Ivy and Laura Pfeiffer, Winter Equestrian Festival 2010

We were deeply saddened to hear that the great Ivy has passed away. He was an amazing equitation horse. Watching his expression as he galloped around a course, it seemed as though there wasn't a more cheerful or happy creature to be jumping around a course. It made watching him so enjoyable.

He's a tremendous favorite at Bigeq.com. He shot onto the equitation scene in 1999, when Missy Clark's working student Kristin Mauks spent the season training him. We, of course, started our website the same year. Back then we did a lot of photos and interviews, and Ivy was a frequent photo subject through the years.

Back when Bigeq was just a fledgling little site, Ivy was a precocious five year-old competing at his first equitation finals. As a youngster, Ivy placed in two finals with Mauks. He went on to great success with Vanessa Haas, Charlie Jayne, Haylie Jayne, and Zazou Hoffman. The latter rode him to the ASPCA Maclay title last year, a fitting climax to a long and successful career.

In honor of him, we put together a little slide show and posted it on YouTube. It contains our favorite photos of him, dating back to Devon in 2000. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXX7-CxMXTw

We also had posted a video of him last summer, taken from the early 2000s with Charlie Jayne. Here's that link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBG9IJaW-oc

RIP Ivy!!