty drinking from the water trough and
we both did a victory dance.
Lofty and Cocomo
Lofty
Lofty and Cocomo
Donneur and Lofty
Lofty spent almost seven years with us enjoying
retirement. He loved to play, he loved to run, he loved to graze, and he loved
to just hang out with his friends. Lofty was remarkably healthy during all of
his retirement until his last day. He was only a little bit off at feeding time
in the morning, but since we’d never seen Lofty be anything but one hundred
percent we called the vet right away. A vet exam, rectal palpation, and
bloodwork initially indicated that not much was wrong with Lofty so we were
expecting some pain meds to have him back to rights in no time. Lofty did not
regress, nor did he ever act very uncomfortable, but he never acted completely
himself either. That afternoon we decided to take him to the clinic for an abdominal
ultrasound and further diagnostics. It turned out that a small section of Lofty’s
intestines was in the early stages of dying, most likely due to a strangulating
lipoma. We made the decision to let him go before he got truly painful over the
next few days. He was 27 years old.
Lofty and Donneur
Lofty, Donneur, Gibson and Cocomo
Lofty and Donneur
Gibson and Lofty
I miss Lofty’s self assurance and quiet
leadership in his pasture. I know he is resting in peace in a place where no
horse eating hot walkers or water troughs exist.