Bree Hill is 23 years old and is a member of Portola Valley Pony Club. She is currently rated at the C2 level. She focuses mainly on dressage. She learned to ride on her Connemara/Thoroughbred Gelding named "The Little Prince". He was 21 years old when he began dressage training in January 2001, as did Bree. Click here for more information about Cricket and photos of him.
Bree has loved horses all of her life and begged to ride for 7 years, but was not allowed on a horse until her older brother gave her a gift of riding lessons for her 15th birthday in January 2000. When at the tack store to buy riding equipment for the lessons, we heard of a horse for lease at Westwind Barn in Los Altos Hills. We visited and fell in love with a National show horse called Tootsee and started a half lease on her in February 2000. Bree was an absolute beginner and Tootsee's owner's dressage trainer Pierre Begou agreed to teach her. Tootsee proceeded to shy her off 3 times in the first few months, but Bree did not want to give up. Pierre remained patient.
Bree and her mother volunteered for the 4 H Riding for the Handicapped program at Westwind barn and that is when they first met the little grey horse named Cricket ( The Little Prince ). He could not be easily led, tried to bite you, kick you, and would wipe you out with his rear if tied to the rail. If left in his stall he would weave almost the whole time panicking every time another horse left. Bree's mother sponsored him for a few months, and he began to respond and seemed to be better with her, but did not like different people all the time and succeeded in bucking many of the sponsors off. In August 2000 the 4H program decided Cricket ( The Little Prince )was not suitable for their program and they offered him to Bree's mom for $1.00.
The first time Bree rode Cricket ( The Little Prince ) she went on a trail ride and he proceeded to buck her off and run loose. Bree also took him to Pony club and tried jumping and got bucked off weekly. We realized Cricket ( The Little Prince )was not suitable for her, at that time, so we decided to half lease a sweet, quiet, older, Appaloosa gelding named Arrow and he taught her to trust him and her riding improved she even showed him in local schooling shows and placed in equitation classes. The 6 month lease on Arrow ended in late December 2000, leaving her with no horse to ride, but Cricket ( The Little Prince ) because Tootsee was lame.
In Jan 2001 Bree reluctantly began to ride Cricket ( The Little Prince ) and have her lessons on him with her trainer Pierre. Luckily, Pierre thought Cricket ( The Little Prince ) had talent and really liked his strong personality, so they proceeded to work on dressage. By March they decided to try a dressage test at CTETA, a local show, and to Bree's surprise she won the dressage division. Cricket ( The Little Prince ) kept Bree on her toes by bucking her off every few weeks, just so she did not get too cocky. She entered a few more combined training shows at CTETA in the dressage only portion and won each time. Bree tried a few schooling shows in equitation classes and did quite well, but Cricket ( The Little Prince ) was very crazy with other horses in the same arena with him. In October 2001 Bree entered the Pony Club Dressage Rally and the team won. In 2002 she joined CDS and USDF and USAE and competed seriously. Bree had a really good year in 2002 winning two high point of the show awards and qualifying to compete in the JR dressage championships as well as CDS and USDF championships in Los Angeles. There she was awarded the Reserve Champion dressage seat rider 14 to 18 year olds division for region 7 (California,Hawaii,and Nevada) which qualified her to go to the finals in Darien, CT in Aug 2003. In Oct 2002 she was in the Pony Club Dressage Rally and the team won and she qualified to represent Mid Cal in the Western region championships in July 2003. Bree was also awarded the High Point of the year in the CDS San Francisco Chapter in Training level.
In March 2001 we bought dear old Drifter, a 22 year old thoroughbred gelding, who loved to jump. He gave Bree the confidence to jump before he foundered in September 2001. Drifter was a great teacher and a very sweet horse. Sadly he passed away in September 2002 after he acutely foundered again. We miss him very much.
We are all devastated and we miss him every day.
She is currently a pre vet student at Davis. Bree and Evie are learning a lot at Davis.
Last updated 06/01/2008
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