By late 2019, Barbie Roth couldn’t have told you exactly how many horses her then 14-year-old daughter, Andie Sue Roth, had tried while searching for a new partner. Andie Sue’s main mount, a wonderful but “awkwardly conformed” Morgan, had maxed out at novice. They were looking for a new horse with well-established basics that Andie Sue, a Pony Clubber and enthusiastic lower-level eventer, could form a partnership with and produce up the levels herself. But despite trying many quality animals, she hadn’t yet found just the right match.

“Andie Sue is very big on connection,” said Barbie. “Every time she would ride something, she would go, ‘It’s a lovely horse, but I don’t feel anything. And I should feel something when I get on.’ Andie is a great catch rider, and she rides many different horses. But she was looking for her heart horse, not just one to compete on.”

One day, a friend told Barbie about an off-the-track Thoroughbred available for sale in Bakersfield, California, about a four-hour drive south from the Roth’s then-home near San Francisco. Just a month after his final race, Paula Lang, an equestrian professional who ran an equine-themed after school program for at-risk youth, purchased the 8-year-old gelding (Anziyan Royalty—Princess Valentina, Cape Canaveral) from an auction near Los Angeles. Lang later told the Roths she hadn’t planned to come home with a horse that day, but when she saw him in the pen, she felt an instantaneous connection with the gelding, who was still wearing his racing plates. Although she didn’t have a job for him, Lang had no intention of leaving him at the auction to an uncertain fate. She bought him, brought him home, and for over a year, he had hung out in a paddock on her ranch.

“My friend said, ‘I know this horse, and he needs a person,’ ” recalled Barbie. “Paula took great care of him, but she had nothing for him to do.”

Despite not being overly impressed by his video, mother and daughter went to meet the gelding, then known as “Ragu,” in person. Andie Sue’s first opinion was that Ragu was a cute, willing and totally uneducated project; when she sat on him, he barely steered and had no brakes to speak of. But despite this, Andie Sue looked at her mother and mouthed, “I love him.”

“She looked at me like I grew two heads,” said Andie Sue, 19, with a laugh. “He didn’t know anything, but he did try hard.”

Lang was most concerned about finding Ragu a home with someone who could give him the tools and training he needed to become a good riding partner; she agreed to let the Roths take him on a one-month trial to see if he was a good fit. But after only two weeks, Andie Sue knew she had found her horse.

“He just settled right in,” said Andie Sue. “He was really good and learning quite quickly.”

Making A Change

Not long after officially becoming part of the Roth family and being rechristened with the name “Blue”, pandemic restrictions closed the barn where he was boarded. The Roths own a cattle ranch, and they decided to bring Blue there instead. For the next three months, Andie Sue and Blue trail rode, worked cattle, and strengthened both Blue’s body and their partnership—despite her new mount’s initially skeptical reaction to bovines.

“At first he hated them, but we made him eat next to them,” said Andie Sue. “Eventually, he started sniffing noses with them, so now he thinks they are good old friends.”

But once Andie Sue began developing Blue’s jumping skills, she ran into some trouble. Although she enjoys it, by her own admission, Andie Sue is not the bravest of jumping riders. However, even she was surprised when Blue’s initial reaction to ground poles was to stop with legs spread wide, head dropped, and a terrified expression on his face. With the help of several trainers, including Val Owen and Kyana Sazegari, and later, Meghan Lewis, Andie Sue tried to build Blue’s confidence over fences, eventually getting him to the point where they participated in a few schooling horse trials. Despite this, it wasn’t long before she came to accept that eventing would never be Blue’s niche.

“He was so anxious before and after each jump,” said Andie Sue. “We’d just need to take a run lap and get his energy out. Some Thoroughbreds need that, so I thought I’d keep trying. But after a while, I knew the anxiety was not calming down at all, and he just kept on stopping and stopping. And I said, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this anymore with him.’

“There’s no trust if both partners are anxious,” she continued. “So I started doing more dressage work with him instead.”

Andie Sue confesses that of the three phases, dressage had always been her least favorite. But Blue seemed to have an aptitude for the sport; he proved a much more capable dressage partner than her Morgan had been, and soon, Andie Sue had to admit she was actually enjoying herself.

“Before then, I didn’t fully understand why people do dressage,” Andie Sue said with a laugh. “I truly did hate it with a passion, unfortunately. But he was really trying, and I could tell he was enjoying it as well. He has a lot of power to him, and a lot of natural talent. After that, I was like, ‘oh, that’s why people do it.’

“It was one of those light bulb moments,” she continued. “I was totally on the other side.”

The pair made their recognized dressage show debut in July 2020, and competed several more times that season at training level under Blue’s Jockey Club name, Cape Royal. But before the year was over, Andie Sue’s newfound passion for dressage thanks to Blue led her in a direction she had never previously considered—applying for and receiving a Grade 5 para-equestrian classification.

