American Pie, affectionately known as Pie to his friends, was born on a warm spring day in June of 1984 in New York state.  His mother, Savannah Blue, was a beautiful grey mare who came from Morgan, Arabian and Quarter Horse decent.  Pie's father was the famous chestnut Trakehner stallion, Karneval. 
     When Pie was born, everyone was very excited.  He was a small foal, with a coat of many colors, and big, mischievous eyes.  He was very playful as a baby, and used to crawl out of his pasture and run along the fence, making his mother very upset.  Pie got into all kinds of trouble, but everyone still loved him, especially his owner Edith.
     Edith was very careful to teach Pie good manners when he was young, and this made him a perfect gentlemen later in life.  Often when she was grooming Pie, Edith noticed he was a very weird mix of colors.  His mother was grey, while his father was chestnut.  Pie had both of these colors in his coat, but he also had some bay hairs, some black hairs and some light hairs.  As Pie grew older and shed out his coat, it became clear to everyone what color he would be, a buckskin!  The odds of Pie being this color were very small, especially since he was only 1/8 Quarter horse.
     When Pie turned three, many things happened.  First off, he learned how to be a riding horse.  All of Karneval's children are notorious for bucking off the first person who tries to ride them, and Pie was no exception.  Edith had a very strong man hold onto Pie while she tried to climb into the saddle, but Pie decided he wanted nothing to do with this riding stuff, and threw Edith high into the air.  The next time Edith tried to ride Pie, things went much better, and Pie decided he liked being a riding horse, after all.  Edith taught Pie how to ride English, and taught him about the joys of trail riding.
     Just as Pie was beginning to get used to riding around the New York trails, he and Edith moved to Vermont.  Edith continued to ride Pie, but she was beginning to realize that he was a bit too small for her long legs, and she decided she needed a smaller horse, so Pie was put up for sale.  Edith was very sad to see Pie leave, but she knew that he would have a nice home with his new owner, Amanda.
     Amanda was a young rider going to college at the local university.  She wanted to do eventing with Pie, and everyone thought that he would be very good at this, because he was an excellent jumper and a nice mover.  Amanda trained with Madeleine Austin, and they taught Pie the basics of Dressage and Jumping.

     In Pie's fourth year, he went to some small horse shows and did very well.  He loved to jump, and it looked like he and Amanda would have a very bright future together.  When Pie was five, Amanda moved Pie to her farm in Massachusetts.  She decided that he should move up to training level eventing, and they were again very successful.
     In 1990, when Pie was six, Amanda felt that Pie was ready to move up to Preliminary level.  At this level, the jumps are very big, and the cross country jumps are very solid and technical.  Pie did well at first, but then he began to lose confidence in himself.  He became frightened jumping the big fences, and he also lost confidence about Dressage. 
     Although Dressage was never Pie's strong point, he always did fairly well in it.  When he moved up to Preliminary level, the demands became too great for him, and he got very upset and frustrated with the Dressage tests.  So frustrated in fact, that he began to canter in place and run sideways in his Dressage tests.  He would get sweaty and nervous, and began to hate Dressage. 
     Amanda realized at this point that Pie was not going to progress in eventing.  Although Pie had the talent for high levels,  he could not take the pressure of competition and Amanda needed a horse that she could show, as she had big aspirations.  Amanda went on to bigger and better horses, and was quite successful, she was even long listed for the Olympics.