Kalispell teen sits tall in the saddle after her rare steed, Aries, wins a top award from the London-based Cleveland Bay Horse Society

Four years ago, Jess McGlothlin began horseback riding for the first time.

Two years ago, she first sat in a dressage saddle.

But McGlothlin is a quick study. Today, the Kalispell 18-year-old has ridden her Cleveland bay horse, Aries, to the breed's top award for a gelding throughout Europe and North America.

And they did it by accumulating one of the highest point totals on record for a Cleveland bay while competing in jumping events and the exacting art of dressage.

Aries, a 6-year-old that stands 17.1 hands tall, an extraordinary height for the rare breed, won the Cleveland Bay Horse Society's Forbes Award for 2005. The London-based society's award goes to the highest-performing Cleveland bay gelding in Europe and North America each year.

They also earned the reserve championship in the society's Versatility Category for 2005, and won the All Breeds First Level Award for 2005 from the U.S. Dressage Federation in Lexington, Ky. They won reserve champion honors in the training level and in first level at the 2005 Montana State Dressage Championships in Missoula.

Living in a region where dressage shows are sparse, she plans their participation strategically.

"I told myself I never would do dressage," she admitted, sitting in her home-school classroom at her Helena Flats Road home.

But a girl's got a right to change her mind. Since taking up the discipline, she has found it "surprisingly difficult" - both mentally challenging and physically demanding.

McGlothlin, a high-school senior who will graduate this spring, is the assistant barn manager and gives lessons at the family's Glacier Star Equestrian stables. Not only does she now "do dressage," she exercises diligently to build up her core strength for the demanding and subtle communication she must carry on with Aries to compete at such a high level.

It's that communication, the type unique to this natural-born animal lover and her equine friend, that seems to be the key to the pair's success.

McGlothlin took out a bank loan in June 2003 to buy Aries from a Spokane owner. He had been ridden a handful of times, but was high-spirited and essentially untrained.

She undertook the task of training him single-handedly, discovering along the way that he did nearly as much training of her. She had planned on doing three-day events with Aries, but soon discovered his natural skill with dressage moves.

Through clinics with two-time Canadian Olympian Bonny Bonnello and Austrian-born and Spanish Riding School-trained Bozeman resident Nicola Stauder, she developed an appreciation for following Aries' lead.

"(Nicola) does dressage for the art of it and for the horse's enjoyment," McGlothlin said. A wise rider pays attention to the horse's personality in choosing a discipline, "otherwise they won't be happy and you'll be frustrated."

Since being in McGlothlin's care, Aries has gained 400 pounds of muscle and has grown a full hand taller. Both his sire and dam were smaller, and most Cleveland bays stand between 15.2 and 16.2 hands.

Hailing from an ancestry rooted in the rough-and-tumble days when the Vikings ruled Yorkshire in Northeast England, Cleveland bays of today are a stew of characteristics suited to uses as monastic pack horses, noblemen's carriage pullers and World War I and World War II artillery haulers.

Eventually, centuries of human use took a toll on the powerful horses and their numbers plummeted.

The breed was threatened to the point that, at one time, England's Queen Elizabeth owned the only two remaining Cleveland bay stallions in the world.

Today, their global population stands at 500. Only 123 are known in the United States - and that includes those who have just one-quarter Cleveland bay blood.

ARIes, half Cleveland bay and half thoroughbred, carries all the strength, muscling and reddish-brown handsomeness of the Cleveland bay, but the imposing height and strong will of a thoroughbred that knows exactly the advantage it holds over mere humans.

"He is very moody for a gelding," McGlothlin said, describing his crinkled nostrils when he's cranky, his haughtiness as he arches his neck. "He's been very good for me," as she has had to learn how to deal with his occasional bucking and rearing.

"He has tons of energy, but he corrals that by himself now."

His intelligence and usually sweet personality have endeared him to McGlothlin.

She is careful with his sensitive skin which can chafe in the summer heat. She helps stretch the stiff left side of his neck, sympathizing from her own stiffness in the same spot from a shoulder separation she suffered as an 11-year-old.

"I love his face, his big ears, his sweet eyes," McGlothlin said. "He has soft eyes, wise eyes, very intelligent eyes. He is very smart. Sometimes I don't like that."

But she gives him credit. She shows him a new step once, offers his candy-cane reward and moves on, rather than forcing him to repeat the step and risking his frustration with repetition.

She plays his favorite music in the barn - the majestic sound tracks to "Troy" and "Lord of the Rings," the Cajun strains of BeauSoleil.

She rides him a couple hours a day, five days a week.

"Nobody but me rides him," she said.

She pastures him in his own field, protecting both him and other horses from potential injury.

And she laughs as he waits every week for the garbage truck, or perhaps for the UPS van on its frequent visits - backing himself into the corner of his pasture, then racing to keep exact pace with them as they drive out along the lane past the barn and pasture.

As McGlothlin looks to her future, she is working to be fiscally prepared.

Among her many riding students are Andie Schnee, 12 and her sister Alexa, 14. One rides Western style and the other dressage, swapping ponies a couple years back and finding that everybody ended up much happier with the perfectly matched personalities.

McGlothlin and her younger brother, Jake, are partners in Glacier Star Equestrian with their parents, retired physician Mark and 20-year foreign language teacher Mary Ellen, who pursue independent businesses in addition.

The family moved to Smith Valley five years ago, then to the Helena Flats home a couple years later.

Jess will take a gap year after high school and before college. She is considering jobs at a couple Houston barns that have made offers so far, or working in her dad's business. She's also looking into a couple college offers from Texas, the family's home state for three years.

Today, Aries is being offered for sale.

Despite her deep attachment to him, McGlothlin is a practical young woman who knows she needs the money for college and realizes that she will be a bit unsettled in her activities during the next couple years. She refuses to subject Aries to that disruption so is conducting a discriminating search for the best possible new home for him.

After all, she knows, you have to be good to a champion who has his own passport and registration papers signed by the queen of England herself.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com.