Pokani

Statistics

  • Registered name: Pokani
  • Height: 17 hh
  • Color: Dark bay
  • Date of Birth: May 11, 2005
  • Breed: Trakehner/Saddlebred
  • Breeder: Gateway Farms, Acampo, CA
  • Breed Registry: American Trakehner Association

 

In the fall of 2007, I set out to find a horse more suitable for dressage. My dressage trainer recommended an older horse trained to Second or Third Level, and I did consider several of those, but not only were they expensive, they had lived in stalls and been shod their whole lives. (For more on this, see Horsekeeping.) I was reluctant to bring a “hothouse flower” out to rough country and expect him to survive. 

 

Finally, I learned about a very special 2-½-year-old Trakehner/Saddlebred colt at Gateway Farm in Acampo, CA. He had been pasture-raised on fifty-five acres and was barefoot. Susan Dockter and I went to see him and we both liked him immensely. Even at his young age, he had a remarkably calm and tractable character. A week later Susan had taught him to trailer-load, he had passed his pre-purchase exam with perfect results, and I had brought him home to Red Mountain Ranch.

 

 

 

 

He adjusted well to ranch life with other horses, and after one laceration early-on (probably a tangle with barbed wire), he has been injury free. He has never had a shoe nailed on his foot, and he romps all over our hills with never a misstep. 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

It took Gypsy about a week to fall in love with him, and now they are the best of friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow, what an experience to raise a youngster! While Pokani was growing up, Susan helped me teach him all his groundwork, to stand tied, pick up his feet, long-line and ground-drive—and I trailered him often for outings and lessons. By the time we started him under saddle, he had seen quite a bit of the world.

 

 

I was going to have Susan start him under saddle at age three, but after reading Dr. Deb Bennett’s “Ranger” article, I decided to wait until he was four. So in 2009, Susan took him for ninety days, and has continued working steadily with me to oversee his preliminary dressage work.

 

 

 

 

 

Pokani has carried me many miles on the trail—both around the ranch and away from home—including a Trail Trials competition in which he tied for Second Place and a 23-mile NATRC ride in which he won First Place Novice Horse. He’s been to clinics with Heidi Riddle, Alfredo Hernandez, Chris Cox, and Robin Gates, and participated as a demo horse at the 2010 Fall Extravaganza and the 2011 Spring Extravaganza at Osierlea. (See articles, Finding the Holy Grail at Osierlea, Finding the Holy Grail at Osierlea, Continued, and Finding the Holy Grail at Osierlea, Part Three.)

 

 

 

 

 

Fall 2011 Update: Pokani has just completed three months of full-training with Sue Corrie at Diamond K Ranch in Brentwood, CA. She took him to lots of shows during the summer, and now he's home for the winter while I'll be learning to ride him more effectively.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like to tell people that Pokani is my grand experiment to see if I can make a dressage horse out of a barefoot, ranch-raised, cowgirl-started warmblood. So far, so good—but we have a long ways to go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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