Our Stories

“My Blind Knabstrupper” – Frej’s Story

Sophia Martina Bryant is a Ride With Pride board member and owner of the incredible blind Knabstrupper, Frej, who recently joined the RWP herd to the delight of our students, staff, and supporters. Frej and Sophia have had an incredible journey together, one that resonates with every horse owner, and one that speaks of the amazing bond between horses and humans. We are so grateful to have Sophia and Frej as part of our program. Here is their story:

Many times I have been asked to write about Frej and our story. While it sounds like a good idea, I have always been fearful I will fall short in conveying how truly incredible and amazing this horse is. So here is my best shot at putting everything down on paper.

I unfortunately cannot remember the exact day I met Frej (pronounced “Fray”), but I know it was in 2013. At the time I was working as a stable hand at Cedar Creek Stables, owned by Dr. Melyni Worth which is both a private boarding facility but also Dr. Worth’s personal breeding farm for a rare breed of horse, known as a Knabstrupper. The Knabstrupper breed is valued for their exceptional temperament and trainability, their amateur friendly nature on top of their beautiful and colorful coat patterns. In the early 2000’s Dr. Worth imported several Knabstruppers from Denmark and Germany, to start up her breeding program here in the US. Frej happened to be one of the first that came over from Denmark. Frej was a gangly 3-year-old when he crossed the pond. I don’t know a lot about his early years, but he eventually went on to be sold as a Jumper. I was told he even dabbled in the Level 3 and 4’s! One thing Frej loved to do (even up to the time he went blind) was jump.

Fast forward a few years. As I said Frej was sold into the Jumper world when he was younger, and one might wonder just how he ended up back at Cedar Creek years later. Unfortunately, the story I have been told as to how he made it back home was not a happy one. Supposedly, Frej ended up in the hands of someone who in my opinion did not deserve him. This horse is by far one of the goofiest and kindest horses I’ve ever met. He loves people and is incredibly kind and gentle. He is literally The Gentle Giant in horse form. So, when Dr. Worth got a call from his current owner saying Frej was going to be put down unless Melyni agreed to take him back, came as a shock. Allegedly the reason being was that Frej was “dangerous and nasty”. A little side note about Melyni. When she sells any of her horses, especially her Knabbies she always makes it known that the horses can come back to her if they need to retire. She doesn’t want to see them end up in kill pens and for this reason she adds this to her sales agreements. Thus, this is how and why Frej ended up back home at Cedar Creek.

Once home we found out the truth about just how “dangerous” and “nasty” Frej was, which was not at all! He didn’t and still doesn’t have a mean bone in his giant goofy body! Much later I found out from Melyni that someone else from Frej’s past reached out to her and told her what really happened and why his previous owner had labeled him as such a “bad” horse. (more…)