Arabian Dressage Horse Ta’ez+//

by Erin Gilmore | Sidelines Magazine, February 2009

“It’s not that they can’t do it, it’s that no one thinks to ask them to try.”

Over 19 years ago, when Carol Di Maggio bred her Arabian mare Seranado, she didn’t have a specific plan for the foal that would be born 10 months later. She certainly didn’t plan on watching that foal become a Grand Prix dressage horse. But when she asked her horse to try, and then try a little more, that’s exactly what she ended up with.

The purebred colt born in 1989 at Bright Future Farms in Walnut Creek, California, was Ta’ez+//, a bright chestnut with a moon shaped star on his face. His initial training combined dressage and jumping basics, but as three good gaits emerged along with an extraordinary mind, Carol began to point her young stallion towards dressage. Through a funny quirk of not tolerating having his ears clipped, Ta’ez+// earned the nickname of Teddy, and would go on to compete throughout his career with fuzzy, unclipped ears.

With his first trainer Jane Mendelson, Teddy began his competition career slowly, showing at Training and First Level for a year each.
His talent for dressage was clear, and in 1997 he won the Cosequin Musical Freestyle Championship at First Level. Teddy and Jane worked consistently through the lower levels, but at about the time that they were beginning to show at Third Level, Jane relocated to Florida, leaving Carol to look for another trainer.

On a recommendation, Carol tracked down dressage trainer Chelsey Sibley, who was known for her stellar Young Rider career and was based at a barn about 40 minutes away. Chelsey and Teddy clicked, and Carol began trailering Teddy to train with Chelsey weekly. Soon once a week became twice a week, and within a year the new pair were riding at Fourth Level. With Teddy consistently winning USDF All Breeds Awards won at Fourth Level, the team began to think that upper levels would be possible.

“Every time he moved up a level, we were pleasantly surprised. When Chelsey got him to Intermediare 1, we decided ‘well, it’s time to take the leap to I2,’” says Carol. “His piaffe came along nicely, but the passage was more difficult for him to grasp. We had him at a show entered in I1, but in the warm up ring Chelsey called me over and said watch this, and he started passaging. I went to the office and moved him from I1 to I2.”

Chelsey and Teddy showed equally in open and breed competition. As an approved American Warmblood Society stallion, they often competed successfully against Warmbloods. But as they reached the highest levels of dressage, Chelsey and Carol focused their energy on International Arabian Horse Association (now Arabian Horse Association) breed shows. “He is an Arabian, and I had to make a choice to have him compete against other Arabians or Warmbloods for year end awards,” says Carol. “While he did very well against the Warmbloods in the year end awards, I knew it would always be hard to win in an open, upper level class. If it came to the 17 hand black or the Arab, the Arabian has the odds stacked against it.”

With their sights on the Sporthorse ranks, Teddy and Chelsey began competing at AHA shows in Grand Prix in 2005.At the time, there were almost no Arabians or Anglo-Arabians competing at that level.   

“In the beginning I had to fight with the AHA Sporthorse officials to get a technical director to the shows,” remembers Carol. 

FEI requirements mandate that there be a technical delegate present during FEI approved competition, but the cost to bring one in for just one or two horses riding in a single class was difficult to swallow. “They said that they wouldn’t hire a TD just for my horse. But I said if you don’t build it they won’t come.”

Carol and Chelsey knew that 2008 would be Teddy’s last year competing at the Arabian Sport Horse Nationals, and they went to win the Grand Prix Championship. Teddy spent some extra time conditioning with Chelsey in the months before, but at the age of 19, Teddy was a well oiled dressage machine. The pair won the Grand Prix on a score of 60.25% and went on to win the Grand Prix Musical Freestyle Challenge that
same evening.

“Up until two hours before the class, we didn’t know what freestyle we were going to do,” says Carol. “Our old one was solid, but also safe. We had a new one that Chelsey had never ridden before, so before the class she went out there in the warm up and choreographed with an iPod. Then she rode the test and nailed it. They looked like they’d been doing it forever.

“I really don’t know what else he can do,” Carol continues. “He won AHA, USDF All Breed’s awards from Second Level to I1. He is
the first Arabian in the US to be approved by ISR/Oldenburg NA, and only the third Arabian to be approved by the American
Trakehner Association.”

Carol began breeding Teddy in 1994, and his offspring reflect his best traits. It seems that Teddy’s only stroke of bad luck befell him earlier this year, when he lost his fertility. It is uncommon for Arabians to lose their fertility, and no one is sure why it happened. As Carol and Teddy’s vets at UC Davis monitored his fertility and watched it go down, they realized that there was little they could do. “It’s very sad but it just is, and I’ve come to terms with it,” says Carol. “Now I can’t think of letting any of his offspring go, because there won’t be any more.”

Teddy has 22 offspring total, including three Oldenburg cross offspring. Several are already regional and national dressage horses. They share Teddy’s temperament and all have futures in the sporthorse divisions. Carol continuously works to infuse the lines of Teddy’s sire, Australian stallion Ralvon Elijah of the Ralvon stud, into American-bred sporthorse lines. She also has a hand in a Warmblood breeding program in Germany, breeding Oldenburgs which will be imported early 2009.

These offspring, with their athletic ability, versatility and sound minds, reflect Teddy’s best traits, and will, in their own way, continue the legacy that he began. Ta’ez+// will live out his days with Carol, his biggest fan and supporter, and the woman who was able to ask “Why not?” and find a Grand Prix star inside the heart of her amazing Arabian.

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