Romeo is a handsome bay Dutch Warmblood gelding who joined us from Connecticut for retirement. Romeo is owned and dearly loved by a wonderful family who absolutely adore him. As all financially astute parents do they tried to find a way to not have to own a horse while still finding a way for their daughter to ride. Jason and I both laughed out loud when the mom told us a story about buying their daughter a saddle instead of a horse, hoping that would make her happy. My dad happened to hear this story as well and was almost shouting “Bravo!” at their ingenuity. He will tell anyone who will listen that buying me my first pony was the worst financial decision of his life.
As you might have guessed by now buying the saddle did not prevent them from entering into horse ownership. They bought their daughter a horse and everyone was happy. Unfortunately their first horse had to be euthanized after a long and drawn out illness. The trainer felt it was important that their daughter get right back up on a horse to help her cope with the loss. Romeo happened to be in the barn and his owner was unable to ride often, so she began riding Romeo.
She said she had told her trainer that she wanted her next horse to be fast with a big personality. As it turned out this described Romeo to a “T” and her parents purchased Romeo for her. They began their adventures together in the jumper ring and she showed Romeo under the name of Kismet, because she said the barn owner once remarked to her that it was kismet that Romeo happened to be in the barn and in need of a rider immediately after the loss of her first horse.
She and Romeo both loved showing in the jumpers. They also dabbled a bit in equitation but as she said they both got a bit bored with the slower pace of things in the hunter/equitation ring. Although Romeo is a big guy she said he could turn on a dime and was very fast, yet also very respectful and never tried to pull her around a course.
My favorite thing about Romeo outside of his fabulous personality is his expression. He has these big ears and they tend to give him a happy, goofy look. Regardless of what he is doing Romeo’s ears and expressions tend to look very similar. This is illustrated in the pictures below.
Jason and I both laughed out loud when we first saw this picture. It is a great picture of Romeo and his mom in action at the Ocala winter circuit but look at the expression. His left ear is off to the side and his right ear is forward. It is just so him ALL the time, be it flying over a jump or hanging out in the pasture!
Romeo and Asterik
Romeo with Faune and Winston