Video of the day: ADA Intuition
ADA Intuition (“Poppy”) is the 2005 chestnut daughter of Atticus and Capucine, a straight Davenport Kuhaylah Hafiyah. This is her third ride after a year in pasture after just three months of under saddle work, so she is quite green still, but well behaved through an arena with jumps (and a neighboring goat pen, and 3 braying miniature donkeys, and let’s not forget the flocks of brightly colored bicyclists whipping down the road past the arena!)
If you get tired of watching her balance herself in the arena, skip to about 6:20 and watch her stroll across the little stream and head up into the hills…
If you want more, here she is on the longe line, a scant hour after getting off the trailer:
To my eye, she looks more like Atticus and Fairy Queen with some Dharanad thrown in than she looks like Capucine or Capulet, but I do see some of Reminisce. She’s nicely balanced and a good mover. The handler/rider has a quiet manner and the mare looks calm and relaxed.
Notice however at the rising trot that the rider’s hands frequently are popping up and down right along with the rider’s seat (in other words, the hands are not independent), and even though the rein is mostly loose, this occasionally interferes with the mare’s mouth and causes her to react by stiffening her jaw and neck. The rider’s hands look more independent at the canter.
Interesting — I think of her as a more compact Capucine, stronger over the loins and shorter in the back than her dam, though I certainly see Atticus and Dharanad in there as well (especially the point in the second video where she stops and poses for the camera in 3/4 view).
You make me wonder what Capucine looked like as a young mare.