hump day haflinger series #13

A long time ago, in a state far, far away. . .

A girl was given her first pony on her first birthday. 

She has been riding ever since.

When she was six, she got a grade Haflinger.

After that, she had the privilege of riding the first Haflinger to ever make it to FEI Grand Prix and restore freedom to the galaxy. . .

USDF Regionals 2011- the circus came to town and Star got to see the elephants

Haflinger: Starwars TOF or Star

Sire and Dam: Stars ‘N Stripes TOF and Abella TOF 

Age: 16 year old gelding

Height: 14.1 hh

Favorite Food: Horse cookies and plums. Star will stand on his hind legs to pick plums out of the plum tree, even before they are ripe!

Personality: Star is sensitive, curious, personable, content, energetic and willing. 

Quirks: Definition of quirk: An unpredictable or unaccountable act or event. Unaccountably will “lose it” on trails when passed by strange horses, but only sometimes. 

Likes: Eating horse cookies. 

Discipline: Dressage

Star at USDF Regionals 2012- FEI Grand Prix Freestyle

Dressage: The art of developing an advanced athlete through years of consistent training, “where horse and rider are expected to perform from memory a series of predetermined movements." Grand Prix Level Dressage is the highest level of dressage where the horse and rider are expected to complete moves such as: medium, extended, and collected trot, half-pass, extended and collected walk, medium, extended, and collected canter, zig zag half-pass, multiple flying lead changes every one to two strides, pirouettes, piaffe, passage, and halts with the collected canter to halt and passage to halt. 

Star doing Western Dressage July 2013

Awards (within the first year of showing Grand Prix):

• Gold Medal (rider award for showing at Intermediate I, Intermediate II, and Grand Prix with four scores above 60%, two of which must be at Grand Prix) 
• Gold Bar (rider award for showing freestyles with two scores from Intermediate I and two from Grand Prix, both above 65%)

Jillian Santi is the owner of Star. He is the first Haflinger to ever make it to FEI Grand Prix and the only haflinger so far to show a Grand Prix Freestyle in a USDF recognized show. 

Trail riding- Yakima river

Jillian has had Star since he was four years old. She also has Star's full brother, Starshine TOF, and will eventually train him when he is old enough. She currently gives Dressage clinics. Her plans for this year include doing both Dressage and Western Dressage. Star really likes doing Western Dressage and enjoys the jog. Not only does Star compete in high levels of Dressage, he also likes to go on mountain trail rides. Star seems like a very cool Haflinger, not only to show with, but to have fun with as well! I look forward to seeing what Jillian and Star accomplish this year. They have a really cool Western Themed Freestyle video they just did from the Northwest Horse Expo.

Trail riding- outside Ellensburg Wa. *all photos taken by Lorraine Santi