Meet the Saddleworld (little) Horse of the Month – BB to his friends

Rebecca Ashton meets BB   

Kamber Pryderi and Fern Wright have been a team for a very long time, 11 years in fact. The pint sized Welshie’s personality dwarfs his 150cms and has helped him to dressage victories against the ‘big horses’ at the top level.

BB and Fern back in 2012, competing Prix St Georg

I first encountered the duo at the Dressage Nationals last year, accumulating ribbons in the under 25 classes. Since then they have had success at the Dressage Festival where they came 5th in the CDI-W and at the Victorian Young Rider Championships winning the Inter 2, the Under 25 Grand Prix and freestyle where they scored over 71% with Mary Seefried awarding them a whopping 74.7%.

A week later at the Boneo Classic they won the CDI Under 25 tour followed in April by a successful Sydney CDI where they received two seconds and a third in the CDI Under 25. They’ve also reached 19th in the FEI Under 25 world rankings and remain the highest ranked Aussies.

Despite the successes, the bold little horse, known at home as BB (“….he had to be called something,” explains Fern of the horse’s stable name), has had to overcome some hurdles.

Probably changes are the most fun for him…

Fern tells her best friend’s story, “He was bred by Sandy Foster and Sue Coghlan. Sandy owned a mare that she kept at Sue’s place and Sue owned a stallion. They shared the foals produced from those two horses and Sandy ended up owning BB. We knew the next owner who had bought him as a breeding stallion, but she decided he wasn’t going to be suitable for what she wanted, so she sold him to us when he was 18 months old. My brother and I were going to break him in for my mother to ride. We had never broken in a horse before, but we did it and I sort of just kept on riding him. Mum rode him a few times but she was happy for me to have the ride.

“He was so quiet, had a lovely temperament and was a very curious, sweet horse, but he’s definitely got more arrogant over the years. When he was young, he thought everybody loved him but no one loved him at all. All the horses would snarl and snap at him. As he got older things started to change. The horses all started to like him and wanted to talk to him and he wouldn’t have a bar of them. Even to this day, he hates other horses. He’ll snarl or scream at them or he’ll bite them. He’s a bit horrible really! I’m sometimes in the firing line too. If he runs out of hay, he’ll double barrel the stable wall until I come out and feed him. If he wants a hug at 02:00am, he’ll do the same thing. ‘I want attention and I want it now.’

“And of course he’ll hurt himself doing that for half an hour so we all come charging out, so he basically has us all perfectly trained. It works very well for him! He’s naughty but he deserves to be a bit naughty. He’s worked so hard.

“However BB is a lovely horse when you ride him. He wants to make you happy and will really work hard for you. He really enjoys his work as well. If you try and give him a week off, he gets crabby and sour until you bring him in and ride him, and then his ears are pricked and he’s all smiles. I take him out as well. We have brood mares and foals in the paddocks and he likes to go out and look at them all. He just likes being busy.

“He’s a very, very quick learner but he just doesn’t have much energy. He’s naturally a lethargic type so he has to be worked hard at home to get him ultra fit so he can survive the competitions. BB’s probably one of the fittest horses at the competitions, but the first to get worn out!

“Piaffe and passage are a highlight but they’re the first things to go when he loses confidence, which can sometimes happen at the big shows. He internalises it, and you lose a lot of the power. We’re still trying to work out the best thing for him when that happens, but we usually give him a longer warm up, more walk phases. Probably the changes are the most fun for him. We can do those on the circles and he seems to enjoy all that. It’s a very safe movement. He never makes a mistake in the changes. If they go wrong, it’s usually my fault.”

Disaster struck in 2014 when the pair had just reached Grand Prix. The chestnut broke into the feed room which resulted in a colonic impaction, plus laminitis from the grain fermenting in his stomach. The vets couldn’t operate and they thought he had next to no chance of making it through the night, and the chance of competing again was non-existent. Fern continues, “For a week Mum and I would go down to the hospital and stay with him as soon as they opened in the morning until they went home at night. He was always more relaxed when we were there and I think he really appreciated that. He seemed happy, safe and confident when we were there with him.

“We still have to manage a few things as a result. If he’s not worked, he’ll lose his muscle, but he won’t put on any weight and looks like a rescue horse no matter what we feed him. We’ve tried him on a few special feeds but nothing seemed to help. He’s just on hay and barley now, exactly what he was getting before and that seems to work fine. The only other thing is that I don’t put him out in the paddock for long periods because of the grass. He’s also more sensitive to touch and sound. I haven’t clipped him this season because last time he couldn’t cope with it. Mounted presentations are also a bit of an issue for him.

“He’s pretty incredible though. They really didn’t think he’d get to where he is now. He’s a tough little thing. The first day he went to hospital I made a goal that we would compete in the Dressage Festival and we were going to win the CDN big tour in 2015. We almost managed it; we almost made that absolutely ridiculous goal! We lost it on a count back and ended up reserve. I think staying positive and not giving up on him was key in getting us all through that tough time.

“Now he rules the roost. You have to pat him first and feed him first and he has to get the first and the last treat. He’s the king and a real member of the family. When he was sick, Dad even said that he would gladly give up five years of his life for him to survive……and Dad is not horsey at all.”

Like any diva worth his salt, BB has his preferred treats. “He loves muesli bars and persimmons from our tree. My grandfather also likes the fruit so there’s a bit of competition between both of them. Maybe we need another tree! At every competition, he always gets a muesli bar after his test when he’s having a gear check. His favourite brand is Carman’s fruit free. He’s not really into dried fruit.