Secret Lives

Secret Lives of Horses

Connery: A Bond-like character

By Nancy Johnson, Photo by Derith Vogt

Just like his namesake in his famous James Bond role, Connery the horse has pulled off a few daring stunts in his lifetime. The Holsteiner/Thoroughbred gelding has been with Kathy Viele for every day of his 23 years. Kathy had bought his dam, Touche (Luminary Princess), off the track and retrained her to be a reliable foxhunting and lower-level eventing partner. “She was just an all-around nice mare, I could whip-in off her and ride her in the field. On top of that she was very pretty,” she says.

Back in the late 1990s, Kathy and her husband Steve had already bred a couple of nice Percheron-cross foxhunters for themselves and were thinking about breeding Touche. The couple, who lived in Kansas at the time, were on vacation in Colorado and took a side trip to see a Warmblood stallion that Kathy had heard about. However, she was disappointed when she saw him ridden and decided that he was not the right match for her mare. Kathy and Steve were walking out to their car when a working student at the farm stopped them saying, “There is another young stallion here that you guys might like, especially because you are both tall.”

That horse was Cimarron, a 17.1 hand, 1992 Holsteiner stallion that had been bred in New Mexico and had just started dressage training.

“He was very young; either 3 or 4,” Kathy recalls. “But, we liked him and there were a couple of foals from his test breeding which were also quite nice.”

After returning home, Kathy continued to look at other stallions. She showed a video of Cimarron to her trainer, the Olympic eventing rider Becky Holder, who also liked him. “As I looked at other stallions, I just kept thinking about this guy,” Kathy says. “Then, I found him in one of the online stallion auctions and I bid on him. Since he was a young, unproven stallion, I wound up getting the stud service for $670.”

Connery was born on Kathy and Steve’s farm in Kansas. After backing him as a 3-year-old, Kathy sent him to a “cowboy” for 30 days of basic training. Some years later, Becky tuned him up for a few weeks prior to his first start at the Preliminary level of eventing, in which Becky rode him.

“Other than that, I did all of his showing and most of his training myself, with a whole lot of lessons and the help of a local trainer, Jamie Hill, in Kansas,” Kathy says.

Kathy evented Connery all over the Kansas City and Chicago areas, and they also trekked to Lexington, Houston, Denver, Colorado Springs, Minneapolis, and even The Fork in North Carolina. “That’s the fun of eventing when you live in the Midwest; getting together with some girlfriends and your trainer and going on a road trip,” she says.

One highlight among their many wins was in 2008 at the prestigious Maui Jim Horse Trials in Chicago where Kathy and Connery did a Preliminary CIC1* and won the adult rider low score award among all levels.

Asked about her most memorable moments competing Connery, Kathy doesn’t hesitate at all. “He’s quite famous for a series of photos that were taken of him at the water complex when we went Prelim at Hill ‘n Hound in Illinois.”

She recalls that the first two elements were a related distance, vertical to vertical with a drop landing into the water. Connery jumped the first perfectly and was focused, square, and straight jumping into the second. But in the air, Kathy believes he saw the fence’s shadow as part of the jump.

“He launched into the water and I had all the time in the world to think ‘I am going to die right here.’ The only thing I could do at that point was hold my shoulders and be still.” Amazingly, Connery landed, albeit two strides further out than expected, with an audible “ugh,” pulled himself together and jumped on out. “He was always so bold and powerful. His solution in a bad situation was to just add more power to get out. I know this horse absolutely had the ability to go on to higher levels; I just had no desire,” Kathy says.

Kathy took him through the one star level (two star by today’s standards) and when she didn’t want to go any further, decided to concentrate on dressage. “I got my Bronze Medal with him,” she says. They went on to get 4th level scores toward a Silver Medal, but though they worked very hard on it, Connery could not get the collection needed for tempi changes. Kathy didn’t reach that goal with him, but, “I learned a lot,” she says.

In addition to eventing and competing in dressage, Connery is also a proven foxhunter, both as a staff horse and in the field. Kathy rode him at the Central States Performance Trial in conjunction with Masters of Foxhounds Association Centennial Foxhunting Tour in 2007. She was part of the field when her hunt won the trial. “A couple masters from visiting hunts on the East Coast tried to buy him,” she remembers.

“He has put up with so many things from me and is so forgiving and tolerant of a rider’s mistakes,” she continues. She remembers a time when she was riding him with a friend along the seashore at Myrtle Beach. They were cantering in the shallow surf and suddenly hit an unexpected dropoff. Both she and Connery went totally underwater. “He came up with water pouring out of his ears. Most horses would be terrified, but not Connery. I remounted and we walked right back in the water,” she says.

But like every horse, Connery is not perfect. “He has a real buck – even still today at 23.” Kathy says. “You could put anyone on him, except for that.” She laughs as she recalls an incident, shortly after she first moved to Aiken, during a lesson on Connery with the local trainer and dressage judge Amy McElroy.

“I had just recovered from kidney stones and was still taking it somewhat easy and so Connery hadn’t been out for a good gallop in a while and he’s a horse that definitely needs that periodically.” All was going well in the lesson until Connery tripped. “He then proceeded to take off bucking about 20 times like a bronco. I got him stopped and Amy looked at me and said, ‘I had my phone on speed dial to 911. That is the most scared I have ever been for anyone in my arena either teaching or judging.’ She promised if I could ride that, she could get me to Grand Prix.” Kathy says she can usually anticipate Connery’s bucking sessions, because they are often preceded by a gleeful squeal.

Kathy had focused on dressage with Connery since moving to Aiken in 2011, but in 2018 a friend’s horse was injured and could not compete at an event at Pine Top, so Kathy decided to take her Training Level spot. She was tied for second after dressage and after riding one of the few double clears in a tough stadium course, moved into the lead. “The cross country course had a section of woods on it and when I rode it, I landed from a fence on a tighter line than the way I had walked it. I wound up in a bunch of trees and could not find the next fence,” she says. She was so lost that she trotted for some time and then finally saw the jump. Very relieved, Kathy was galloping along trying to make up the time she had lost and was approaching fence 14 when her rein broke. “It was the rubber sleeve of the rein. It was a bit tricky while galloping to the next fence, but I was able to figure out how to reach above it and still steer.” They more than made up their time lost in the trees and won.

Today, Connery’s life includes regular trail rides, some casual jumping, and an occasional drill team performance. “I keep him mentally and physically engaged, just have fun with him and don’t ask for too much. We’ll keep doing it as long as he wants to.”

Connery today.

Photo by Gary Knoll