Meg Pellegrini and Dondante. Picture by Shannon Brinkman Images.
5-star horses are a special breed than the common occasion horse. They’ve that little one thing further—whether or not it’s further scope, further coronary heart, further intelligence, or simply that further want to make it occur.
The very best stage of the game calls for so much from each people and horses as athletes. However in some unspecified time in the future, the time involves step down from that stage. And stepping down can typically be nearly as difficult as stepping up. Simply as an Olympic gymnast may really feel at a loss as to what to do with their profession after retiring from elite sport, so too do these top-level horses need to discover a job or a spot to name residence after retiring from the 5* stage.
Dondante, the previous trip of Will Coleman, has hit the jackpot along with his post-5* profession.
After sustaining and rehabbing from an harm in 2023, the now 15-year-old gelding often known as “Al” within the barn is displaying an up-and-coming rider the ins and outs of upper-level sport.
Meg Pellegrini has been lucky sufficient to lease Al for the 2025 season—a state of affairs that’s mutually useful, because it permits the horse to proceed doing what he loves, and offers Meg some unimaginable expertise studying from one of many best-educated and most-accomplished horses within the nation.
I caught up with Meg to study how she received the trip and what it’s been prefer to develop a partnership with the horse to this point.
Will Coleman and Dondante compete at Kentucky. Picture by Shelby Allen.
“Not many individuals get handed the reins to a horse like this—I’m past fortunate,” explains Meg. The chance for Meg to associate with Al arose organically. Will has coached Meg for the previous few years, and as Meg tells it, she was an enormous fan of the horse from the very starting. She was out on a hack with Will in the future, and he identified Al within the paddock and talked about that he can be coming again into work quickly. Because it turned out, Will allowed Meg to choose up the reins on the tall gelding, alongside along with his workers, because the horse slowly got here again into health and power.
That, it turned out, was an effective way for Meg to get to know the horse. “Bringing him again into work was one of the best ways to construct a bond,” she says, significantly as a result of there was a gradual timeline and a significant deal with fundamentals as he got here again. “It was the best-case state of affairs as a result of I received to know him from the bottom up,” she says, and “it meant I received to know how he thinks, what he likes, and what he doesn’t. It constructed a bond I don’t assume I’d’ve had in any other case.”
Picture by USEF Eventing.
Though Al’s house owners, Staff Rebecca and the 4 Star Eventing group, alongside along with his former rider, Will, had been impressed with how effectively the horse recovered and regarded bringing the horse again to the 5* stage, they in the end determined that it will make sense for him to remain at a barely decrease stage for the longevity of his profession — a commendable choice.
Meg acknowledges that it’s not solely a privilege, however a duty, to trip their beautiful horse. She appears to know that this chance got here with belief—from Will and Katie Coleman, from the horse’s house owners, and in addition from Al himself—and he or she appears to hold that together with her each time she rides the horse.
Absolutely Al’s house owners and Will had seen how Meg linked with Al in serving to convey him again into work, and had additionally seen her dedication to studying in regards to the sport. She explains that she and Al didn’t click on instantly— “he wasn’t positive about me, and truthfully, I wasn’t positive I’d be sufficient for him”—and that she had to determine how he ticks. As a result of the 5* stage is so demanding, and it takes so a few years to get the horses to that stage, the horses are sometimes so particularly skilled to their very own rider’s cues that it may be difficult for an additional rider to take over the reins. It was a testomony to Will’s coaching the Meg may talk with the horse. “Someplace alongside the best way, we began to fulfill within the center. I discovered to pay attention and belief him.”
Picture courtesy of Meg Pellegrini.
Dondante was initially sourced from Richard Sheane in Eire, and Will produced the horse from the very starting of his profession. He completed third within the USEA Younger Occasion Horse 5-year-old championships in 2015, and thereafter climbed the degrees to the highest of the game with extremely constant outcomes at each stage. In 2022, he completed within the top-10 at each Kentucky and Maryland 5*.
This spring, Al and Meg are contesting occasions on the Intermediate and three* ranges, with already some good outcomes on the board, together with a latest top-10 end within the 3*-S at Tryon. Al seems thrilled to be again out on the sector of play, and Meg is studying an enormous quantity from him. Meg admits that she has skilled confidence points previously couple of years that Al is de facto serving to her kind out. On this means, the story is de facto cool: Meg is ready to study classes from Al that she is now transferring to her different horses. “He’s been there, performed that. I don’t have to fret about educating him the ropes—he’s educating me.” That type of confidence within the job from Al has actually given Meg her confidence once more.
Any rider who goes by way of confidence points—which, actually, is each rider in some unspecified time in the future or one other—would do effectively to appreciate the truth of the sluggish, diligent strategy of regaining it. A part of that course of contains having a horse who’s forgiving, and Meg has been fortunate to search out that in Al. “Even after I make a mistake, he’s like, ‘Don’t fear, I received you.’” That professorial high quality is undoubtedly one that may have a legacy as Meg brings her different horses as much as the highest of the game.
Past confidence, such an skilled horse has additionally given Meg a window into how top-level horses go and assume. “My first actual run on him, I got here out of the beginning field and thought, that is loopy—he’s simply so highly effective, however on the identical time, he needs to do the suitable factor on a regular basis.” That type of expertise, which may actually solely be felt, and never taught, helps Meg in her quest to achieve success on the 5* stage herself.
I had yet one more query for Meg earlier than we received off the cellphone: what was behind Al’s barn title? “Oh,” she says, “he’s named after Al Pacino.” Identified for his audacity, the notorious actor is an acceptable namesake for the horse. It seems like he’ll cross that audacity on in spades.