Although she had always previously competed exclusively alongside able-bodied equestrians, Andie Sue is an amputee and wears a prosthetic to ride. In fall 2020, she traveled to Tryon, North Carolina, and made her para-dressage debut on a sponsored, borrowed horse. After that experience, and meeting other para riders there, Andie Sue knew she wanted to become more involved in para sport.

But back home in California, she continued to work with Blue and showed in open classes. In 2021, they competed at first level, and Andie Sue was named the Thoroughbred Incentive Program Young Rider of the Year by the Jockey Club. In 2022, they had their winningest season yet; concentrating on shows hosted by the California Dressage Society, Blue was named the TIP National Champion at training level and reserve National Champion at first level in the west coast division, and Andie Sue was named the TIP champion junior dressage rider.

“I was pleasantly surprised by how well we did,” said Andie Sue. “I was not expecting that.

“I remember, people would look at me and say, ‘Oh, she’s riding this schoolmaster of a horse,’ ” she continued. “It was actually a very nice compliment, or at least, I took it that way. A couple of years ago, we had no brakes, and we were stopping at jumps, and now, he’s winning championships.”

That’s not to say their progress has always been easy. Like many Thoroughbreds, Blue can tend to get flat and long in his movement, so Andie Sue has worked hard to teach him how to shift his weight back and move in a more elevated way. As she has become more immersed in the world of dressage and para sport, Andie Sue has sought opportunities to ride other horses further along in their training; she then brings what she learns back to Blue.

“Andie is a puzzler, and she loves a challenge, and she loves the underdog, because maybe as a disabled rider, sometimes, she feels like the underdog,” said Barbie. “She’s very challenged by that and motivated to make that not her reality.

“Blue is the same,” she continued. “He is not of the breeding that is typically the high level dressage horse. A lot of Thoroughbreds are misunderstood and mislabeled, and they take a different kind of rider.”

Showing His Heart

At home, Andie Sue balances her time with Blue between practice in the dressage court and leisurely trail rides, these taken sometimes in nothing more than a halter and lead rope. Occasionally, Blue will do a beginner lesson under either Barbie or Andie Sue’s instruction; he has proven safe and reliable for novice riders, whether they are still on the longe line or are moving toward basic independence.

“Even though he’s sensitive, he doesn’t get offended or freaked out by a beginner student bumping around on him,” said Barbie. “He’s very level-headed and a lot more versatile than I thought he would be.

“He’s curious and loving, and he just wants to be in your pocket,” she continued. “We say, ‘He wants to share molecules with you’ all the time.”

In 2023, Andie Sue prioritized pursuing her para-dressage goals, going back and forth from their current home in Sanger, California, to train in Florida with former U.S. Equestrian Federation Para Dressage Development Coach Lisa Hellmer, and traveling to para competitions in the U.S. and Canada. But she is aiming to get Blue back into the sandbox in 2024—hopefully at third level. Additionally, she would like to show him in some para tests and possibly earn a few scores toward the new US Dressage Federation Para-Dressage Athlete Rider Awards. Although Andie Sue has competed in the Grade 5 Grand Prix tests on other mounts, she says she would prefer Blue to make his para debut at a lower level.

“I don’t want to put too much pressure on him, but I think he’ll do well,” said Andie Sue. “We’re going to see where it takes us.”

One of the first coaches who helped Andie Sue with Blue told her that learning how to unlock his potential, without causing him frustration, would be her responsibility as his rider and trainer. She took this lesson to heart and says Blue has taught her to truly evaluate the horse standing before her, and not make a judgment about them based on their breed or level of training.

“You don’t see a lot of Thoroughbreds in the dressage world, but look at him,” said Andie Sue. “It’s good to see this underdog of a horse pull through against those horses bred for the sport, and it’s important to not give up on a horse because they aren’t the exact breed for it.”

Her mother agrees, noting that she believes Blue has been so successful because they took their time with him, and built his confidence by focusing on activities he was good at.

“He feels good about himself, because he’s been given a lot of opportunities to show all his good stuff,” said Barbie. “Thoroughbreds take a knowledgeable and patient trainer, so they can unlock these little idiosyncrasies that make them both difficult and wonderful. I love watching what Andie’s done with him.”

For her part, Andie Sue says that Blue proves a horse’s attitude is more important than any label.

“I’ve seen horses where they check off every single box, and they have the breeding, but they just don’t have the heart to do their job,” said Andie Sue. “Then you see a horse like Blue, who doesn’t check any of the boxes, but they have the heart. Horses don’t really owe us anything, and it’s kind of a miracle they let us on their back to do all these fancy things. If they have the heart to do it, they will.”