Elfe is a 2001
Friesian-Warmblood filly sired by Donius W. Her dam is Welli's Lady Victory, a Canadian Warmblood
mare.
2007 update:
Elfe is turning out to be a very cool dressage horse.
She is a real blast to ride, a little like driving a sports car. I took
her to a handful of schooling shows last fall and she was high score
her first time out. We are now schooling all the first level
movements and introducing a little shoulder-in work. Her canter work
is getting so nice that in my lesson today, my trainer said she
thinks Elfe will have wonderful flying changes and canter
pirouettes. But, that's several years in the future - we'll show
training level this year and let her tell us when she's ready to
move to First Level.
Not only is she talented, but she is a
pleasure to work around. Her ground manners are impeccable. She will
stand in the aisle untied, even when someone is rattling around in
the feed room. In fact, I had her in the barn aisle in the crossties
this fall when my trainer was knocked unconscious when kicked while
grooming a horse. I forgot that Elfe was still in the aisle until
the ambulance came roaring down the driveway - at which point she
was still standing still where I had left her.
We are at a small barn, where she lives with 6 other
horses, including her pasture pal, Icy, an aged TB mare. Her stall
opens up to her pasture and many times when I am on weekend barn
duty, she will stick her head into her stall and bang on the door to
demand a treat or another few flakes of hay. I understand she does
the same to my trainer during the week....
2008 update:
This is just a quick note to let you know that our little Elfe was a
superstar at the USDF/GAIG Region 1 Championships this past weekend.
We were third (tied for reserve but we lost the tiebreaker) out of
38 horses in our Training level championship class with a 68.8 %.
What a great way to end the show season! This was a huge show (at
least by Region 1 standards) with 9 rings and about 1,300 horses and
she was very good about all the commotion. Neither of the attached
photos are wonderful, but I thought I would share them nonetheless.
As for next year, who knows? I would love to do a freestyle and she
is still enjoying the occasional opportunities to jump, so we’ll
just wait and see how things progress.
