If you were to walk past the ring while Carson was showing, chances are you’d stop.

The 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Caretino—E Delytsa, Calypso) is known for catching some air over the fences, with at least a foot of clearance between his toes and the rails.

He got his start in the hunters with Texas-based trainer Courtney Calcagnini in 2010, and he showed in the big eq with his owner Kristen Blomstrom. He was sold in 2012, and Greg Crolick got the ride, showing him in his first USHJA International Hunter Derby.

At Devon in 2014, he caught California professional Hope Glynn’s eye as a good match for her client Sabrina Hellman, so he moved west.

“The lady from Greg’s barn sent a little dossier and videos, and he looks beautiful in the videos,” said Hellman. “She just described him as being really nice. Everybody loved him in the barn. He likes his job. And obviously Hope knows that I need a horse that’s very safe for me; that was tantamount for me.

“For us it’s about, does the horse like his job? Is he going to want to be out there doing it? We see where the chips fall on that,” she continued. “Try to get a good quality horse that is also one that you think you can have for a long time because we don’t like to sell horses. That’s very hard for us.

“I came out and tried him, and he just makes me feel like a rider. He makes me feel like I’m doing something really cool. He’s bigger and stronger and jumps a lot bigger than I’m used to,” Hellman finished.

These days Carson does the high performance hunters and the derbies with Glynn, and Hellman shows him in the low adult amateur hunters.

Here’s what you might not know about Carson: 

• He fancies himself a drummer. Carson likes to take his lip and flip his bucket around in his stall. If you’re not careful, he’ll do it for a good 45 minutes, so his groom Leo Gregorio Lopez often has to remove the bucket to get him to stop.
• Food is one of his favorite things, and he’s always looking for treats.

  “He loves all kinds [of cookies,]” Lopez said. “He eats almost everything: carrots, cookies, candies. When they jump good, they think they deserve another cookie. Once they come out of the ring they’re looking for their treats.”

Carson and Leo Gregorio Lopez

• He gets lots of attention before a class. Every morning after grooming he wears a magnetic blanket, and Lopez ices his feet and legs. Then he’ll ice Carson one more time before the class and again afterwards. 
• Less is more when it comes to schooling him before a big derby.

  “The biggest thing with him is to make sure he feels good, just make sure he’s comfortable,” Glynn said. “I do a lot of loose ring snaffle, long and low [work.] I don’t do a lot of schooling. I don’t over jump him in the warm up—in fact I don’t tune him up at all. If anything, just confidence and relaxation is what seems to make him jump the best.

  “My biggest worry is that sometimes he puts too big of an effort and jumps really high but not across, and so if we get him too sharp at all he’s more apt to do that,” she said. “So I just jump low, wide oxers to try to get him jumping across and relaxed. I never jump as big as the jumps are in the ring before I go in. Some people jump two holes bigger, but my routine is, keep it simple. When he’s out there and the adrenaline’s out there, he’ll always take the bigger option.”

Carson and Hope Glynn

• When he travels across the country for the USHJA International Hunter Derby Championships and other major shows, he comes by land, not air.

  “We put them in box stalls and drive them [to Kentucky,]” Glynn said. “We can get them here in two days—that’s a piece of cake.

  “We can only fly out of Los Angeles, and Los Angeles is an 8½ hour drive from us, so you’re already 16 hours in the van just to catch a flight, and it’s 48 hours to get here.”

  ADVERTISEMENT
• He’s a big guy! He’s 16.3 1/8 hands, and at 10 years old, he’s really filled out this year.

  “He’s a full-grown horse; he’s not a teenager anymore,” Hellman said. “He was a 14-year-old basketball player, and now he’s a Marine.”

• He’s got a pony trick. “He’s a card-carrier of bloaters anonymous. You definitely have to tighten up the girth by like six holes,” Hellman said.

Carson and owner Sabrina Hellman

• He’s very self-assured. “I think he has a good ego. His size ego is a good thing in a horse,” Hellman said. “It’s enough to get him through a problem but not so much that he’s not willing to listen to you.”
• He’s a lover not a fighter. Hellman said while he’s very business-like before working, he just wants to cuddle after his ride.

  “He likes it when I come say hi to him first when I come to the barn,” Hellman said. “ ‘Down here! Come on, Sabrina, say hi to me first!’ He’ll be like, ‘but you said hi to Skip first!’ ”

Hellman saying hi to Carson