If you want to know how versatile the American Saddlebred is, ask Missouri equestrian Jean Mutrux to introduce you to her mare, ^CHAbsolute Empress.

The 13-year-old Saddlebred mare competes at Prix St. Georges in dressage. She also has evented, competed in hunter and jumper classes, led the jumping field across country with the Bridlespur Hunt, and served as a therapeutic lesson horse.

Jean Mutrux, who bought Emmy for $1,000 when the mare was two, took some time to share her thoughts on Emmy’s varied career and the Saddlebred’s versatility in general.

How did you acquire Emmy?

I’d always had Saddlebreds and was getting more interested in the sport horse discipline. A woman contacted me out of the blue--I had no idea who she was. She had this filly that she wanted to make into a Saddlebred hunter, and she wanted me to train her. I said, “I don’t train outside horses. I just have my own one or two that I play

with.” Then she started telling me more about this filly, and she mentioned that she was eligible for the American Saddlebred Horse and Breeders Association Hunter Futurity. I’d actually been shopping for a horse that could go to this futurity; there’s a lot of prize money and it’s pretty big.

I said, “How about if I just take her and ride her for you?” And that’s what we arranged to do. When I was on my way to pick Emmy up, the woman called and said she had just found out that she had to have knee surgery and had to sell her; did I want to buy her? I told her to give me two weeks and I’d make a decision.

Well, Emmy was so good and so easy to get along with, that I decided to buy her.

I entered her in a breed show six weeks later. She won her first classes for Saddlebred hunters there, and she continued to win. When I got her registration papers, I found out she was still just a two-year-old. I had thought she was three and already been doing all these things with her. She’s just easygoing like that; she’s just pretty much done whatever I’ve asked her to do.

Her breeder, Jan Burden, had shown her in hand as a weanling and a yearling. She won those classes, and then they showed her in fine harness and she won that, too.

It might surprise a lot of people to know that Saddlebreds can do other disciplines like hunter, eventing, and dressage—and that they can jump. Based on your experience, what makes Saddlebreds good at these other disciplines?

I think they have good conformation for jumping, especially if you’re looking at the jumper ring as opposed to the hunter ring. They tend to have longer necks, which gives them better balance. And maybe because they have a little bit more knee and hock action, they can be more agile over the fences. It’s also very easy to collect them, as opposed to a more Thoroughbred type, so you can ride them in a very handy fashion around turns. In a jumper class, you don’t necessarily have to be the fastest; you need to be the handiest. I found it’s very easy to get them to do that.

In the hunter discipline, I don’t go to rated shows with her, but the St. Louis Charity Horse Show offers a Working Hunter National Finals every year, so I do go to schooling shows to get ready for that. It helps to be in that kind of environment and practice. And she often comes out on top against Thoroughbreds and warmbloods. This plan has worked very well for us, as she's won the Finals six times!

The first year I had her, when she became a true three-year-old, I took her trail riding a bit, and she just didn’t seem fazed by much at all out there. Then I hunted her once or twice that next season, when she was four. I kept her in the back at first; I didn’t want to over-face her at all. But she was relaxed, though very interested in it. I do often lead the first field [the leading group of horses who jump fences during a hunt], so early on I had to beg out of that job and just ride in back with her. But the next year, I started taking her up front, and she was happy to do it.

Now that she had some cross-country jumping under her belt, it must have felt like a natural progression to take her eventing. How did that come about?

My other horse, a Thoroughbred that I had been eventing, came up with an abscess before a competition. I thought, “Well, I have this entry. Why don’t I just take Emmy?”

I put her in the starter division. We’d been doing a little bit of dressage with her already, so I took my chances, and she won. We had some luck, really, too. Sometimes some of the horses you’re competing with eliminate themselves, and we just plugged along and stayed in there. But she did compete in eventing a few years and had some success at the Novice level.

You and Emmy have accomplished so much in dressage, in particular—competing at Prix St. Georges and hoping to earn your silver USDF medal. In your view, what makes Saddlebreds so suited for dressage?

I haven’t ridden enough other horses to compare them for dressage, but, for me, having grown up riding Saddlebreds, I know how to get collection with them and how to develop a nice canter. Saddlebreds tend to be sensitive to aids without getting excited or over-reacting, and they have unique personalities that make them hard workers.

Dressage has been really challenging, I’m not going to lie! We’ve been working and working and working toward where we are now. I take it as a personal challenge to show everyone what can be done with a Saddlebred.

What do you think is the most challenging aspect of riding a Saddlebred in dressage?

At this level, it’s all equally challenging! In the beginning, it was her high head. We’d often get judges’ comments about “hollowing in the back,” but, well, that’s just kind of the way she is. Again, they do have some physical characteristics that might make them less competitive for what some dressage people are looking for, but they can be trained. Saddlebreds have flatter croups and the distinctive high tail carriage. In a discipline that rewards "sitting,” especially at the upper levels, that definitely works against us.

After Emmy did all these different disciplines, she also recently did something else pretty special, partnering with a young boy in a UPHA Exceptional Challenge Cup class. How did that come about?

I have a friend with an autistic boy. She had been trying to find riding lessons and was getting turned down at other stables, so I told her I’d be willing to work with them. I didn’t really know what to expect at all, because I’d never worked with autistic children. But he clearly loves animals and has a gentle way with them. You can see that he enjoys it, and it's so good for his mental and physical development. I have an old pony and an old Quarter Horse that he rides. He does a beautiful posting trot and has a great leg position. He’s very quiet and soft on the horses’ backs, and they like him, so I started talking to his mom about maybe doing the Exceptional Challenge Cup class [for riders with physical and mental challenges]. She was all for it, and I had to think about which horse to take to the horse show for it. The old guys weren't really suitable, so I let him ride Emmy a few times, and he seemed to enjoy it and was comfortable on her. We went to the show, and he did very well. We did our walk and trot both ways of the ring, and I led him through a trot serpentine, where he had to change his diagonals. We're looking forward to competing in the National Finals in Kansas City this fall.

What do you think you’ve learned along the way, doing all of these things with Emmy?

Oh, I’ve learned a lot about where I’ve made mistakes. You know, they say that once you have a mare’s trust, they’ll try anything for you. They’re loyal to you. I definitely see that. But I also know that I can’t push her harder than she wants to be pushed. I feel I’ve failed her in that regard sometimes, too, especially trying to get our Prix St. Georges scores. I realized at one point that I had to quit pushing her and quit drilling and just back off. I had to make it fun for her again. So we went back and did more trail riding and simple bareback riding, things like that. So that’s something I learned from having her: it can’t be so goal-focused that I lose sight of the horse.

Through completing in all these different disciplines, you must have essentially become an ambassador for the Saddlebred breed.

Yes, all the time. A lot of people would say, “I didn’t know they could do that!” That’s what it’s about: they can do all that.

I think a lot of people are surprised at the way she’s muscled, because when they see the “typical” Saddlebred they do have a certain conformation type. But I’ve been working on her as a hunter since she was two, so she has developed different muscles that way.

I’ve let some pretty good hunter riders get on her, and they’ve been like, “She’s so smooth! She’s so responsive!” But that seems to go along with Saddlebreds in general. They're great to ride!