Ombre might be over the hill, but he’s definitely nobody’s shadow.

The 18-year-old purebred Arabian, whose stable name means shade or shadow in French, continues to bask in the competition spotlight, even as he rounds into his golden years. Last year, at age 17, Ombre was crowned the Kentucky Dressage Association’s year-end champion at both Level 2 and Level 3 Western Dressage. In 2026, the flashy bay gelding is still on a roll, emerging as Level 3 Amateur Reserve Champion in the Western Dressage Association of America’s Online International Challenge.

Fit, sound, and feisty, The Gringo Kid—aka Ombre—isn’t about to let anyone tell him he’s a senior.

“He shows no signs of slowing down whatsoever,” says his owner, Erin Hsu of Georgetown, Kentucky. “He’s absolutely the best he’s ever been!”

An Instant Connection

Hsu, a lifelong horsewoman and former equine journalist who now works for a veterinary technology company, used to train 3-year-olds and sell them a few years later as solid riding and show mounts. But by 2019, with two small children at home, she decided to put time-consuming young stock projects on hold and offer herself a nice middle-aged show horse instead.

Having grown up in Michigan with Arabians, Hsu felt the calling to return to that world for her next horse. The Gringo Kid was the last stop on her mount-scouting tour. Foaled in 2008, the sleek gelding with an impressive pedigree competed regularly in main ring Western pleasure—traditional arena performance classes on the Arabian circuit. “Ombre” was well-loved, Hsu recalls, but he just wasn’t performing up to his owners’ expectations.

For Hsu, the connection was remarkable and instantaneous. “As soon as I met him, I was like, ‘Oh! That’s my horse, right there,'” she says.

She brought the fancy show horse home to her backyard barn and started working on his transition to the Arabian sport horse circuit—dressage and Western dressage—as well as ranch, trail, and horsemanship.

The pandemic hit shortly after, with all its challenges. Overrun with homeschooling and lockdowns, Hsu sensed that Ombre was picking up on her stress, so she sent him to her sister’s for a long summer break.

There, Ombre lived a farm horse life: pushing cows, hacking down country roads, wading through ponds and rivers, and generally decompressing from the show scene. By the time Hsu took him back a few months later and spent a long weekend trail-riding, she could feel that their connection was back. “That was when we really clicked,” she says.

From that point on, everything went uphill. By 2021, the duo had hit the national scene, leading to Ombre’s first national title as Arabian Sport Horse National Champion in First Level Dressage Open. Two years later, he earned another national championship in Western Dressage Level 2 Amateur. Along the way he’s also collected National Top 10 finishes in First and Second Level dressage, Western Dressage Levels 2 and 3, and Western Dressage Show Hack, as well as recognized points in trail, ranch, horsemanship, and sport horse under saddle divisions.

Hsu says at first, she thought she’d get a few good years in and then hand the horse over to her kids. But Ombre clearly didn’t want to slow down. In fact, he continued to improve, leading into his significant, and somewhat surprising, successes in his senior years.

“He just kept thriving,” says Hsu. “The last thing I expected was that Ombre would continue to blossom and get better and better the older he gets. But that’s what he’s done.”

That doesn’t mean everything’s been seamless, however. Last fall, Ombre started feeling a bit “off,” according to Hsu. He got spooky, reactive, and generally less interested in his work—which was unusual. “I thought, maybe this is getting to be too much for him, and he wants to back off,” she says. After a vet check ruled out physical issues, Hsu opted to just give the horse a break.

It turns out that’s exactly what he needed, she says, and by spring Ombre seemed happier. She sent him to a trainer for a few weeks to get him back in shape and gradually conditioned again. “And then,” she recalls, “he felt great!”

Keeping Ombre Active and Happy

Today, Ombre lives with regular turnout in the company of two ponies—one in her mid-30s. While he has free access to a barnlot, he enjoys spending a few hours of solitude per day in his deeply bedded stall under a fan. His diet includes gastric buffers and low levels of omega 3-6-9 balancers. He doesn’t get joint injections, but under veterinary guidance, he receives a series of polysulfated glycosaminoglycan (Adequan) injections at the start of each show season, followed by monthly injections until his winter break.

Hsu rides Ombre during the coolest parts of the day—sunrise or sunset most of the time—and only about 15 to 20 minutes a day, four or five times a week. “All I really want him to do is to stretch into the contact and swing through his back, things like that, and a trot and canter in each direction,” she explains. “There’s very little schooling or drilling. I mean, at this point, he knows the job. That’s the beauty of an experienced senior horse.”

Importantly, those brief workouts help keep Ombre happy in his work, she adds. “He understands what I’m asking for,” she says. “And he trusts that I’m not going to push him beyond his abilities.”

Otherwise, Hsu checks on Ombre several times a day, often grooming him—which he loves—and sometimes doing treat stretches. “He literally lives in my backyard,” she says. “So riding is actually a very small piece of our relationship.”

Communication, meanwhile, is a huge piece of it and might even play an important role in the horse’s longevity, says Hsu. “It’s just listening to him and understanding him and responding to his needs,” she says. “He’s an active participant in this relationship, too. It’s a two-way street.”

Hsu’s next goals with Ombre? “Keep working on our dressage scores and aim for Senior Star,” she says, referring to a special Sport Horse Nationals division for horses 20 and over.

It seems this “Shadow” still has plenty of time left in the spotlight.

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  • Christa Lesté-Lasserre is a science journalist specialising in animal health and behaviour, life sciences, and evolutionary processes. Her articles and stories have appeared in major science magazines and literary reviews in multiple languages across the globe. Based in France's greater Paris area, Christa holds an MA from the University of Mississippi and a BA from Baylor University in Texas, complemented by postgraduate work in life sciences at the University of Paris René Descartes.

    A Pulitzer Center grantee for her coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic for Science magazine and recipient of American Horse Publications awards for her articles on equine behaviour, Christa focuses on shaping scientific studies into the stories they tell.

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