“You laugh because I’m different. I laugh because you’re all the same.”

Such is what Richard Spooner’s popular 18-year-old Holsteiner gelding Cristallo (Caretino—Cambrina, Cicero) probably thinks when he watches the masses of horses parade around the schooling areas of the top-level horse shows he attends, all marching along in a row, each in a perfect frame. 

Richard Spooner’s newest grand prix mount seems to be working out pretty well for him. Over the weekend at CSIO**** Coapexpan in Xalapa (Mexico), Spooner and Gerardo and Alfonso Pasquel’s Big Red were the only U.S. pair to post a double-clear round in the second leg of the North America, Central America and Caribbean league of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup.