Here is our beautiful Faith, a pure-bred Canadian filly by Soul Ridge Xpression.
Choosing Faith
We bought Faith, who is born in April 2018, in August 2020. We choose her specifically because we knew she would be an ideal foundation mare.
We were first introduced to Faith in the fall of 2019, when Jessica decided to buy a weanling. After scouring the market for the idea one, Jessica came across this lovely little Canadian/Hanoverian cross, bought her and took her home to live with Moxy, Jessica’s Canadian mare. The little beauty told us that her name was Grace – and she had an older sister.
I think that Jessica and I talked on and off about the sister to Grace for some time. She was just one of those horses that once you meet, you just can’t put her out of your mind. So when Jessica went out to see her again in August 2020, the decision had already been made to buy Faith.
The Soul of Faith
The reason why we thought Faith was our special horse is that she had the bloodline, she had the desirable physical appearance – well put together, a strong back, well placed limbs and a beautiful neck arching out of her strong shoulders. In a way, Faith looked like a fully grown horse even though she was just 2.
Knowing Grace and her adorable character gave us also a good impression of Faith’s temperament. And we were so right. Faith is a cleaver girl, who is a sensitive soul, who comes across as an old soul.
Faith came to our ranch in late August together with our Frisian gelding Odin. It took a while for her to accept and trust us. In the first weeks, she was very skeptical about everything; she would not let me put her halter on, would not stand for the Farrier and in general was very nervous around me.
I decided to just let her be and wait for her to come to me and ask for my friendship.
Joining up
All horses at my ranch are kept together in a herd setting. They have over 50 acres of fenced land to roam around. I think it so important to be patient and let horses get to know me and learn to trust me. With Faith, I took my time and let her come to me.
I was brushing our Tesse one day and Faith walked up to me and asked to be brushed too. I groomed her, washed her tail, combed her hair. It was such a lovely experience, like girls at a spa 😊
Faith is completely comfortable around us now; she has settled well and takes great interest in every aspect of training. When I ride Tesse, my dressage horse, Faith follows around and wants to be part of the fun.
The Canadian horse
Canadian horses are a treasured horse breed here in Canada. They were originally imported from France during the rain of Louis XIV. The Canadian breed are strongly built, handsome horses who excel at many sports. They are famous for their hardiness, their intelligence and kind heart. They are also known to be easy to train and not prone to spooking like some other breeds. We are so grateful to own our Faith, who is smart, easy going and such a loving soul.
Faith is not our only Canadian, as Jess also owns the lovely Moxy. It was through Moxy that Jess and Aida met, and the rest is history.
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