When trainer Jessica Keesey headed to Dressage at Flintridge (California) with a Welsh Pony in tow, her only goal for the weekend was to see what the gelding was like in a big atmosphere as she prepped him for his rider, 10-year-old Iona Flack, to compete later this year.

By the end of the weekend, that pony, Keep It Special, had passed the test and then some, after this moment caught by photographer Terri Miller-Steiner.

During her third test of the weekend, first level, test 3, a deer darted into the arena, and the judge had to stop Keesey during her ride until it left.

Keesey said the deer had been around all weekend, bouncing around the wooded property in La Cañada Flintridge, California. While warming up for her final ride, she saw it out of the corner of her eye and mentioned it to other riders around her.

“Then I was leaving the warm-up to go ride my test, and somebody goes, ‘Hey, the deer is coming at you,’ and it’s like running through the warm-up towards us. And the pony didn’t flinch. I was like, ‘OK, this might be fine.’ ” 

Keesey saw the deer run through the area during the test ahead of hers, then it disappeared. 

“I get going, and I am halfway through it,” she recalled. “I’m in my walk work, and I’m about to pick him up to pick up the trot again, and they ring the bell, and I had no idea it came back. I had no idea because I was so tunnel visioned. They said, ‘We’re going to give the deer a minute,’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ So, I thought they were calling me off course or something. And I look over my shoulder, and the deer is right up next to the arena, like, right up to the whiteboard like it’s going to come in!”

The scribe, judge and some bystanders herded the deer away, and “Special” didn’t bat an eye, according to Keesey. “It’s, like, running past him, behind him, and we’re just standing there. He’s not moving,” she said.

While she was a bit frazzled, Keesey was given permission to continue while bystanders “played chicken” with the deer, who was quite determined to be inside the arena.

“Then all of a sudden, where that picture gets taken, I came across in my lengthened trot on the diagonal, and the deer is flying at us. It got past everybody, and that’s when Terri got that photo,” she said.

When she hopped off Special after her ride, she headed down to another ring to warm up a student, who had also had seen the deer run by, but thankfully some show grounds workers were able to corral it and send it on its way. 

In the end, Keesey and Special earned a 69.58% on their ride—their highest of the weekend.

“I wasn’t going into it for the scores for the weekend,” she said. “I just wanted him to have a good experience, and ultimately, he was fantastic. I think it was very good experience for him regardless.”

Based in Cave Creek, Arizona, Keesey, 29, teaches a lot of children and rides a lot of ponies, although she’s 5’7,” she added with a laugh. She found Special, a 15-year-old Welsh Pony (Kooihuster Samme—Ald Feart’s Rosita, Orchard d’Avranches), in Europe and had him imported in December as a schoolmaster for Flack. He’d done FEI pony classes, so he had plenty of show ring experience, but Dressage at Flintridge was his first competition in the States outside of a local show in Arizona.

Flack rides Special at home. 

“This pony is the best,” said Keesey. “When she first got him, we did longe line lessons pretty exclusively. He’s been kind of one of those saintly ponies that you don’t always get in a pony. We just do a whole lot of fun stuff. Like, he’s taught her how to longe him. He’s one of those great groundwork ponies too. She can do all of the horsemanship stuff.”

Special is schooled to second level, and the hope is that Flack will eventually be able to compete in the FEI pony classes.

Aside from teaching, Keesey keeps busy with her 4-year-old Dutch Warmblood Robin Hood.

“I have a lot of goals for myself,” she said. “And I think if he’s doing really well, and he can handle some pressure, then maybe we look at the 5-year-old [tests] next year. But really, I just want him to be a really well-rounded horse, and I would bring him up the levels and hopefully get some regional and national stuff going as he as he grows. I had recently retired my old FEI horse, so it’s starting fresh. I don’t like to put too much pressure on the young ones, because I want them to be happy in their jobs. I’m kind of letting him dictate the path.”