What does it mean to have the “right” horse? Obviously that varies for everyone, but finding a good match is truly priceless. One of the greatest pleasures in my life right now is the developing partnership with my jumper, Steve, who I have had for a little over two years.

I haven’t yet introduced him properly, so I will tell the story of how I found him and muse a bit on what having a the right horse can do for the newbie jumper rider.

As I have stated previously, I’m not in a typical hunter/jumper program, so my horse hunt was a bit unusual in that the onus was on me, not my trainer—although Packy McGaughan was instrumental in guiding me.

This is how it went: I would find horses listed for sale online, contact the seller to get more information, and send their videos to Packy. He would text me back with: “Not your horse.” Usually what would follow was either a long text or a phone call clarifying that point, but I was getting sort of punch drunk after several weeks of this and started thinking I would never find my unicorn.

See, what I was looking for was proving to be a serious challenge. I needed something that had the mind and scope to (eventually, at least) do the high amateur-owner jumpers, but not only could I not afford a made A/O jumper, even the unmade prospects were problematic. Luckily, I’m fine with green—in fact, I’ve never bought something that wasn’t green. Even when I was a kid as soon as my hunters were made we sold them and got another baby.

But I didn’t have the connections to find those promising young jumpers, and the ones that were showing successfully were already out of my price range.

There were a lot of prospects that looked amazing on paper—great bloodlines, for example—but were heavy across the ground, not scopey, or had some deal-breaker of an issue. I started my Dutch Warmblood baby as a 3-year-old, and that was a lot of fun, but after losing him to colic just when we were learning how to jump courses I didn’t have the heart to go back to square one again, so unbroken prospects were out. I wanted something scopey, affordable, young but going, and sound—a unicorn—and I wasn’t having any luck.

As well, flying all over the United States and Canada to look at one horse here, one there, two there was simply not financially feasible. Basically, I needed a big box store for high quality horses, and that is hard to find in the United States, where simply putting a healthy foal on the ground can cost thousands. Add raising, training and competition costs over the next several years, and the result is a horse I couldn’t afford.

On a whim I got in touch with some friends in Argentina who have a breeding and training business—Rachel Clough and Martin Videla of Rancho Pampa. They have some seriously impressive horses—incredible jumper bloodlines, excellent dressage foundation, experience in the young jumper classes for the 4- and 5-year-olds, and so on. I figured there was no way I could afford any of them plus the import fees—happily I was wrong! And (bonus!) they had upwards of 20 sales horses, all in one place.

I booked a plane ticket, asked Martin and Rachel to come up with a short list of good prospects, drooled over the ensuing videos and pictures, attended a few weeks of Packy Boot Camp for a tune-up, and flew down to Buenos Aires for five days of horse shopping.

I could write a book—or at least a booklet—on this experience. Suffice it to say that I did not want to come home, even with the impressive collection of saddle sores I’d accumulated by Day 5. I rode five, six, seven horses a day, at their farm and at a country club in the city with an enormous arena.

We went to another big complex to look at a handful of other prospects, and we visited a stud farm to scope out some yearlings and 2-year-olds for a client of Martin’s coming down after my visit. It was a blast—a perfect horsey vacation—and hanging out with my friends in such a lovely country at their beautiful house and farm was icing on the cake.

When I left I was torn between two coming 5-year-olds, with a coming 4-year-old as a backup; Rachel had taken videos of me on all three and I watched these obsessively on the plane home. I showed Packy the videos (hell, I showed everyone the videos), and sought his advice.

Steve free-jumping. It didn’t seem like scope would be a problem! Photo courtesy of Susan Glover

In the end I chose CT Quantum because his training was further along than the other one, who had been a breeding stallion the year before, and he is also more my size. The other stallion was already around 16.3 hands and built big—and he would only get bigger—whereas Steve is a more compact 16.1 hands.

Otherwise, I couldn’t chose between them—I would ride one and tell Martin: “I think this is the one!” and then get on the other horse and say the same thing. Even the baby, my back-up choice, was simply incredible to ride. I took him through his first in-and-out, and it was as easy as one could imagine.

At any rate I decided on Quantum, had him vetted, gelded and flown across the ocean, put through quarantine and then shipped up to me in Maryland. I can honestly say I’ve never regretted this decision for even a second. I show him under the name The Red Spy.

Steve is an Argentinian Warmblood, born October 2008. He is built like a Mack truck, with fabulous jumper lines. He’s by Quadanne Z (Quick Star/Galoubet A) out of CT Lady G (Leandro/Nimmerdor) and the boy can JUMP.

The Red Spy, or “Steve,” and I showing. 

Plus, he is a goofball and quite the personality on the ground. He is (to sound like a dorky little kid) my dream horse. I feel lucky every day that I have him.

Back to the idea of the right horse—of course it is probably not possible to know if you can trust a horse after only a handful of rides. However, most of us will get a good sense of the horse quickly and know whether or not we can work with this or that one. Steve, I knew immediately, is a horse I can trust to do his job, and I think that is key to feeling confident. And when I feel confident, so does he—it is a virtuous circle.

Not only does my little red guy have more scope in his back pocket than I will ever need, he’s a thoroughly good egg, something I felt two years ago when I first met him.

He’s still young and depends on his rider for guidance, but if I am clear in my directions Steve will do for me, without hesitation. I can’t screw up more than a couple of times in a row before he starts to get his worried upper lip going and sends question marks back through the reins, but he does allow me some latitude.

Steve is such a fantastic athlete that jumping fences (even ones that make me gulp when I stand next to them later) is easy and fun for him, and in turn I don’t question our ability to get to the other side.

Having the right horse allows you to dream big, to plan big, to go out and do fun things you wouldn’t have the nerve to do on a horse in whom you don’t have faith. Trust and confidence go hand in hand, and without the first I know I’d never be able to picture little ol’ ammy me being competitive at any level in the jumpers.

Whether you go across an ocean to find your partner or find him or her just down the road, the bond one can develop with the right horse is irreplaceable.

Susan Glover is an assistant professor in the Department of Government at American University (D.C.), specializing in comparative politics. She shows her Argentinian Warmblood The Red Spy in the adult amateur jumper division in the Mid-Atlantic area. Read all her COTH blogs.