Nine years ago, Shelly Francis watched an unbroken, black 3-year-old in his field in Germany. While his athletic gaits impressed her, his breeding also stood out to her. Dante (Danone I—Annabelle, Adiamo 28) shared a dam with her Grand Prix horse Danilo, and it was a line she favors.

“He was quite lovely, and I like my black horses,” said Francis. “And I really do like the ‘D’ line breeding. I’ve had a lot of ‘D’ line horses. The ‘A’ line is a little spicier, so it added a little spunk in there, but the sensibility of that is all ‘D’ lines.”

It was a quick purchase, as Francis aimed to get all the paperwork in order to ship him stateside with her other horses a few days later. But once he arrived, she still had a long wait until she could see whether Dante would blossom from a gangly youngster into a talented competition horse.

“I like to let them be a little more mature in the joints; I didn’t want him too much in the round pen too young, so I gave him a year,” she said. “But then bringing him along, he’s very sensitive. He’s a little bit on edge, but not some crazy wild thing. He’s always been pretty nice that way, but a very sensitive horse. For a big horse, he’s very much a lady’s horse.”

Dante matured to nearly 17.3 hands, emphasized by Francis’ 5’2″ frame. His size meant he took time to build strength and confidence in his balance, but Francis described him as uncomplicated to teach.

“He’s always been a hair concerned about his balance, so with getting comfortable with half-passes and getting comfortable with flying changes, and now the last thing for him to get the most comfortable with is the [tempi] flying changes,” she said. “He’s quite good with his piaffe/passage and the trot and lateral work now, and canter pirouettes. Because he is bigger, I find that those bigger horses sometimes are a little bit slower to get comfortable being balanced with some of the exercises, but he’s really coming along well. He’s, to me, feeling quite promising to be very talented. He’s got a super big ol’ trot on him. He’s really quite talented.

“He thinks he’s a little chihuahua or something; he’s a gentle giant,” she added. “He’s super kind and sweet, but he is a lively one.”

At 12, Dante is light on show mileage, though he did make a trip to Europe at 7 so he could remain in her program while Francis was campaigning there. He showed for the first time at Intermediaire II in December at the World Equestrian Center—Ocala (Florida) and took another tour around the WEC show ring in February, where he scored 64.85%. For Francis, the focus wasn’t on a world-beating score, but giving him experience away from home.

Not showing until her horses are ready for the upper levels is a strategy she adopted years ago when she was focusing on CDIs.

“I always had some horses coming along that I didn’t really show unless I had them doing small tour already, so I didn’t do so much with the national shows,” she said. “Now I’ve done just a couple of national tests; I entered one mainly just to school him at the show and let him get him a little experience, because I hadn’t really taken him anywhere hardly … but he’s been great.”

She is considering a small tour CDI for Dante’s next outing with an eye on Grand Prix later this year—but is not worried if that timeline extends into next season. She’s more concerned that he’s comfortable with the work than hitting benchmarks, she said.

“I have a strong gut feeling that he’s going to be very good once I get him all the way finished and comfortable with the changes,” she said.

To get there, she’s focusing on keeping the changes fun by mixing up the intervals between the changes or asking for just a couple in a row, rather than practicing 15 one-tempis in a row.

While it had been nearly three years since Francis, 65, had last ridden down centerline, as Dante developed, she realized she felt 20 years younger in the tack—and that she still had international ambitions.

“I also am thinking to myself, well I’m not done yet, so here we go; we’re going to keep going a little longer,” she said.