Looks can be deceiving. Case in point, the undeniable adorableness of The Hot Topic Of SpringSong, a 14-year-old flashy Welsh cob buckskin pony. People see him at dressage shows and remark about how cute he is, what a wonderful mover he is, and how they want to take him home for their grandchildren, his owner Deanna Foxworth says.

“Only if you hate your grandchildren,” she says with a laugh, adding that she’s joking … sort of. “He’s quite feisty and hot. There’s a big engine under that hood.

“He’s amazing, and he’s been teaching me a lot,” adds the 39-year-old mom of two, who recently earned her silver and bronze medals from the U.S. Dressage Federation. “He’s taught me about collection, contact, riding with my seat. We’ve been doing changes and pirouettes, and because he knows how to do all of these things, I’ve been learning. Our half-passes in the beginning were a mess. As I’ve learned to be more correct, they’ve gotten more and more accurate. Because he already knows how to do it, it’s easier for me to learn.”

The pair wrapped 2023 by competing in the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 6 Championships (Oregon), where they finished third in the fourth level adult amateur division with a 66.45% and tackled a few FEI tests in the open division. That came after spending the season competing at fourth level and dipping their toe into Prix St. Georges at one show.  

​Called simply “Pony” in the barn, Foxworth says he got that name because, with all due respect, he’s the only in-residence, short-in-stature equine at Trilogy Riding Center in Monroe, Washington, located about 30 miles northeast of Seattle. It’s there that Pony (Four Ways Calico—Posh Hot Lips, Gayfields The Sleuth) and Foxworth train with Grand Prix rider Catherine Reid. 

Pony, 14, previously was owned by Emily Lasher, a North Carolina-based dressage rider who competed him through the Grand Prix level in national shows. However, because ponies aren’t permitted in CDI competitions outside of FEI pony classes, Foxworth said Lasher had “taken him as far as she could” and decided to sell. 

At the same time, in 2021, Foxworth was looking for a mature, experienced partner who could help her develop skills so she could compete at higher levels of dressage. She’d been riding and developing young horses and was looking for more of a schoolmaster, so she and Reid booked a horse-shopping trip to Florida. However, fate intervened.

Reid was driving a loaded horse trailer home one day when she got a call from her friend and fellow horse trainer, Amanda Olson, who’d gotten Pony in as a sale prospect. Reid was skeptical at first, since Pony was, well, a pony. 

“I was going by her barn anyway, so I swung by, with my horse trailer and three horses inside,” Reid recalls. “She lent me a pair of boots and a helmet, and I got on.

“Pony’s little. He’s 13.2. He’s not even a big pony,” she says. “But he feels exactly like you’re riding on a big horse until you get off and are like, ‘Oh, there’s the ground.’ ”

He does, however, have some of the attributes infamous amongst those of his stature.

“He’ll squirt and buck and take off. He’d be terrifying if he was a big horse,” Reid says. “He’s hot and has all of the pony opinions, but he’s super cool. And just because he’s a Grand Prix horse doesn’t mean he gives it away. He’s not a, ‘Hey, anybody can get on me and win things.’ He’s a Welsh pony, with all of the pony attitude, but he feels like a full-size horse. He moves as big as any horse in the barn.”

Based on that first ride, Reid knew that Pony had his Grand Prix moves learned “inside and out” and wouldn’t last long on the sales market. She immediately called Foxworth, telling her she needed to try him as soon as possible. But Foxworth, too, was skeptical.

“I laughed because I thought, I love big horses, but sure, I’ll give him a try,” Foxworth recounts. “I tried him the next day and had the prepurchase done within days. I snatched him up.

“I felt ridiculous,” she adds. “I’m not a little petite [rider]. I’m a normal adult size. But he moves like a big horse, and he takes up my leg. He’s got a big barrel, and when I’m actually riding him, all of those worries go away.”

Within a matter of days, Pony was ensconced in his new digs at Trilogy, the Florida shopping trip was canceled, and Foxworth was beginning to gel with the new third equine in her string. The other two include Cassaforte, a 7-year-old Oldenburg gelding who stands nearly 17.3 hands, and June’s Joy, a 9-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare, with whom she won the third level adult amateur championship at October’s GAIG USDF Region 6 Championship. Horses are somewhat of a family affair, as Foxworth got back in the saddle herself after encouraging her son, Alex, now 17, to try riding several years ago. Recently, her husband of 20 years, Matthew, who works for Microsoft Corp., decided to try his hand at riding, too.

“He’s only been on a horse once, and it didn’t go well,” says Foxworth of her high-school sweetheart. “But he just got himself some boots and a helmet, and he’ll be taking lessons this winter. He’s super supportive, which is amazing because I spend hours every day at the barn.”

Alex is graduating from high school this spring, and he and his dad are taking a celebratory trip to Scotland. Alex told his parents one thing he really wanted to do was ride in Scotland, hence the riding lessons for Matthew. The only person in the Foxworth clan who keeps her distance from horses is their daughter, Anna, 20, who’s in her first year at Seattle Pacific University. But it’s with good reason.

“She’s really, really allergic to horses,” Foxworth says. “Everything swells up. She appreciates how beautiful they are, but she stays away.” 

Growing up in Redmond, Washington, as a horse-crazy little girl, Foxworth rode and competed in low-level eventing until a car accident at 17 left her with a spinal compression fracture and in a back brace for six months. Once she got married and had Anna on the way, she decided to stop riding, but her heart continued to long for horses.

“I always wanted to come back to riding, but I knew horses took a lot of time and money, and it didn’t seem really practical,” she says. About six years ago, when Alex was looking for a new athletic challenge, she suggested he try riding. Little did she know it would set her on a path to getting back in the saddle herself.

“It was his first or second lesson,” she recalls, “and I thought, ‘This is killing me. I want to ride again.’ ”

She started taking lessons herself and then bought “Forte” as an unbroke 2-year-old, bringing him along with Reid’s help. Alex, who’s “pushing 6 feet” now rides and competes Forte.

Looking ahead, Foxworth plans to compete “Juni” at the fourth level next year and then continue to surprise people with her pairing with Pony, as they compete at the Prix St. Georges and then potentially move up from there.  

“People always do a double-take,” she says. “He does surprise them. He’s super cute, and he does surprise the judges because he moves really nicely.

“I feel lucky that I bought him,” she adds. “My plan with him is to compete all the way up, as far as we can go. I want to go as far as he can take me and learn as much as I can from him.”