He had been fortunate enough to catch the eye of an FEI dressage trainer in Long Island, who bought him and gave him his basic dressage training. Why she sent him to an auction in VA? I can only guess. One thing I do know, is that it wasn't because of lameness. I have had him for four years and ridden him consistently, without having him laid up due to any kind of soreness or unsoundness.
He is , however, a very quirky horse! Probably more so than any I have come across in my life. Exasperating? Yes. Keeps you on your toes though, makes you feel alive and doesn't let you become complacent. Okay, he's a challenge. I have a ton of respect for him though. More accurately, I am in awe of him. And I believe he knows it!

My best guess as to why he ended up at the Hunter Bloodstock Auction in Herndon, VA, is the fact he has Shivers. If you haven't seen this affliction before, it can be quite alarming. They told me, at the auction, the reason he was lifting his hind leg and holding it in the air for several seconds, was due to the 'capped hock' he had sustained on the trip down from Long Island. Sure, he had a sore, capped hock and I believed them. But the hock healed up nicely, and didn't seem to bother him , funny thing was, his hind leg was getting no better, as far as the wierd shaking. I thought it was 'stringhault' but it goes away when he's moving. It hasn't been formally diagnosed, but most vets and horse 'experts' seem to agree, it's 'shivers'.This is why , I believe he ended up at the auction.
While it's not clear what causes shivers, I've read that it's a neurological condition that tends to get worse over time, but I've had him almost five years now and he's no worse and still moves the ever-loving best!

You can see the poor condition he was in when I first got him ,here and in this picture. This one shows him after a year of consistent work. I have found him to be extremely difficult to keep weight on , though his appetite is excellent. He just seems to burn everything off and I end up feeding him twice as much as my Percheron!

Until I found Montcalm Farm, I boarded Rambo at several different places. I was one of those 'boarders from hell',never really happy leaving my horse in the care of others. Being exposed to many other horsepeople, especially, dressage riders, Rambo never failed to catch their eye, while being exercised. I was constantly being encouraged to show him. I took him to our first show in 2000 at Looking Glass Farm in VA. We scored in the mid 60s and came home with third and fourth place ribbons. I was thrilled with him but knew I needed more show miles, as I was too tight and nervous to be effective. Our second show was my most memorable, in that, I had been schooling him myself for several months at Montcalm, and felt fairly good about the way he was going . I bought a used trailer and entered a show at Compass Rose Farm. I hadn't given myself enough time to get him ready, load up and get to the show with time for a decent warm up. I was late getting there but they allowed me five minutes to warm up! He was prancing around like something in slow motion and I wasn't able to get any sense out of him, so we made our way over to the arena. Well, he was having none of that! There were too many spooky looking tents and awnings and ponies running around. He spun around so quick, I almost came off as he tried to make his way back to the trailer. I don't know how we did it, but eventually we made our way to the gate of the arena, prancing all the way , in full view of the judge. My mouth was so dry from nerves. I just kept talking to him and telling myself, 'this is what all our hard work at home has been for, do your best to keep it together'. I was determined to get through the test and enjoy it. I heard the bell and we trotted in to do our test, training level 3. Rambo was moving better than I had ever felt him move, felt like we were floating above the ground, but he was way too 'high' and felt on the verge of blowing up several times, so I kept telling him he was a "good boy" and "it's okay". I remember smiling a lot as he listened to me and did everything I wanted him to, I enjoyed the ride in a surreal sense, but never really thought we had done that well in the class. As we finished , I thanked the judge and she smiled and said 'well done'. Several people stopped me as I walked him back to the trailer and were very complementary. I thought, how nice of them to say that. As I was cooling him off, a lady came over to us and was asking me about him and telling me how wonderful he was. I was so happy that perfect strangers would go to the trouble of telling me that. When the lady left, another girl, who was helping at the show, came over and said, "you know that was the judge, right?" No, I hadn't a clue! but was glad I had been humble. Especially as she had placed us first! Though she had to penalize me for 'talking to the horse' during the test! That second place, red ribbon, is my favourite, even though he went and got us our first blue ribbon, at the next show. What a champ! .........