The Day I Met Biasini

“You may not think he’s right for you and that’s fine. At least I will have a chance to see you ride and I will have a better idea of what we are looking for. Or you may fall in love with him.”

I had asked Belinda Trussell to help me find another horse. I had known her for many years as she had coached my daughter. I was coming back from a disastrous year in which I had to have two horses put down; my much loved Tommie and a beautiful new horse that was only with me for a brief six months. It had been heartbreaking but riding was my joy in life. So there I was trying Belinda’s horse Biasini.  I was not worried about “falling in love with him” because I never did that when I was trying a horse. I always remained objective.

I watched Belinda ride him and she put him through all his paces. He looked very good. But, of course, the real test would be when I got on and rode him.  So I mounted up. He was a good size for me and right away I realized my leg just naturally hung in a good position on his side.  We went through the usual walk, trot, canter and then a few lateral movements.  Then Belinda asked me to do a medium canter down the long side. I asked him to move out into the medium canter and he did and I thought:” ok that’s pretty good.”

“Do it again on the next long side and really let him go. Just go with it! Enjoy it!”  Belinda called out to us.

Enjoy it.

Well next thing I knew we were bounding down the long side in the most glorious canter I have ever felt in my life. His strides carried me along, effortlessly, big, bounding and yet completely under control.  WOW!

We did a few more things and then Belinda suggested I take him for a short walk in the forest. I guess she must have known that having a horse I could take hacking was very important to me.  So she told me where to go and off we went. He was absolutely at ease in the woods.  The plusses were adding up!

When I got back to the barn I told Belinda I would like to try him again and we arranged another time for me to do that.  Lynsey, Belinda’s assistant, helped me to untack him and asked me how I had liked riding him.

“This is such a cool horse,” I said. “He really is just such a cool horse.”  Lynsey nodded and agreed with me.  Then I realized what had happened. I had fallen in love with this horse

What? I NEVER did that kind of thing.  Never.  Not ever. But now it had happened.  What on earth had happened to me? Then I realized something else I had been feeling when I had been riding him. He felt familiar. Everything about riding him felt familiar. But how could that be? I had never ridden a horse like this before. I had never ridden a horse with this level of training, this level of talent and athletic ability. I could tell he was a horse that could get hold of the bit and take over if I did not pay attention. I had never ridden one of those horses before.  How could he be familiar to me?    I still have no answer as to why it felt so familiar but it did. It just did.

I tried him again and I learned more about him from Belinda. She told me he could be a nervous horse and that she had success with him using the Tellington ttouch method. She also told me that he had a spook. I asked what kind of spook…a spin and bolt. A rear? Bucking?  No, none of those. Well that was a relief because at my age and stage all of those things would be a big “No”.

The third time I tried him I decided that if he did not show me the ‘spook’ I would have to get Belinda to put a big golf umbrella in a corner to produce one. But he obliged by giving me his ‘spook’. A truck drove past the open arena door and in the midst of a medium canter he slammed on the brakes. BAM! He came to a halt and looked at the door.

“So, is that his spook?” I asked Belinda.

“Yes that’s pretty much it.” She replied.  “Sometimes he will do a scoot sideways but he never spins and bolts. It’s just a stop or a startle.”

I knew I could live with all of that.  I arranged for the pre purchase veterinary check with Dr. Daryl Bondar from the Toronto Equine Hospital.  I was on tenterhooks while he did countless x-rays. At the end he turned to me and said:” Leueen, this is the best set of x-rays I’ve seen in years.” I hugged him!

That is how, two years ago, my journey with the wonderful Biasini began.

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