BTB: Aesthete: Video footage of a top young horse

Aesthete: Video footage of a top young horse

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 12:50 PM PDT

Aesthete is one of the top young dressage horses in the country. He was the 2009 Markel/USEF Four Year Old National Young Horse Champion, and this year he was third. He is ridden by Karen Monks-Reilly, who is also married to Pat Reilly, the head farrier at New Bolton. Riley knows him :-).

IMHO one of the most notable things about Aesthete is his natural energy. According to dressage-news.com, Monks-Reilly (a former eventer) didn't follow a typical dressage training regimen. According to Dressage News:

"Aesthete was described by the judges as 'dynamic' and 'buoyant' that Karen said probably came from her training program that she adopted from her eventing days–lots of hacking, short training sessions and "none if he doesn't want to do it," and mostly being "a young horse, being happy, to be joyful and young."

I love this quote. You can see how Karen's style encourages big, happy, bouyant movement...