Brooke Murray and Talon Ted qualified for the USEA American Eventing Championships credit GRC Photo
Eran Murray was looking for a pony for her daughters that would be a perfect Christmas gift they would enjoy. That Christmas pony turned out to be much more for the entire Murray family.
Around August of 2008, Murray was looking through Craigslist with the thought of finding a pony for her daughters.
“I saw this picture of a pony pulling a cart and I fell in love with the way he was moving out with his legs and using his shoulder,” she recalls.
The seller drove and had purchased this pony for her son from the Amish. “She also drove horses with a Meadowbrook cart. She would drive him around, but he never really had anybody on his back,” Murray said. The pony was about 7 years old by his teeth, and his breeding was unknown, but to Murray he looks like a Paint.
Murray was told that while leading her son on the pony, he was bucked off and the boy became afraid of him. After she signed a release, she tried riding the pony and was bucked off too after just a few steps.
“I went five or six steps and he bucked me off, but I just loved those five or six steps,” Murray said.
Because Murray wanted her children to be able to ride the surprise pony on Christmas, she worked out a deal. She purchased the pony but kept him at the seller’s farm where they began training him. By Christmas he was used to walking and trotting with a rider, making for a wonderful surprise the children loved.
The pony had been called Crayon, but the children named him Cordio. Murray had a better idea for a name and made a play on the word “talented” to come up with Talon Ted.
Older daughter Paige rode the pony for a while. Daughter Brooke stopped riding when she was around six years old, after he spooked and she fell.
“I finally got her to get back on him when she was around 12. I actually took him eventing during that time. I thought, ‘This is a really athletic horse. I’m not going to let him sit around. I’m going to make him useful’,” Murray said.
Murray grew up with horses and worked at an eventing barn through her teen years. “I worked with Thoroughbreds on the track, mustangs, unbroken horses… it taught me a lot about a lot of different horses and how to train them all the same but differently. When I got him, he had to learn how to carry the weight of the rider and how to jump. He’s very smart; he took to it easily.”
Murray evented him from 2009 through 2011. A petite rider, the pony was fine for her.
At his first horse trial, near Erie, Murray and Talon Ted earned third place. “This little pony I bought off Craigslist, he’s winning against top level people. That year he qualified for area championships too,” Murray said.
Murray uses Ted as a lesson mount for beginner through advanced students at her Keystone Equestrian Center in New Alexandria, PA, near Pittsburgh. When Brooke started riding Ted again, he taught her from the ground up. When she was ready to move into competition, Ted was ready to help her excel.
“She went to her first local show and she got a first place ribbon on him. She went to a mini trial got first place on him there. Just about every show they’ve been to, they’ve been clicking along. He’s been teaching her the ropes,”
Now 15, Brooke has been riding about three years. In 2019 Brooke and Ted went to three recognized horse trials, placing in the top five in all three. They qualified for the USEA American Eventing Championships where Ted uncharacteristically spooked at a photographer in the woods and Brooke fell.
“We followed that up with Area II Championships. It was important not to end on that. That was not like him,” Murray said. At Morven Park Virginia, Brooke and Ted finished in third place.
Talon Ted has earned a bit of fame as the United States Eventing Association’s Horse of the Month for June. “I was super surprised because I did not know Brooke had submitted the story - she did that all on her own. She wanted Ted to have recognition for the way he helped her and the way he makes her feel,” Murray said.
Murray does not see Ted’s 14.1 hand pony size as a particular disadvantage “A lot of ponies have huge hearts. If you have one that’s willing to work for you, they’ll work for you all day long every day and not complain about it,” she said.
As for his history as an Amish cart pony, Murray has an open mind. “I think if you can find something from the Amish that fits your liking, then that may be the way to go. I think it’s a misunderstood thing. I think a lot of people may assume they may be spooky or head shy and they don’t give them a chance.”
Brooke is growing taller than her mother and is starting to outgrow Ted. When Brooke is ready to move on to a horse, her sister Faith, now 8-years-old, is waiting to take over on Ted.
“Maybe Faith will take him lower levels too, when he tells us he’s ready to stop he’ll retire here on the farm,” Murray said. “He has something special about him.”