One Brave Babe

I made a new buddy last week, his name is Alfie. His fancy name is Courageux FE, which is French for “brave”.

This is one of those cases where you wait to see if the horse lives up to the name or if the name falls short of the horse. While there are earmarks early on, it generally takes years to play out. But Alfie is an overachiever, and put that name to the test within 30 days of arriving on this planet.

Alfie’s our first horse to launch on our brand new Youngster Templates, which are customized for Foals/Weanlings and for Yearlings to 3 year olds. He arrived with standard breeder media: A random cell phone photo nonchalantly snapped against an unfortunate background and the obligatory “trot the mare back and forth” video.

(This is no shade to breeders. Y'all are BUSY. Generally with a horse in each hand, a vet on the phone, and a calamity on the horizon. We understand where sale media falls on that priority list).

No prob, Alfie’s just in the next town over, and I’ll take most any excuse to go play with babies and bring along a camera.

I kid you not dear reader, not 24 hours after I scheduled that shoot said foal attempted to remove his star like some sort of temporary tattoo.

And was legitimately unbothered by it.

Meet Mom

Alfie’s chosen name is not without precedence. Enter Chanel, Alfie’s dam, a character I’m most familiar with. A decade-ish ago Chanel arrived at Punchestown Stable in Lexington, a program owned and run by my dear friend (and occasional coach!) Sarah Meier. Sarah had been knocking on the Grand Prix door for a minute, short only the kind of checkbook that buys Grand Prix horses.

In struts Chanel, with her own damn horse trailer. Like some Hollywood celeb with a private dressing room and their name on the door. And indeed, once you figured out that this is Chanel’s world and we’re all just living in it, everything clicked.

For an unimposing mare that thought flatwork was for simps and right leads were optional, Chanel was an order of magnitude braver than she should have been. She had a very clear view of what the job was, and that was to quit yer fussing and go to the jumps. She was single-minded and she was fast. Within weeks they were topping 1.35m classes and shortly later walked through that Grand Prix door together.

To be clear, Sarah did not lack the grit nor courage for this level. But the way that mare believed that she already had all the answers, it simply left no room for doubt. You are going in the ring, you are jumping the jumps, and if you stay well enough out of her way, you are likely coming home with a check.

With this recipe for success in hand, Chanel went on to lend that same confidence to junior and amateur riders before eventually retiring. Her kingdom is now Devlin McGrath’s Fusion Equestrian in Winchester, KY, and she accepts her foal as a rightful heir.

Which is why she’s as shocked as anyone that she clocked him in the head.

In her defense, it was an accidental glance of the hoof at just the wrong angle, and head wounds tend towards dramatic. The entire thing was stitched up within an hour and Alfie never missed a beat. Pictures were (obviously) rescheduled and when I showed up a week later he was bright, brave and bold with zero sensitivity about handling that area. Truly, little dude had no idea what we were all on about. There were zoomies to be had and a whole world to explore thankyouverymuch.

And that’s what struck me as I edited the results of this Frankenface photo shoot. Not the big bald patch and its softball stitching, but the whimsical foal beneath it. Proudly trotting away from his mom, willingly approaching the unknown, quietly confident that the world was his friend. He was brave in all the ways you hope to see and strive to never squelch. He’d already dealt with one of life’s cruel blows, and he's not letting it stop him.

Just like his mom, on her way to an oxer.